Abstract
What makes teaching philosophy of science to non-philosophy students different from teaching it to philosophy students, and how should lecturers in philosophy adapt to an audience of practitioners of a field of study that they are reflecting on? In this paper we address this question by analyzing the differences between these student groups, and based on this analysis we make suggestions as to how philosophy of science can be taught to non-philosophy students in an effective and attractive way. Starting-point is the observation that not only the background knowledge and interests of these students but also the aims of the respective courses will differ. We present a comparative analysis of the demands and conditions for teaching philosophy of science to the different types of students, focusing on learning objectives and didactic approaches. Next, we apply our analysis to a concrete example, the role of values in science, and discuss how this may be taught to either philosophy students or non-philosophy students. Finally, we discuss an alternative format for teaching philosophy to non-philosophy students.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 106 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-16 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | European Journal for Philosophy of Science |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 5 Nov 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We would like to thank Joeri Witteveen and Sara Green for their work as guest editors of this topical collection, two anonymous reviewers for their comments, and our colleagues at the Institute for Science in Society (Radboud University) and the Department of Philosophy (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), with whom we had helpful discussions of earlier versions of the paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
Keywords
- Dilemma-Oriented Learning Model
- Philosophy of science in practice
- Science and values
- Teaching philosophy of science