Goals

The course aims at providing students with the means to develop a personal philosophical view about concepts built and used in the material sciences.

Content

The content of the course varies from year to year. It consists in the philosophical study of a scientific concept (or a concept used by scientists), such as matter, causation, law of nature, probability, space, time, atom, force, field, intrication, mesure, chaos, determinism, chance, etc.

This year, the chosen concept will be emergence (and reductionism) in its relation to complexity.

Teaching methods

There will be a limited amount of ex cathedra lectures devoted to introduce the overall topic.

Students will then be invited to carry out a personal investigation of the topic with the help of readings related to their prefered field (quantum gravity, quantum mechanics, relativity, thermodynamics, solid physics, quantum chemistry, organic chemistry, etc.), in order to get acquainted with - with the help of the teacher - a philosopher's of science reflexion.

For the academic year 2024-2025 : students will be invited to attend (depending on their schedule) to the international conference Reductionism in Transitions that will take place in Namur on October 10-11. They will be allowed to integrate the content of one of the lectures into their final report, in place of one of the texts provided in the portfolio.

Assessment method

Oral exam about the content of the introductory lectures together with a brief presentation of the personal investigation.

Sources, references and any support material

A portfolio of ressources will be suggested and/or made available on WebCampus.

Slides of the introductory lectures will be provided on WebCampus.

Language of instruction

French