Philosophy 471

Schedule and lecture notes

Fall 2006

Date	What's on
Aug 23	Lange 1: Laws versus accidents (pp. 11-12)
25	Lange 2: Laws and counterfactuals (pp. 12-16)
28	Lange 3: Laws, explanation, and induction (pp. 16-23)
30	Lange 4: The relation of laws to counterfactuals (pp. 43-52)
Sep 1	Lange 5: Challenges to P3 (pp. 59-77)
6	Lange 6: Stability (pp. 95-105)
8	Lange 7: The problem of provisos (pp. 162-168)
11	Lange 8: There are false laws (pp. 170-176)
13	Lange 9: Revised definitions (pp. 177-178)
15	Woodward 1: Introduction to causation (pp. 25-45)
18	Woodward 2: Total, direct, and contributing causes (pp. 45-61)
20	Woodward 3: Actual causation (pp. 74-86)
22	Review (group discussion of the questions for exam 1)
25	Exam 1
27	No class
29	Woodward 4: Interventions and counterfactuals (pp. 114-123, 127-133)
Oct 2	Woodward 5: The DN and IS models of explanation (pp. 152-161)
4	Woodward 6: Causation and laws (pp. 161-184)
6	Woodward 7: Woodward's theory of explanation (pp. 187-204)
9	Woodward 8: Defects in Woodward's theory (pp. 209-221, 226-233)
11	Woodward 9: Invariance and laws (pp. 239-288)
13	Carnap 1: Theory and observation (pp. 225-246)
16	Carnap 2: Analyticity and the Ramsey sentence (pp. 247-274)
18	Lewis 1: T-terms and O-terms; realizations (pp. 427-431)
20	Lewis 2: Definitions of T-terms (pp. 431-438, 445-446)
23	Papineau 1: Causal theory; imprecision (pp. 1-12)
25	Papineau 2: Modal contexts; refinements (pp. 12-19)
27	Review (group discussion of the questions for exam 2)
30	Exam 2
Nov 1	No class
3	Howson 1: Popper; Bayesianism (pp.1-11)
6	Howson 2: Bayes's theorem (pp. 13-26)
8	Confirmation 1: Concepts of confirmation (pp. 1-4)
10	Confirmation 2: Probability (pp. 4--8)
13	Confirmation 3: Explication; verified consequences (pp. 8-11)
15	Confirmation 4: Reasoning by analogy; Nicod's condition (pp. 11-14)
17	Confirmation 5: Ravens; grue (pp. 14-16)
27	The problem of induction
29	Physical probability 1: Compatibility with determinism; frequency theory
Dec 1	Physical probability 2: Physical probability as a theoretical term
4	Law of Likelihood 1: The law and its justification
6	Law of Likelihood 2: Application to The Origin of Species. Graduate essays due
8	Review (group discussion of the questions for exam 3)
13	Exam 3 at 1:30pm in the usual classroom