HSCI 224
Scientific Revolutions: 1543-1927
Last Offered Spring 2009
Division III
Cross-listed
HIST 294
This course is not offered in the current catalog
Class Details
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.
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.
The Class:
Format: lecture/discussion
Limit: 30
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Limit: 30
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation:
evaluation will be based on five problem sets, four short papers (3-5 pages), and two hour exams
Prerequisites:
none; open to first-year students
Unit Notes:
meets Group C and G requirements in History major only if registration is under HIST
Distributions:
Division III
Notes:
This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
HIST 294 Division III HSCI 224 Division III
HIST 294 Division III HSCI 224 Division III
Attributes:
HIST Group C Electives - Europe and Russia
HIST Group G Electives - Global History
SCST Related Courses
HIST Group G Electives - Global History
SCST Related Courses
Class Grid
Updated 12:17 am
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HSCI 224 - LEC Scientific Revolutns,1543-1927
HSCI 224 LEC Scientific Revolutns,1543-1927Division IIINot offered
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