HSCI 224(S) Scientific Revolutions: 1543-1927

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. Evaluation will be based on four problem sets, two short papers (3-5 pages), and a final exam. Satisfies one semester of Division III requirement. Open to first-year students.

Hour: D. BEAVER