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The history and philosophy of science (HPS) is an academic discipline that encompasses the philosophy of science and the history of science. Although many scholars in the field are trained primarily as either historians or as philosophers, there are degree-granting departments of HPS at several prominent universities (see below).
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A Unified Discipline [edit]
While it may seem an umbrella term, as described above, people in the branch of HPS consider this fusion of history of science with philosophy of science to be perfectly natural. Others see it as an historical anachronism, resulting from the misguided approach of the logical positivists. The origin of this hybrid approach is reflected in the career of Thomas Kuhn. His first permanent appointment, at the University of California, Berkeley, was to a position advertised by the philosophy department, but he also taught courses from the history department. When he was promoted to full professor in the history department only, Kuhn was offended at the philosophers' rejection because "I sure as hell wanted to be there, and it was my philosophy students who were working with me, not on philosophy but on history, were nevertheless my more important students".[1] This attitude is also reflected in his historicist approach, as outlined in Kuhn's seminal Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962, 2nd ed. 1970), wherein philosophical questions about scientific theories and, especially, theory change are understood in historical terms, employing concepts such as paradigm shift.
"History of science without philosophy of science is blind ... philosophy of science without history of science is empty"
History and development [edit]
More recently the sociology of science and science and technology studies have become popular topics and a few HPS departments have become Science Studies departments, e.g., the School of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of New South Wales was known as the School of Science and Technology Studies (STS) from the mid-1980s until 2001. For this reason it can be argued that the fields are identical and that the difference is only one of emphasis. While it may seem that STS is a broader concept, leaving room for other approaches to science such as sociology of science, HPS departments are not usually as exclusive as a literal interpretation of the name might imply.
HPS University Departments, Interdisciplinary Programs, and Divisions [edit]
Australia [edit]
- University of Melbourne
- University of New South Wales
- University of Sydney
- University of Wollongong (Science, Technology, and Society)
Austria [edit]
Canada [edit]
- McGill University
- University of Alberta (Science, Technology, and Society)
- University of Toronto
Czech Republic [edit]
Denmark [edit]
University of Aarhus (History of Science)
France [edit]
Germany [edit]
- Münchner Zentrum für Wissenschafts- und Technikgeschichte (History of Science and Technology)
Greece [edit]
Hungary [edit]
Budapest University of Technology and Economics
Iran [edit]
Israel [edit]
Japan [edit]
- Hokkaido University (Natural History Sciences)
- University of Kyoto
- University of Tokyo
Korea [edit]
- Chonbuk National University (Science Studies)
- KAIST (Science and Technology Policy)
- Korea University (Science and Technology Studies)
- Seoul National University
Malaysia [edit]
Mexico [edit]
Netherlands [edit]
- University of Twente (Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society)
- University of Utrecht
Portugal [edit]
Switzerland [edit]
United Kingdom [edit]
- London School of Economics (Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method)
- University College London
- University of Leeds
- University of Cambridge
United States [edit]
- Arizona State University, Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology
- California Institute of Technology
- Case Western Reserve University
- Duke University
- Florida State University
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- Harvard University (History of Science)
- Indiana University
- Johns Hopkins University (History of Science, Technology, and Medicine)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Michigan State University
- Northwestern University (Science in Human Culture)
- Princeton University (History of Science)
- Stanford University
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of California, Irvine (Logic and Philosophy of Science)
- University of California, San Diego (Science Studies)
- University of Chicago
- University of Notre Dame
- University of Pennsylvania (History and Sociology of Science)
- University of Pittsburgh
- University of Texas
- University of Washington
- Western Michigan University
- Yale University (History of Science and Medicine)
References [edit]
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This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2007) |
- ^ "A Discussion with Thomas S. Kuhn" in The Road Since Structure, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, p. 302.
- ^ A recasting of Kant's quotation: "Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind." Norwood Russell Hanson, "The Irrelevance of History of Science to Philosophy of Science", The Journal of Philosophy, 59 (1962): 574-586, at p. 580.
See also [edit]
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