Philosophy of science provides STEM students with a foundation that goes beyond mere knowledge and into the nature, history, and critical thinking of science, giving them a deeper understanding of their discipline. In high school, science is often taught as a problem-solving exercise, which can lead students to uncritically accept science. Offering philosophy of science as a required course in college will help students understand the roots and philosophical implications of their field of study and help them grow into true intellectuals.
Philosophy of science is very important. It deals with the discovery and formulation of problems, clear thinking and expression, argumentation and persuasion, and is not only an essential foundation for majors, but is also important regardless of the major.
There are two philosophy of science courses offered at Seoul National University: Philosophical Understanding of Science and Critical Thinking in Science. These courses use Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and Ronald Geerich’s Understanding Scientific Reasoning as their textbooks, respectively. As the names suggest, both courses deal with philosophical reflections on science.
While the foundational disciplines provide a crucial foundation for the pursuit of specialized studies, the importance of the subject matter to other core liberal arts cannot be underestimated. However, we do not believe that philosophy of science should be offered as a required liberal arts course, not simply because it is a humanities course with a science theme, but because it has a special significance that other liberal arts courses do not have.
There is an important aspect missing from high school science courses in South Korea. While there are individual differences, in general, science students spend their school years practicing the fundamentals of math and science. The problem is, even though math is based on logic, science subjects like physics and chemistry are also overly focused on problem solving. Physics is a slightly different kind of math, one that emphasizes the process of solving problems by applying structured formulas. While applying formulas to problems is an important part of physics, it doesn’t provide enough opportunities to understand the meaning of the science and how theories develop. There is no room for deep thinking when solving problems that require answers that fall to whole numbers without decimals, and if the answer can be found by substituting into a formula, the theory is always considered perfect. This educational background is likely to lead to misconceptions and uncritical attitudes towards science.
A course in philosophy of science takes students from the birth of science to philosophical considerations of argumentation methods and critical analysis of hypotheses and models, helping them to examine the nature of science itself rather than simply accepting it as knowledge. This experience is unique because it provides not only a liberal arts education, but also a sound and in-depth understanding of the science relevant to your major. Philosophy of science helps science and engineering students break out of the narrow mindset they may have, and ensures that their course of study is not just a simple extension of their high school experience. It gives students who are used to memorizing formulas and theories the opportunity to think outside the box and develop a more precise, deeper understanding of science and think critically.
In addition, philosophy of science can be very helpful for students who are planning to pursue more specialized studies in the future. Critical thinking is often cited as an essential attitude for adopters to have, as it is possible to understand any subject more clearly when looking at it critically. Philosophy of science can have a positive impact in this regard, even in academic studies. Just as the basic disciplines are key tools for academic work, philosophy of science can serve as an academic weapon rather than an academic tool. It can help students with more than just English and math skills.
To summarize, philosophy of science is more important than other core liberal arts subjects because it is not just peripheral knowledge, but is directly connected to a student’s major. The historical and philosophical awareness that philosophy of science provides has a depth that no major or even the basic sciences can provide. While majors and basic sciences focus on the outputs of science, philosophy of science attempts to understand the discipline of science itself. Furthermore, philosophy of science can be just as useful for academic performance as the basic disciplines.
Reading is an ideal way to address the problems of high school education. For example, Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is one of the top 100 recommended books at Seoul National University. If students were exposed to this book naturally, the importance of philosophy of science would be just a matter of personal opinion. However, it is not always easy to fit reading into the tight schedule of university life, especially if they lacked reading experience in high school. If there are any science and engineering students who voluntarily read philosophy of science books, they are probably quite rare among all students.
The suggestion of creating a reading atmosphere may be too unrealistic in Korea’s traditionally competitive and hierarchical society. At the end of the day, students need a solid foundation in science, and universities are the place where this can and should happen. If the ideal of a university is to train students as true intellectuals, then this is in line with this goal. For science and engineering students, philosophy of science introduces them to the history and nature of their field of study, and knowing and learning about it makes all the difference.
Just as it is foolish to discuss the future without knowing history, I believe that acquiring knowledge without knowing the roots and history of science is no different from becoming a mere technician. Providing philosophy of science as an essential liberal arts course in the training of majors will play an important role in training true engineers, not technicians.
