Philosophy of Science plus Research Ethics

The course consists of two separate topics under the umbrella of one PhD course: 

Philosophy of Science: As a starting point, human self-reflection is understood as precondition to the emergence of science. The course turns from pre-socrating thinkers to classical antiquity and here foremost to Plato’s definition of knowledge as ‘justified true belief’ and Aristotle’s distinction of Episteme, Techne and Doxa; terms used in different concepts until today. The course introduces the ‘reflective self’ as introduced by Augustine and briefly introduces the notion of scholasticism, where following Thomas Aquinas, “the knowledge of any truth whatsoever man needs divine help”. Knowledge was liberated in the wake modernity and the concept of science was further developed by William of Ockham (Ockham's razor). The development of science and the ‘scientific method’ can be seen in Descartes foundation of ‘rationalism’ based on ‘methodological skepticism’. Following Kuhn science happens in paradigms and a paradigm shift is characterized by the incommensurability of the old and the new paradigm. Furthermore and also in the last century, Karl Popper introduced the idea of falsification and the value of failing theories in the context of deduction and induction as means to arrive at scientific conclusions. Based on the different philosophical viewpoints and core questions of philosophy of science, the course opens space for discussion about the responsibility of science in general and the scientist in particular. This question also imposes the question of communication in science and between scientists. 

Lastly, we look at what is known as ‘positivistic turn’ and more recent debates in the philosophy of science (Schurz 2013) translating into social sciences is presented leading to the most recent debates on the ‘power of methods’ and ‘social epistemology’. The course also introduces the technicalities of data points, research design and theory building of current philosophy of science contributions.

Finally, big data and digitalization affect the way in which science is conceptualized leading to a data-driven networked understanding of ‘the science of science’. The closing discussion is on the responsibility of science and the scientist and reflects upon the role and responsibilities of what it means to become a scholar. 

Research Ethics: After a short introduction devoted to freedom of research in open democratic societies, the first workshop deals with a case of plagiarism and ethical misconduct. Starting from a real case, we will examine the consequences not only for the person who committed plagiarism, but also for the university in general and the consequences of plagiarism on the other researchers in that particular department. We discuss whistleblowing in academia providing different settings and strategies how do deal with misconduct in an organization once discovered without adverse effects for the whistleblower and the organization in general. Conflict of interest, data-slicing, data management and finally codification of research ethics are presented. The major work of the course consists in reviewing and discussing various academic Code of Ethics/Conduct in a historical and systematic perspective.

Readings before the course

Carlos Cabral-Cardoso: Ethical Misconduct in the Business School: A Case of Plagiarism That Turned Bitter. In: Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Jan., 2004), pp. 75-89

Wilmshurst, Peter. Whistleblower on Medial Research Fraud. Spiegel, 2015.

Definition of knowledge, scientific method, paradigms, epistomology, ontology. 

Applying concepts to own resarch questions. 

Definition of academic integrity, copyright, plagiarism, trust, misconduct, data slicing, conflict of interest, shortcuts

• Quality education
• Peace and justice strong institutions

In presence

Lecture, discussion, essays

Individual essays