Philosophical Issues of Technical Knowledge

Published: Friday, 14 October 2016 06:42

Appendix 1

Course: Philosophical Issues of Technical Knowledge

Programme Summary

Major: 13.04.01 Thermal Power Engineering and Thermal Technology

Degree: Master

Course units:

• Unit 1. The subjects of the philosophy of science. The main existential forms of science.
• Unit 2. The structure and forms of knowledge. The empirical and theoretical knowledge.
• Unit 3. Technical sciences as a separate branch of knowledge. Classification of technical sciences.
• Unit 4. The main periods in the history of science. The evolution stages of technical sciences. Technical revolutions.
• Unit 5. Scientism and anti-scientism. Ethical problems of today’s science and technology.
• Unit 6. The origin and evolution of the philosophy of technology. Key areas of present day’s philosophy of technology.
• Unit 7. The relationship between science and technology at different stages of the technological evolution. The specifics of the engineer’s job.

Course contents:

Unit 1. The subjects of the philosophy of science. The main existential forms of science.

• Science as mentality, learning and knowledge.
• Science as a social institution, the functions of science.
• The origin of the philosophy of science and its subjects.
• The problems of philosophy and methodology of science in positivism and neopositivism.
• The problems of philosophy and methodology of science in postpositivism.

Unit 2. The structure and forms of knowledge. The empirical and theoretical knowledge.

• Scientific concepts and scientific laws as the structures of scientific knowledge.
• A fact, a problem and a hypothesis within the structure of scientific knowledge.
• The structure and functions of the theory of science. An R&D programme.
• The correlation between the empirical and theoretical knowledge.
• Empirical methods.
• Theoretical methods.

Unit 3. Technical sciences as a separate branch of knowledge. Classification of technical sciences.

• The methodological basis of today’s classification of science.
• The origin of technical sciences.
• The subject and methods of technical sciences.
• Technical sciences and the natural science: How they interact.
• The classification of technical sciences.

Unit 4. The main periods in the history of science. The evolution stages of technical sciences. Technical revolutions.

• The period in the history of science preceding the classical science.
• The classical period in the history of science.
• The nonclassical period in the history of science. Origination of technical sciences.
• The post-nonclassical period in the history of science. Nonclassical technical theories.
• The role of technical revolutions in the history of technical sciences.

Unit 5. Scientism and anti-scientism. Ethical problems of today’s science and technology.

• The origin of scientism as a social and cultural philosophy.
• The crisis of the anthropogenic society.
• The essence of anti-scientism as a social and cultural philosophy.
• The ethos of science.
• The formal ethics of science.

Unit 6. The origin and evolution of the philosophy of technology. Key areas of present day’s philosophy of technology.

• The philosophy of technology: Why and how it originated.
• The problem of the essence of and the idea behind technology in the philosophy of technology.
• The scientific branch in the philosophy of technology.
• The sociological branch in the philosophy of technology.
• The anthropological branch in the philosophy of technology.
• The religious branch in the philosophy of technology.

Unit 7. The relationship between science and technology at different stages of the technological evolution. The specifics of the engineer’s job.

• The specifics of the engineer’s job.
• The relationship between science and technology during the evolution of technical sciences.
• The evolution of engineering education.
• New methodologies in engineering.
• The relationship between science and technology nowadays.

Activities:

• Teacher-led group activities in a classroom;
• Extracurricular self-study of the teacher’s assignments and tasks, including the use of educational facilities (obligatory);
• Office-hours.

Total hours – 72.

Total points – 2.

Classroom hours – 36.

Unsupervised hours – 36.

Midterm assessment – Pass/fail examination.