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Epistemological Foundations

IS 901 für Doktoranden (Center for Doctoral Studies in Business)

Allgemeines

HWS 2021
Verantwortlicher Dozent Prof. Dr. Armin Heinzl
Veranstaltungs­art Seminar
Leistungs­punkte 8 ECTS
Sprache Englisch
Prüfungs­form und -umfang Schriftliche Arbeit (60%), Diskussion und Diskurs (40%)
Infos für Studierende Registrierung per Mail an heinzl uni-mannheim.de bis zum 15.09.2021
Luise Bühler

Luise Bühler

Ansprech­partner Epistemological Foundations

Bei Fragen wenden Sie sich bitte an Luise Bühler.

Infos zur Veranstaltung

  • Kurzbeschreibung

    This course is designed for doctoral students in information systems and other managerial disciplines. It provides a basic understanding of philosophy of science and its epistemological foundations. On the one hand, the course will focus on those concepts which derive knowledge from observation, induction, and refutation of facts. Furthermore, it also takes experiments as well as the new experimentalism into account in order to refer to those disciplines that focus on the evaluation of artifacts like prototypes and algorithms for example. Thus, the underlying epistemological foundations are of central interest to every doctoral student who studies the structure and behavior of information systems and operations/logistics phenomena. The course will be offered in an interactive style. All doctoral students have to offer at least one presentation and a documentation regarding a specific epistemological stance. Assignment of topics will be conducted by the lecturer.

  • Kursüberblick und -termine

    Dozent Prof. Dr. Armin Heinzl

    Termine

    Datum Uhrzeit Thema Raum Literatur
    15.10.2021 13:45 – 15:00 Uhr Kick-Off / Pre-Session
    – Introduction of the participants and their research
    – Introduction of the course objectives and structure
    – Literature overview
    – Topic definition for seminar papers
    A 001 (L 15) (siehe Portal²) n.a.
    6.12.2021 13:45 – 17:00 Uhr Positivism:
    – Science as knowledge derived from the facts of experience
    – Observation and experiments as practical intervention
    – Deriving theories from facts: induction
    – Limitations of positivism
    A 001 (L 15) + ZOOM (siehe Portal²) Chalmers, pp. 1–58
    7.12.2021 13:45 – 17:00 Uhr Anti-Positivism:
    – Falsificationism, sophisticated falsificationism, and its limitations
    A 001 (L 15) + ZOOM (siehe Portal²) Chalmers, pp. 59–103
    8.12.2021 13:45 – 17:00 Uhr Non method-centric stances:
    – Kuhn’s paradigms
    – Lakatos’ research programs
    – Feyerabend’s anarchistic theory of science
    – Methodical changes in method
    A 001 (L 15) + ZOOM (siehe Portal²) Chalmers, pp. 104–173
    9.12.2021 13:45 – 17:00 Uhr Bridging the past and the future:
    – The „new“ experimentalism
    – Why should the world obey laws?
    – Realism and anti-realism
    A 001 (L 15) + ZOOM (siehe Portal²) Chalmers, pp. 193–246
    10.12.2021 13:45 – 17:00 Uhr Philosophical foundations of other disciplines: social science and computer science. A 001 (L 15) + ZOOM (siehe Portal²) tba
    4.2.22 13:45 – 17:00 Uhr Final seminar paper presentations A 001 (L 15) + ZOOM (siehe Portal²) Seminar papers / slides
  • Bewertung und Teilnahme

    Seminar Paper and Presentation

    You are requested to retrieve additional literature which deepens the respective stances. This will also frame and guide your seminar paper. The latter will be presented at the beginning of the subsequent session. Time format is 30 min for the presentation plus 30 min for the joint discussion.

    Assignments

    During the first session, topics will be assigned to participating doctoral students. Each student will be asked to elaborate a presentation with regard to the assigned topic which goes beyond the introductory literature as well as to lead the discussion regarding his/her topic. Further details will be provided in the first session.

    Attendance

    Participating students are required to attend all sessions. If the Corona situation aggravates, the course will be offered in Zoom.

  • Literatur

    This book represents a starting point. It will be the basis for the discussion sessions:

    • Chalmers, A.F.: What is this thing called science? 4th edition, Hill and Wang Publisher, 2013.
      or
      Chalmers, A.F.: Wege der Wissenschaft: Einführung in die Wissenschafts­theorie (German Editi-on), Springer 2006

    Recommendable is also the following book for further studies:

    • Curd, M.; Cover, J.A., Pincock, C.: Philosophy of Science – the Central Issues, 2nd edition, Nor-ton publishers, 2012

    For session 6, the sources will be specified according to the topics selected.

  • Lehr­format

    Wenn es die Covid-19-Situation erlaubt, wird der Kurs in Präsenzform angeboten. Bitte achten Sie darauf, dass Sie die geltenden hygienischen Sicherheits­bestimmungen der Universität Mannheim in vollem Umfang einhalten. Bitte vergessen Sie Ihre Masken nicht und halten Sie den entsprechenden Sicherheitsabstand zu Ihren Kommilitonen und Dozenten ein.

    Darüber hinaus werden die Sitzungen per Zoom übertragen und aufgezeichnet, um Risikopersonen ebenfalls die Teilnahme zu ermöglichen.