Marc Ereshefsky teaches a variety of courses to graduate and undergraduate students. See below for a selected list of his graduate and undergraduate courses.
Graduate Courses
Phil 667.21 Values and Classification Fall 2019 Syllabus
Philosophers tend to think that the acceptance or rejection of scientific hypotheses should be based solely on empirical adequacy and such virtues as simplicity and generality. Scientific hypotheses should not be accepted or rejected on the basis of personal, social, or ethical values. This approach to science is called the ‘Value Free Ideal’ (VFI). In the last 30 years, many philosophers have challenged the VFI and have argued that values do and should affect a scientist’s acceptance or rejection of hypotheses. In this seminar, we will look at arguments against the VFI. The main focus of the seminar will be on two questions. If non-epistemic value considerations should affect the selection of scientific hypotheses, when do such values legitimately (versus illegitimately) affect the selection of hypotheses? What do we do if epistemic considerations conflict with social or ethical values when we select hypotheses? Much of the literature on science and values focuses on hypotheses rather than scientific classifications. This seminar will also study how values should affect scientific classifications.
PHIL 667.21 Scientific Practice (with C. Kenneth Waters) Winter 2017 Syllabus
The topic of this graduate research seminar is the epistemology of scientific practice. Philosophers of science typically assume that science has a fundamental aim, namely to describe and explain the world. For example, many philosophers think the aim of science is to explain how phenomena fit into a fundamental structure of the world. This kind of assumption underpins the idea that the primary aim of philosophy of science is to analyze the descriptions and explanations of science, and that its secondary aim is to understand how scientific practices generate and justify them. In this course, we will not assume that science has a fundamental aim. Instead, we will entertain the possibility that science has many basic aims. How should philosophers identify these aims? By examining the practices of science. We will examine scientific practices in order to identify the aims they seem designed to serve and to analyze whether the practices can indeed achieve these purported aims. These practices include data collecting, experimenting, classifying, and modeling. The aims of these practices could include manipulation and control as well as description and explanation. The basic objective of this course is to investigate how knowledge should be understood in the context of actual scientific practice.
PHIL 667.9 Natural Kinds Winter 2016 Syllabus
Philosophical theories of natural kinds tend to assume that ultimately there will be one correct theory of natural kinds reflecting the way the world is fundamentally divided. The phrase one often hears in philosophy is that natural kinds ‘carve nature at its joints.’ This seminar will explore how philosophers can offer a more scientifically informed and more pragmatic approach to natural kinds. We will the start the seminar by reading and discussing foundational articles on natural kinds to get us up to speed on the topic. We will then turn to articles selected by students related to their research as well as several articles selected by visitors to the Philosophy Department. Students taking the course will undertake a semester long research project with the aim of producing a research paper that can be submitted for presentation at a conference.
PHIL 623.5 Scientific Metaphysics (with C. Kenneth Waters) Fall 2015 Syllabus
The topic of this seminar is metaphysical inquiry informed by science. The seminar is organized into three parts. The first part will be devoted to introductory readings on scientific metaphysics. These readings will provide overviews of naturalistic metaphysics, accounts of how metaphysics might be informed by science, and discussions of the relationship between philosophy of science and metaphysics. The contents of the rest of the seminar will be set by student research projects. Students will identify their own topics during this part of the seminar. In the second part, students will present their topics and select readings for the class to read and discuss. In the third part of the course, students will read and discuss drafts of one another’s research papers.
PHIL 603 Graduate ProSeminar Fall 2014 Syllabus
The aim of this seminar is to sharpen one’s research, writing, and professional skills. We will focus on how to write a scholarship proposal, construct a C.V., give a research presentation, identify a promising research topic, as well as write a research proposal, abstract, and paper.
PHIL 667.4 Natural Kinds and Scientific Classification Winter 2012 Syllabus
PHIL 667.3 Philosophy of Biology Fall 2012 Syllabus
PHIL 667.3 Philosophy of Biology Winter 2011 Syllabus
Undergraduate Courses
Phil 567.4 Values and Classification Fall 2019 Syllabus
Philosophers tend to think that the acceptance or rejection of scientific hypotheses should be based solely on empirical adequacy and such virtues as simplicity and generality. Scientific hypotheses should not be accepted or rejected on the basis of personal, social, or ethical values. This approach to science is called the ‘Value Free Ideal’ (VFI). In the last 30 years, many philosophers have challenged the VFI and have argued that values do and should affect a scientist’s acceptance or rejection of hypotheses. In this seminar, we will look at arguments against the VFI. The main focus of the seminar will be on two questions. If non-epistemic value considerations should affect the selection of scientific hypotheses, when do such values legitimately (versus illegitimately) affect the selection of hypotheses? What do we do if epistemic considerations conflict with social or ethical values when we select hypotheses? Much of the literature on science and values focuses on hypotheses rather than scientific classifications. This seminar will also study how values should affect scientific classifications.
PHIL 567.4 Scientific Practice (with C. Kenneth Waters) Winter 2017 Syllabus
This course is paired with a graduate research seminar (PHIL 667) that meets at the same time. Our topic is the epistemology of scientific practice. Philosophers of science typically assume that science has a fundamental aim, namely to describe and explain the world. For example, many philosophers think the aim of science is to explain how phenomena fit into a fundamental structure of the world. This kind of assumption underpins the idea that the primary aim of philosophy of science is to analyze the descriptions and explanations of science, and that its secondary aim is to understand how scientific practices generate and justify them. In this course, we will not assume that science has a fundamental aim. Instead, we will entertain the possibility that science has many basic aims. How should philosophers identify these aims? By examining the practices of science. We will examine scientific practices in order to identify the aims they seem designed to serve and to analyze whether the practices can indeed achieve these purported aims. These practices include data collecting, experimenting, classifying, and modeling. The aims of these practices could include manipulation and control as well as description and explanation. The basic objective of this course is to investigate how knowledge should be understood in the context of actual scientific practice.
Phil 517.3 Natural Kinds Winter 2016 Syllabus
Philosophical theories of natural kinds tend to assume that ultimately there will be one correct theory of natural kinds reflecting the way the world is fundamentally divided. The phrase one often hears in philosophy is that natural kinds ‘carve nature at its joints.’ This seminar explores how philosophers can offer a more scientifically informed and more pragmatic approach to natural kinds. We start the seminar by reading and discussing foundational articles on natural kinds to get us up to speed on the topic. We then turn to articles selected by graduate students related to their research as well as several articles selected by visitors to the Philosophy Department.
PHIL 367: Science and Philosophy Winter 2016 Syllabus
We will discuss four important questions in the philosophy science. What makes a theory a scientific theory? What is scientific objectivity? What does science tell us about human nature? Are scientific theories true?
Philosophy 523.5 Scientific Metaphysics (with C. Kenneth Waters) Fall 2015 Syllabus
The topic of this seminar is metaphysical inquiry informed by science. The seminar is organized into three parts. The first part will be devoted to introductory readings on scientific metaphysics. These readings will provide overviews of naturalistic metaphysics, accounts of how metaphysics might be informed by science, and discussions of the relationship between philosophy of science and metaphysics. The contents of the rest of the seminar will be set by student research projects. Students will identify their own topics during this part of the seminar. In the second part, students will present their topics and select readings for the class to read and discuss. In the third part of the course, students will read and discuss drafts of one another’s research papers.
PHIL 201 Mind, Matter, and God Winter 2015 Syllabus
This class is a general introduction to philosophy. It will focus on three areas of philosophy: epistemology, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind. Epistemology explores how we obtain knowledge. Philosophy of science asks what makes a theory scientific. Philosophy of mind attempts to provide an account of the mind.
PHIL 467: Problems in the Philosophy of Science Fall 2013 Syllabus
The course will focus on philosophical accounts of scientific explanation. We will explore prominent theories of explanation, as well a particularly problematic area of explanation: historical explanation.
PHIL 565.3 Philosophy of Biology Fall 2012 Syllabus
Philosophy 567.2 Natural Kinds and Scientific Classification Winter 2012 Syllabus
PHIL 275 Scientific and Critical Reasoning Winter 2010 Syllabus
Topics include reasoning, informal fallacies, propositional logic, proof, categorical propositions, syllogisms, and generalizations and analogies.
