Dr. Alexandru Manafu
alexman@yorku.ca

Office hours: For office hours, talk to me after class or email me before class. My office is S414A Ross. More information about office hours will be posted on our course’s eClass page.

The course examines the changes in worldview brought about by the great scientific revolutions, such as those due to Newton, Einstein, Darwin, and Freud. It considers both the empirical and the conceptual aspects of their theories, and focuses on the philosophical significance of the paradigm shifts they engendered. The topics addressed in this course may include: the shift from Aristotle’s conception of motion to Newton’s, the shift from geocentrism to heliocentrism, the shift from Newton’s conceptions of space and time to Einstein’s, the shift from the organismic to the mechanistic view of the universe, the transition from alchemy to chemistry, the shift from classical mechanics to quantum mechanics, the shift from the creationist to the Darwinian view of the origin of species, the shift from the Cartesian to the Freudian view of the mind. We may also consider the influence of Islamic mathematics and astronomy on Copernicus and Galilei, the philosophical aspects of Arab alchemy and chemistry, Leibniz’s criticism of Newton’s view of space and time (the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence), the philosophical significance of the Darwinian and Freudian revolutions, the philosophical aspects of quantum mechanics, and Kuhn’s conception of scientific revolutions.

• Richard DeWitt (2018). Worldviews: An introduction to the history and philosophy of science (3rd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-119-11889-3 or ISBN 978-1-119-11899-2.

Available for free through YorkU Library https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/york/detail.action?docID=707965

Available at the YorkU Bookstore as ebook, $35

Available at the YorkU Bookstore as paperback, TBD.

• Friedel Weinert (2008/2009). Copernicus, Darwin, & Freud: Revolution in the history and philosophy of science. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN: 978-1-405-18183-9.

Available for free at the YorkU Library:

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/york/detail.action?docID=428256

Available in paper format at the YorkU Bookstore, $64.95

• A selection of readings that will be made available in PDF on our course’s eClass page (Free).

Participation: 15%

Ten critical reflections on the readings: 10%

Presentation: 15%

Essay outline: 15%

Final essay: 45%

NOTE: The grading scheme will be respected strictly.

Participation involves attendance, but also sharing personal viewpoints, bringing up questions, answering to questions, making connections, making observations, and in general being active in the seminar. Each seminar session you will be marked for participation with either pass or fail. There will be 12 seminar sessions in total, and you must pass at least 8 to pass the course.

Before every seminar session you will have the opportunity to submit a critical reflection piece (250-500 words) based on that week's readings (or only on one/some of them). In your reflection you must specify on which reading(s) you are referring to. You are free to approach your reflections as you like, but here are some possible questions to consider: What do you think of the ideas or arguments presented in the readings? How did they intersect with your own intuitions, experiences, or questions about the topic? What struck you as persuasive, puzzling, or even unsettling? Did the reading surprise you in any way, or challenged your assumptions? You can also raise an objection to a philosophical idea expressed in the reading; explore some implications of the idea, make connections/comparisons with other ideas, etc. Well-written reflections treat the readings as food for thought, and foster personal engagement with the material. Please do not use AI for the reflections, as not only this would be missing the point, but it would be not allowed.

Good or great reflections = 1%. Mediocre = 0.5%. Superficial = 0%.

Late coursework

The presentation is mandatory, and it must take place in person, at the time convened upon. Signing up for a presentation and failing to deliver it at the agreed-upon time will result in losing the presentation marks.

No late critical reflections will be accepted. After you have submitted your critical reflection it is not possible to revise it or to submit another one. Click "submit" only after you have decided you are happy with your work. You can submit a maximum of 10 reflections overall in this course.

Late penalty for essays or essay drafts: 5% of the value of the essay/ each 24 hours.

All essays will be submitted electronically, through eClass, and they will be subjected to a Turnitin plagiarism check.

ANY ESSAY WITH A TURNITIN PLAGIARISM SCORE ABOVE 15% WILL BE INVESTIGATED. Depending on the case, the essay will incur a penalty and/or the Course Director together with the Undergraduate Program Director will open a formal AH (academic honesty) case. Following the investigation of your essay, any point above a 15% Turnitin score will be translated into 5% penalty. For example, an essay with a Turnitin score of 17% will incur a penalty of 10%, so that the new maximum grade for this essay will be 90%. As a result of the AH case that will be opened you risk EXPULSION FROM THE UNIVERSITY.

If your essay has a Turnitin score of 15% or more you can revise your essay and resubmit it, as long as the deadline has not yet passed. Note that the Turnitin system does not generate your similarity scores instantly; sometimes, at least 24 or 48 hours are needed. Therefore, if you want to check your similarity report and then revise and resubmit your essay, the initial submission should be done at least 48 hours before the deadline.

The Turnitin report on the use of AI in your essay will be treated separately. In case you have chosen Option 1 (write your essay without AI assistance, see Course Policy on AI below) and Turnitin detects that you have indeed used AI, your essay will be investigated. Given enough evidence, this may result in the Course Director together with the Undergraduate Program Director opening a formal AH (academic honesty) case and you risk expulsion from the university.

Seminar

By the end of this course, you will:

• Explain the empirical and the conceptual aspects of the theories examined, and their metaphysical and epistemological commitments, as well as the worldviews that these theories engendered, and the transition between them.
• Critically evaluate the arguments and the controversies relating to the theories considered and the worldviews that emerged from them.
• Articulate their own philosophical standpoints and arguments concerning the theories and worldviews studied (including the surrounding debates and controversies), and express them cogently, both orally and in writing.
• Recognize the empirical and philosophical assumptions present in their own worldview, as well as in the worldviews of others, and reflect critically on them.
• Engage constructively with opposing viewpoints during classroom discussions and debates.

Course Policy on AI

You are welcome to use AI tools judiciously throughout the course to help you better understand the material. This includes:

• Reading Support: Use AI to work your way through textbook chapters, articles, or assigned readings.
• Concept Clarification: Ask AI to help you understand theories, definitions, or complex ideas.
• Tutorial Preparation: Use AI to generate questions, explore discussion topics, or clarify tutorial content.
• Peer Conversations: Use AI to help you prepare for or reflect on conversations with classmates.
• Study Aid: Use AI to quiz yourself, brainstorm study strategies, or organize your notes.
• Explore and Play: Philosophy is full of wild ideas and thought experiments. Feel free to chat with AI to explore imaginative scenarios, test out strange hypotheses, or just have fun thinking deeply and creatively.

Important: These uses are allowed only for learning and preparation. For the reflections you are not allowed to use AI, as this would be missing the point.

When it comes to writing the essays you must follow the specific guidelines below.

You have two options for completing your essay:

Option 1 – Without AI assistance
You will write your essay entirely on your own, without the use of AI tools.

Option 2 – With AI assistance
If you choose to use AI tools at any stage of your writing process, you must include an addendum (added section at the end of your essay). There is no length requirement for the addendum, and it does not contribute to your essay wordcount. This addendum should describe:

• which AI tools you used
• at what stage(s) of the process you used them
• for what purpose, what were the problems that AI helped you solve
• how you used them (including key prompts)
• in which parts of your essay you used AI and for what
• how they contributed to your work
• the limitations or shortcomings that you’ve perceived in working with them

To create your addendum, please refer to the table below, which specifies (some of) the actions associated with different levels of AI use in your essay. Your addendum must be honest, revealing, comprehensive, informative, well-structured. It will be evaluated as part of your submission and will influence your essay mark.

Levels of AI use in essay writing:

How much AI are you allowed to use in your essay? It’s a spectrum: from Level 1 (Superficial) which is absolutely OK, to Level 5 (Ghostwriting) which is absolutely NOT OK. The higher the level of AI use, the less authorship you can claim over your essay.

The greater your reliance on AI, the higher the expectations will be for the scholarly rigor, originality, and critical engagement demonstrated in your essay.

You are permitted to use generative AI tools for your essays in this course, but you must accurately declare any such use. Falsely stating that you did not use AI when you did constitutes a misrepresentation that may violate York University’s Senate Policy on Academic Honesty, which forbids falsely claiming credit for ideas or work not authentically your own and defines such misrepresentation as a form of cheating or plagiarism (Senate ASC Statement on Academic Integrity and AI Technology). To fulfill your obligations under this policy, the use of AI must be transparently disclosed on the first page of your submission (under wordcount). Please also consult York’s comprehensive Academic Conduct Policy and Procedures, which further elaborates on breaches of academic integrity and associated sanctions.