Myth, Music, and Science: Teaching the Philosophy of Science through the Use of Non-Scientific Examples

This essay explores the benefits of utilizing non-scientificexamples and analogies in teaching philosophy of science courses. These examples can helpresolve two basic difficulties faced by most instructors, especially when teachinglower-level courses: first, they can prompt students to take an active interest in the classmaterial, since the examples will involve aspects of the culture well-known, or atleast more interesting, to the students; and second, these familiar, less-threatening exampleswill lessen the students' collective anxieties and open them up to learning thematerial more easily. To demonstrate this strategy of constructing and employing non-scientificexamples, a lengthy analogy between musical styles and Kuhn's theory ofscientific revolutions is developed.