HSCI 224(S) Scientific Revolutions: 1543-1927 (Same as History 294)
How much does science create the sensibilities and values of the modern world?
How much, if any, technical detail is it necessary to know in order to understand
the difference between propaganda and fact?
This course investigates four major changes of world view, associated with Copernicus (1543); Newton (1687); Darwin (1859); and Planck (1900) and Einstein
(1905). It also treats briefly the emergence of modern cosmogony, geology, and
chemistry as additional reorganizations of belief about our origins, our past, and
our material structure.
We first acquire a basic familiarity with the scientific use and meaning of the
new paradigms, as they emerged in historical context. We then ask how those
ideas fit together to form a new framework, and ask what their trans-scientific
legacy has been, that is, how they have affected ideas and values in other
sciences, other fields or thought, and in society. Knowledge of high-school algebra is presupposed.
Format: lecture/discussion. Evaluation will be based on five problem sets, four
short papers (3-5 pages), and two hour exams.
Enrollment limit: 30. Open to first-year students.
Satisfies one semester of the Division III requirement.