Content (Syllabus outline):

• The foundation and authority of science: the relation between science and reality; logics and methodology of natural sciences; experiment and interpretation; what is “scientifically proven”?
• Formal systems: axioms, rules, deductions, theorems, proofs, indecidability.
• History and analysis of basic scientific paradigms: Aristotelian science, Ptolemy, physics and metaphysics; modern science (Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Leibniz, Darwin); mechanicism; 20th Century (relativity, quantum theory, cosmology and “chaos theory”). Structure of the microcosm: from atoms to quarks and leptons; LHC. Structure of the macrocosm: cosmology; standard model; complex systems; determinism; biology and genetics; milestones in the development of classical and molecular genetics; the development of biotechnology.
• The relation between natural and social sciences: hierarchy in sciences (“hard” and “soft” sciences); arrogance and mutual critique (Sokal hoax); the role of philosophy of science.
• The role of science in society, culture and art: social role of science and its place in society and culture of 21st Century; the comparison with the former times; science and technology; scientism and technocracy; the future of natural sciences (from physics to genetics and beyond).