Second Take-home Exam

You may use the course readings when writing your answers, but your answers should be in your own words. Your answers should be typed. The completed exam is due at the beginning of class Monday. If you will not be able to turn the exam in then, either turn it in earlier (in my departmental mailbox) or contact me via e-mail--- otherwise you will be penalized.

The questions are meant to elicit the kinds of answers that you would be able to give in an in-class exam; if your answers stretch beyond two or three pages each, then you should consider reining them in.

1. Considering Toulmin, Kitcher, and Giere, what is the strongest analogy between maps and scientific theories; that is, in what respect are they most similar?
2. Philip Kitcher argues that there is no noncontextual, interest-independent notion of scientific significance. Suppose someone disagrees and says that significant knowledge is knowledge of fundamental causal processes. How might Kitcher reply?
3. Stephen Jay Gould argues that heredetarian interpretations of IQ results confuse within- and between-group heredity. What does he mean by this?
4. Suppose that someone says of a particular belief: ``It morally necessary. People need to believe it in order for there to be a stable and peaceful society. As such, public scrutiny of this belief should not be allowed.'' What would John Stuart Mill say in response to such a person?