180186 SE Philosophy of the Historical Sciences (2023W)

66 million years ago, an asteroid impact killed the dinosaurs that had roamed the planet for the previous 180 million years. 35 million years ago, the African tectonic plate collided with the European plate, starting the formation of the mountain range we now call the Alps. 60,000 years ago, Homo sapiens, our modern human ancestors, began migrating out of Africa, eventually populating the rest of the world. 12,000 years ago, the last ice age ended, leading to significant changes in the Earth’s climate. Two thousand years ago, Romans set up a military camp called Vindobona in what is now the city centre of Vienna.

This is a course about how we find out about all of the things above. We will investigate, from a philosophy of science perspective, how we know what (we think) we know about the past. In the course of the semester, we will look at various case studies from the historical sciences – natural sciences investigating the past. Palaeontology, geology, and archaeology are classic examples of historical sciences, but so are astronomy and evolutionary biology. Philosophers of science have only relatively recently begun to look into the historical sciences and we will read some of their key contributions in this course. We will focus on some of following topics and questions:

1. Evidence and Confirmation: What kind of evidence do historical scientists draw on in their investigations? How do scientists ‘test’ theories about the past? Do historical scientists face unique challenge because they study the past – compared to, say, sciences like physics or chemistry?

2. Methodology and Explanation: Are historical sciences, by their very nature, precluded from using certain scientific methods, such as experiments? Do historical scientists use special types of explanation? What is, for example, the role of narratives? What kind of indirect investigation strategies, such as modelling, do historical scientists draw on?

3. Science, Values, and Objectivity: How to distinguish scientific from pseudoscientific theories about the past? To what extent is the past a guide to the present and the future, for instance, with respect to environmental issues? How do values and ethical considerations enter investigations of the past, especially where our human, cultural past is concerned?

This course is right for you if you are interested in philosophy of science and scientific methodology, and like to engage with scientific case studies and examples. There is, of course, no need for any prior knowledge of palaeontology, archaeology, or geology. Background info in the form of short info texts and videos will be provided throughout the course. However, it helps if you are curious to learn about these kinds of disciplines (if you’ve enjoyed the Natural History Museum in Vienna, that’s a good sign!).

Please note that this is NOT a course in the philosophy of history (as in 'Geschichtswissenschaften' in German). Of course, there is some overlap in philosophical questions when it comes to disciplines studying the past. However, this course purposely does not cover any of the classic debates in the philosophy of history.