Advanced Studies in Philosophy of Nature [ LFILO2230 ]

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Basic instruction in philosophy of Nature and natural science; Reading knowledge of English sufficient to allow for study of contemporary texts in philosophy of Nature and natural science.

Each year the course will select a particular theme - order and finality in Nature, determinism, ontological status of space and time, emergence, etc. The course will present and contrast different philosophical approaches to the selected theme. The course will attempt to include in the study of the theme a reflection on the goals and methods of the philosophy of Nature.

Upon completion of the course the student shall be able to analyze and discuss in a well-informed and original manner a question selected within the area of philosophy of Nature, relating this to developments in natural science. The student should at the end of the course be able to:
- Use research tools appropriate for philosophy of Nature;
- Conceptualize the selected question ;
- Situate his or her answers to the question within the framework of the history of the philosophy of Nature, and in relation to contemporary debates between various theories and approaches;
- To include contributions from other disciplines as appropriate to the philosophical discussion of the question ;
- To develop his or her own original argumentation in relation to the question.
- To submit the method chosen for the study of the selected question to a critical reflection.

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After studying some exemplary cases of tension between science and religion (Galileo case, Darwin's theory of evolution), this course will examine various philosophical views that have been proposed to conceive the relationship between science and religion. We will then examine the issues of the relationship between body and soul and the compatibility of miracles with laws of nature.
We will end with a discussion of a conception of reality which takes into account the specificity of the scientific and religious approaches to existing beings.

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