Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know It
Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know It
Rated 5 out of
5
by
None4 from
Beautifully executed by masterful teacher
This professor is so very adept at presenting this subject. I have watched it twice, some parts 3 times. I wish i were as effective a teacher as he.
Date published: 2020-09-18
Rated 5 out of
5
by
JimLH from
Historical thinking in science.
Excellent Professor and enlightening course content.
Date published: 2020-03-02
Rated 3 out of
5
by
D Evan from
Not enough real-world examples.
It's a bit hard to follow all the philosophizing when the concepts are not related to something we can comprehend in the physical realm. Goldman does give some real-world examples as he goes along, but not nearly enough. Therefore I find I sometimes just give up and skip to the next lecture.
Date published: 2019-09-29
Rated 5 out of
5
by
usarkurtg from
extraordinarily good
Whoever is interested in the development of the philosophy of science, everyone a bit critical amongst scientist and people interested in science, everyone who wants to know from which assumptions he or she starts looking at science without being aware of it,all of them should buy this course,its fascinating in every aspect-and dont forget to also listen to the philosophy of science course by another professor..If You have made it through this two you will see science in a new light..satisfaction guaranteed
Date published: 2019-09-15
Rated 5 out of
5
by
McDonnell56 from
This is the best course on Science
Greetings, I am motivated to write a review because of all the course I have taken this is the best, most insightful review of how we know what we know and how science works. This course should be all five reviews but there are people who have given it a one and I do not understand that. One person who gave it a one said it was mis-titled, because it was suppose to be a about science and it wasn't. I disagree. Having done science for a living, poured gels and sequenced DNA the old fashioned way, spliced genes and written many papers in Science, I can say this course is all about science. It is not mis-named. Dr. Goldman's other two course are equally excellent.
Date published: 2019-06-08
Rated 5 out of
5
by
2lh35h from
One of the best ever "The Great Courses"
This course is hard to categorize because it explores the philosophy of science as well as the scientific method. It is simply stunning in its scope. Dr. Goldman's presentation is passionate, thorough and compelling. A knock-out!!!
Date published: 2019-06-08
Rated 4 out of
5
by
Omnivore2 from
Epistemology on Steroids
In 24 lectures, this course discusses the nature of scientific knowledge, from a historical and philosophical point of view. Specifically, it addresses the dichotomy of (1) science as revealing concepts and truths that are objective, absolute, and independent of our understanding of them, versus (2) scientific knowledge as provisional and evolutionary over time as it is qualified and extended by new discoveries, concepts, and technology. This is heavy stuff—definitely a graduate-level course for people with both a solid grounding in science and also some background in philosophy—and I found it both excellent and hard work, whose content I could not handle in doses exceeding one lecture a day. Professor Goldman is impressive: brilliant, insightful, and erudite. The course in video is almost entirely just him standing there (or, actually, gesturing as he paces back and forth), with very little illustrative material, for content that is often conceptually both complex and abstract—although I think that on audio it would have been even more difficult to concentrate on and follow. Dr Goldman is as articulate as any course presenter I have encountered, although I must say he also wins the prize for the longest, most complex sentences—often more than 100 words long, with dependent clauses within dependent clauses, yet always grammatically correct. This feature, combined with the highly abstract, frequently subtle nature of the topics under discussion made this course the most challenging I have taken. Worth it, though: I learned a lot.
Date published: 2019-01-21
Rated 5 out of
5
by
B W Schuster from
Great insights about scientific knowledge
In order to better understand “what scientists know”, the course examines the history of a variety of scientific theories. By doing so, we come to understand the nature of truth, knowledge, and reality from the perspective of science – namely, that scientific theories employ deductive logic but are ultimately based on specific assumptions that reflect current empirical evidence, that the scientific community itself, to some extent, defines “truth” through the use of language and socially accepted values, and that theories evolve or are replaced over time as scientists gain additional experience (possibly through the use of new instrumentation). As a result of this analysis, we must conclude that science thus far has not and in principle cannot define reality, though no one would dispute the value of science as demonstrated even in our everyday lives. It’s interesting to read in the description of other science courses offered by The Great Courses statements that science defines reality.
Prof Goldman is able to convincingly present theories others have had about scientific knowledge. In fact, his presentations of these alternative theories are so faithful, unbiased, and convincing that I found myself paradoxically agreeing with conflicting theories.
It’s not clear to me upon completion of the course whether Prof Goldman holds that no knowledge is possible, if even science is not able to claim “knowledge” in the philosophical sense. If no “knowledge” is possible, must we conclude that the theory presented in this course also does not constitute “knowledge” of reality? But if that’s our conclusion, then aren’t we just validating the theory?
One aspect of the course which I found somewhat confusing is that certain topics are covered multiple times, from different perspectives. For example, the same ideas might be covered through an historical / chronological analysis, and then again when exploring “Scientific Knowledge as Social Construct”, the view of one individual, or the perspective from the scientific community. It felt like we were just repeating material we had already covered earlier in the course.
I thought this was an excellent course and would highly recommend it.
Date published: 2018-11-21
Steven L. Goldman
After 50 years, I continue to find new depths and fresh excitement in studying the history and philosophy of science.
ALMA MATER
Boston University
INSTITUTION
Lehigh University
About Steven L. Goldman
Dr. Steven L. Goldman is the Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Lehigh University, where he has taught for 30 years. He earned his B.S. in Physics at the Polytechnic University of New York and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston University.
Before taking his position at Lehigh, Professor Goldman taught at The Pennsylvania State University, where he was a cofounder of one of the first U.S. academic programs in science, technology, and society studies.
Professor Goldman has received the Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award from Lehigh University. A prolific author, he has written or edited eight books, including Science, Technology, and Social Progress, and he has an impressive list of scholarly articles and reviews to his credit. He has been a national lecturer for the scientific research society Sigma Xi and a national program consultant for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
