180123 VO Causal Evidence and Explanation Across the Sciences (2024W)

Exam structure: As the course consists of both introductory material in philosophy of science (Lectures 1-3) and more advanced material on causal evidence and explanation (Lectures 4-11), the written exam will consist of one randomly chosen question from the first block and two questions from the second block. Question 1 is worth 30% of the grade, the other two questions are worth 35% each. Each question will contain a descriptive part (describing a specific philosophical problem or defining a concept) and an argumentative part (defending a particular position on the problem).

Students are allowed to use notes based on lectures/lecture slides during the exam. No other aids will be permitted.

Preparation materials: lecture notes; lecture slides on Moodle; Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; background readings listed in the syllabus. Doing the background reading is advisable to enhance your understanding of lecture material but having a detailed knowledge of the readings is not required.