2025 (Current Year) Faculty Courses Liberal arts and basic science courses Humanities and social science courses
Science and Technology for Society A
- Academic unit or major
- Humanities and social science courses
- Instructor(s)
- Masashi Shirabe
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 5-6 Mon
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- LAH.T104
- Number of credits
- 100
- Course offered
- 2025
- Offered quarter
- 2Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 19, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
How can science and scientific facts be defined? What role do researchers and academic papers play in the formation of such "facts?" Conversely, from the viewpoint of "forming facts," what behavior is required of researchers? The instructor will lecture on such introductory issues.
The aims of this course are to:
(1) look at science from a higher perspective,
(2) have students gain a basic awareness of the roles and responsibilities of researchers in addition to the details of their research, and
(3) stimulate interest in the study of science, technology, and society (STS).
Course description and aims
(1) Understand sophisticated view of science.
(2) Understand basic rules of academic writing and can consider the rules in relation to roles of science/scientists.
Keywords
sophisticated views of science; academic paper; scientific facts
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
This course consists mainly of lectures.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Introduction | |
| Class 2 | A naive view of science | To understand weak points of logical positivism |
| Class 3 | Sophisticated views of science | To understand falsificationism and paradigm theory. |
| Class 4 | Paper production and researchers' daily lives | To understand functions and forms of academic papers. |
| Class 5 | Scientific misconducts from the viewpoints of paper production | To know current situation of scientific misconducts and understand research integrity. |
| Class 6 | Minamata disease and science | To understand scientific issues that arose around Minamata disease |
| Class 7 | STI (Science, Technology, and Innovation) policy | To understand outline of STI policy |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
Not required.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Reference book: A. F. Chalmers, What is this thing called Science? 4th Edition, Hackett Publishing Company.
Lecture materials will be distributed as needed.
Evaluation methods and criteria
Exercise problems (40%) and a final report (60%)
Related courses
- LAH.T205 ： Science and Technology for Society B
- LAH.T304 ： Science and Technology for Society C
Prerequisites
None.
Office hours
Contact by e-mail in advance to schedule an appointment.