Philosophical Issues of Natural Science

Course annotation

Philosophical issues of natural science (2 European Credits)

Taught by: Prof. Vladimir Demkin

The continuous expansion of the horizons of science enriches our knowledge of the world around us. But each scientific advance generates new series of problems and puzzles.

Natural science is a system of scientific knowledge about nature. Practical use of this knowledge was the basis of scientific and technical progress in all spheres of human life. Today, mankind has entered the age of the rule of science, microelectronics, biotechnology, nuclear energy, confirming the great role of the natural sciences in our lives.

Recently, however, the value of scientific knowledge has been increasingly challenged. On the one hand, this is due to a significant decrease in efforts to popularize scientific knowledge. On the other hand this trend is supported by the rise of alternative systems of knowledge, paralleled by the large scale production of unscientific literature that advocates mysticism, parascience, astrology, magic, spiritualism, occultism, etc. These developments undermine the authority of the natural science view of the world, based on rational knowledge.

Under these conditions, the ideals of a scientific and rational relationship to reality acquire great importance. Ignoring the scientific world may lead to dangerous consequences. This danger is magnified when parascience is used in medicine or in politics. There are many examples of how pseudo-representations replace genuine scientific knowledge, emergence of "faith" healers, and the revival of exotic methods of healing. Another example is raising popularity of neovitalism. Hans Driesch, one of the founders of this approach believed that the essence of the phenomena of life is entelechy (a kind of soul), working outside of time and space, and that living matter cannot be confined to a set of physical and chemical phenomena.

Examples of the use of parascience by political power are the inquisition, religious bigotry, fascism, fundamentalism, the tragic consequences of which have been appearing in the media and screens.

These brief examples show that the education of modern specialists in any field of knowledge is impossible without a philosophical understanding of the role of science in life of society.

The purpose of this module is to help students form a holistic view of philosophical problems of modern science in the construction of the scientific world. This module is intended to provide a conceptual perception of modern natural science, and introduces the modern scientific world and the principles of scientific thinking.

Studying the module requires a basic knowledge of physics, astronomy, chemistry, and biology.

The module covers the following topics:

·   Philosophy and methodology of science.

·   Science and humanitarian culture. The scientific method.

·   Naturalistic worldview.

·   Concepts of modern science.

·   Physics of the XXI century. Non-classical methods.

·   Modern astronomy.

·   Philosophical Problems of Biology.

·   Human Genetics and psychophysiology.

·   Concept of consciousness in modern science.

·   Evolutionary synergetic paradigm of modern science.

Learning objectives

As a result of the module, a student must:

·   know: the basic philosophical issues of natural sciences, role of natural sciences in  the development of scientific thinking;

·   understand: the relationship between various areas of sciences;

·   be able to: use a system of philosophical categories and the foundations of modern ontology and epistemology, the analysis of natural science issues.

·   learning skills: ability to independently maintain and extend professional knowledge and competences; experience with problem-based learning; experience with professional mobility; experience with e-learning and distant learning.

Content of the module

1. The spiritual situation on the verge of the third millennium. Features of the modern world. Science in the modern world. The emergence of science and the main stages of its development. Features of the present stage of scientific development. Philosophy, its nature and function in culture. The idea of ​​knowledge as a basis and power of moral behaviour in European philosophy. The concept of method and methodology. Levels of methodological analysis of science.

2. The concept of "natural-scientific culture" and "humanitarian culture". Scientific methods. Methodology of scientific knowledge.

3. The emergence and evolution of a naturalistic worldview. The concepts of paradigm and research programme. The problems of scientific revolutions. The main types of scientific revolutions and shifting of pictures of the world. Physics in the culture system. Continuity in the development of scientific knowledge on the empirical and theoretical levels. Methodological significance of the correspondence principle. The principle of causality from Democritus to the present day. Causality and the birth of the new. The concept of "style of scientific thinking", the evolution of thinking styles.

4. The conceptual meaning of the term 'science'. Leading natural science concepts, modern natural science paradigm. Philosophy of natural science, its specificity with respect to metaphilosophical and directed-scientific issues. Forms of knowledge organisation in the philosophy of science: natural philosophy, philosophical realism, scientific outlook and ways of thinking. Principles of continuity, compliance continuity in the study of nature. The role of the educational process in the formation of the transition from disciplinary forms of scientific knowledge to the systematic, a holistic worldview.

5. Modern physics models of natural processes. The modern physics picture of the world and the Eastern worldview. Systematic thinking as a feature of the modern scientific worldview. The issue of a unified field theory, the synthesis of strong and weak interactions. The problem of reality in modern physics. Specificity criteria for the existence of micro-objects. Physics and information processes. Virtual reality and technologies.

6. Astrophysics discoveries of the XXI century, new cosmogonic models, philosophy and cosmology. Models and scenarios for the evolution of the universe. The concept of the Big Bang, the universe branching concept, the concept of cosmic strings. Self-organization in the universe. Theory of elementary particles and the principle of expediency. Anthropic principle: strong, weak, finalist. Life and intelligence in the universe as a part of its evolution. Astronomical knowledge object features: remoteness, inaccessibility of the experiment, the evolutionary nature of the object, mega-nature of cosmic bodies.

7. Nature of biological knowledge. Biology in its historical development. Biology axioms. The place of biology in the science system. Biology’s influence on the style of scientific thinking. The role of philosophical reflection in the development of living science. Changing of studying the structure of biological knowledge. The problem of "biological reality". The essence and origin of life. The notion of life in modern science and philosophy. The variety of approaches to the definition of the phenomenon of life. Main stages of the development of ideas about the living nature. Principles of development in biology. Main stages of the development of ideas in biology. Modern ideas about evolution. From evolution to the global evolutionism. Organization, integrity and expediency. Life as a hierarchy of forms and levels of organization. The evolution of ideas about the organization and systematic biology. Biology and the modern knowledge synthesis. Biology and synergy. Synergetic and information processes in living systems. Biology, mathematics and computer science. Anthropic principle in science.

The problem of interaction between society and nature, the doctrine of the noosphere: origins and current status. Formation of Ecophilosophy. Man and Nature in the socio-cultural dimension. Education and the environment. Anthropologists and social genesis issues. Interrelation of biological and social in a person. Philosophical doctrines in the XX century and their impact on biology. Modern biology as a source of philosophical problems.

8. Genetics as a leader of modern science. Reproduction issues of life, secrets of the genetic code. Biopolitics and eugenics. Socio-biology and the sources of its methodological orientation (absolutisation of genetic knowledge, the evolutionary significance of behaviour, analogies in the behaviour of humans and animals). Ethics of science and the issue of human cloning. Studying of the relationship between the physics, biological and spiritual aspects of life. Human genetics and psychophysiology. Humanitarian aspects of psychophysics. Functional asymmetry of humans and special state of consciousness.

9. The issues of consciousness in the history of natural science, psychology and philosophy. Behaviour and higher nervous activity. Brain: morphology and asymmetry. Biological and social in psychogenesis and behaviours. Conscious, unconscious , superconscious. Psychic Phenomena. The quantum model of consciousness. Parapsychology, vacuum, semantic space. Research programs in psychophysics: a program of torsion fields, the Transcendental Meditation program. Consciousness as a process and the result of self-organization. The issue of artificial intelligence.

10. The idea of global evolutionism in modern science as the basis of the scientific world. System of evolution or process as a system. Universalism of mechanisms and evolutionary factors. Vernadsky and Jantsch concept of universal evolutionism. The synergetic paradigm of modern science. Establishing of synergetic paradigm, the status of synergetics in the system of knowledge. Categorical framework of synergy: bifurcation, fluctuation, attractor, coherence, linearity, fractals. Educational relationships in synergy. Evolutionarily synergetic paradigm of modern natural science as the core of post-non-classical science. Ecological approach and post-non-classical scientific. Ecology as a consciousness of civilization and science. Greening of science and philosophy of the natural environment.

Overview of tasks and lectures

The first semester is scheduled for 6 two-hour lectures and 6 two-hour seminars. Students are given 48 hours for individual studying of the material.

Topics of lectures:

1. Introduction. Science in the modern world. The emergence of science and the main stages of its development. Features of the present stage of scientific development.

2. The scientific method. Conceptual meaning of the term "science". Leading natural science concepts, modern natural science paradigm.

3. Principles of continuity, accordance of continuity in the study of nature. The role of the educational process in the formation of the transition from disciplinary forms of scientific knowledge to systematic, a holistic worldview.

4. Modern physics models of natural processes. Modern physics picture of the world and the Eastern world view. Systematic thinking as a feature of the modern scientific worldview.

5. The issue of reality in modern physics. Specificity criteria for the existence of micro-objects. Physics and information processes. Virtual reality technologies.

6. System based approach to the study of living systems. Natural sciences as synergetic knowledge. Systems biology and systems medicine.

Topics of seminars:

1. Science and human culture. The problem of scientific revolutions. The main types of scientific revolutions and changing of pictures of the world.

2. Stages of scientific knowledge.

3. Nature and origin of life. The notion of life in modern science. The variety of approaches to the definition of the phenomenon of life.

4. Ethics of science and the problem of human cloning. Research on the relationship of the physics, biological and spiritual aspects of life.

5. The issue of the artificial intelligence.

6. Evolutionarily synergetic paradigm of modern science. Ecological approach and post-non-classical scientific. Ecology as a consciousness of civilization and as a science. Greening of science and philosophy of the natural environment.

Position within the programme

This is a unique module that discusses philosophical questions of natural science, forming the professional style of a student's scientific thinking. The acquired knowledge is necessary for the formation of the research methodology.

Teaching format

Structure

The module is given in the first semester. The total complexity of the course is 2 credits /72 hours, including 24 hours in the classroom. The sections in the first semester are given 6 weeks (6 two-hour lectures and 6 two-hour seminars). Lectures and seminars are conducted in multimedia classroom, equipped with technical means for video conferencing, as well as presentation and interactive equipment.

Grading

The form of final assessment is a written credit  test. Written credit  test covers theoretical material of the course. To pass the credit  test a student has to correctly answer at least 80% of the questions.

Main literature

1. Дорфман Я.Г. Всемирная история физики: с начала XIX до середины ХХ вв.Изд. 2-е.- М.: Изд-во ЛКИ, 2007. – 320 с.
2. Stephen W. Hawking. A Brief History of Time. From Big Bang to Black Holes. Bantam Dell Publishing Group, 1988. – 256 p.
3. James E. Lidsey. The Bigger Bang. University of Cambridge Press, England, 2000. – 148 P.
4. John Malone. Unsolved Mysteries of Science. John Willey & Sons, Inc. N.Y., Chichester, Weinheim, Brisbane, Toronto, Singapure, 2002. – 230 P.

Additional literature

1. Шредингер Э. Что такое жизнь с точки зрения физики?/Пер. с англ. А.А. Малиновского. – М.: РИМИС, 2009. – 176 с. 
2. Livio, Mario. The Accelerating Universe: Infinite Expansion, the Cosmological Constant, and the Infinite Beary of the Cosmos. N.Y.: John Willey & Sons, Inc., 2000.
3. David Bodanis. Electric Universe. How Electricity Switched on Modern World. 2006, 384 P.
4. Гинсбург В.Л. О науке, о себе и о других: статьи и выступления. 2-е изд. расширенное. – М.: Изд-во ФМЛ, 2001. – 496 с.