Cursussyllabus

Welcome to the course Philosophy of Science!

My name is Colin Jakob Rittberg (colin.jakob.rittberg@vub.be). I am your lecturer this semester. If you have any questions, worries, doubts, problems, troubles or otherwise, please do not hesitate to reach out!

Lectures will be held on Mondays from 1-3pm in aula QE on the Etterbeek campus of the VUB.

The course material can be found under “Bestanden” here on Canvas. The is no need to buy
additional material.

This course draws on two books, from which we will discuss selected topics:

1. Ladyman, J., 2012. Understanding philosophy of science. Routledge.

2. Hacking, I., 1983. Representing and intervening: Introductory topics in the philosophy of natural science. Cambridge university press.

Lecture slides will also be uploaded to Canvas after each lecture.

All lectures will be recorded and the recordings will be uploaded to Panopto (accessible via Canvas). 

The exam, currently scheduled for 22 January 2026 from 5-8pm, will be open-book. This means that you are allowed to use any material (lecture slides, books, cheat-sheets,...) in any form (printed, digital) during the exam. The only restriction is that all digital devices (laptops, tablets,...) need to be offline (e.g. airplane-mode). Furthermore, mobile phones are not allowed during the exam.

Exam-relevant material:

• All lectures
• All lecture-slides
• All chapters listed as recommended reading on the "Philosophy of Science: Lectures" page (see pagina/page)
• All papers listed as "Exam Relevant" during the lectures

Note that the "Philosophy of Science: Lectures" page is subject to change. At the time of writing, the following chapters are recommended readings and hence relevant for the exam (but this may change!):

• Ladyman: chapters 1-4.
• Hacking: Introduction, chapters 1 and 8