Introduction to Liberal Arts and Sciences

Full course description

The first part of the course aims at providing you with an understanding of the natural sciences from a philosophical perspective. What is science? What is the scientific methodology? What are the norms and values in a scientific environment? The variety of perspectives that you are introduced to when answering these questions will allow you to develop critical thinking skills and provide you with insight that can be used in your personal development as a scientist. After exploring the philosophy of science in the first part of the course, the second part teaches you to apply and communicate your knowledge and ideas effectively by devoting attention to argumentation and science communication.

Course objectives

The objective of this course is to make you think about the natural sciences from a philosophical perspective: what is science; what is the scientific method? The course also challenges you to develop your intellectual and generic skills further: how to integrate different perspectives; what is ethical in science; how to communicate in/about science? To achieve these, you will be able:

To understand the main theoretical approaches within the philosophy of science and its usefulness in a natural sciences context;
To understand the nature of academic knowledge and the process of scientific development;
To know how science is done (“the scientific method”);
To discuss the importance norms and values in scientific environments;
To explore the structure and use of basic argumentation in various formats of communication;
To use historical and sociological case studies of scientific practice in mastering the above objectives.

Prerequisites

None

Co-requisites

PRA1102 (only in Period 2)

Corequisites

Introduction to Scientific Research II

Introduction to Liberal Arts and Sciences