English

Every spring semester

The course aims to give students an introduction to the philosophy of mathematics from a practical perspective, and to make students aware of some important questions concerning the culture of mathematics, such as good scientific practice, reproducibility and diversity.

The course introduces elements of

1. the philosophy of science and its application to mathematics, engineering mathematics and engineering physics
2. the history and philosophy of mathematics
3. research on diversity and equal opportunities.

It discusses some questions concerning good scientific culture practice in mathematics. This includes questions about reproducibility and diversity.

be able to describe and use some basic theories in the philosophy of science, in particular their application to mathematics
be able to describe and have practised the recovery and usage of primary and secondary sources of knowledge, especially scholarly research published in international journals
be able to describe and have practised methods for evaluating scholarly work
be able to give an account of relevant historical and current research questions
be able to describe current challenges in university culture, e.g. to ensure equal opportunities and diversity.

be able to apply the working methods of philosophy of science in order to identify and analyse common types of argument
be able to write a referee report
be able to give an account of recently acquired knowledge and insights in both written and oral form, as part of a group or individually
through a project have been given an introduction to research on different aspects of university research and culture.

be able to argue the value of both philosophical and personal critical reflection, regarding various forms of human knowledge and science
be able to formulate relevant criticism of both individual philosophical arguments and scientific theories.

Lectures

Seminars

Written report

Seminars given by participants

Written project, oral presentation.

Failed, pass

FMAF01 Mathematics - Analytic Functions and FMAN55 Applied Mathematics and FMSF80 Mathematical Statistics, Basic Course and one of EITF85 Electromagnetic Field Theory or ETEF01 Electromagnetic Field Theory

Assumed prior knowledge: Some experience of academic writing within mathematics or the natural sciences, for instance, reports or essays.

 

Thomas Kuhn: The structure of scientific revolutions. 1966. There are many editions of this book, e.g. ISBN 9780226458120 from University of Chigaco Press 2012.
A. Rodin: Axiomatic Architecture of Scientific Theories, Habilitation Thesis, S:t Petersburg University. 2020. Available at http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/17600.
N. Vavilov: Reshaping the metaphor of proof. 2019. Published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol 377, no 2140. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2018.0279 (18 pages).
Maria Chionidou-Moskofoglou (editor): Promoting Equity in Maths Achievement. , The Current Discussion:selected contributions from the proceedings of the Barcelona (25 January, 07) and the Paris (25 April, 07) Workshops. Publicacions i Edicions Universitat de Barcelona, 2008, ISBN: 978-84-475-3225-4.

FMAP01F

2022-06-14

Professor Thomas Johansson