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description
Science and technology have
become defining features of modern life. How did this happen?
In this course, we will explore the history of human thought
about the natural world from about 1200 to the present. We
will discuss not only the most celebrated ideas of the sciences’
past, but also the approaches that did not last and why, and how
social and economic changes have shaped the sciences’ development.
Because of time constraints, we will focus mainly on the histories
of the life and physical sciences.
We will
approach our subject by asking five of the most central
and controversial questions in the history of science: Why has science flourished in the
West? What,
if anything, was revolutionary about early modern
changes in the sciences? How did
the sciences become a central part of public life? How did the sciences
come to have authority over human progress? Why
has the public come simultaneously to revere
and fear the sciences?
Students who exert themselves in this course will be able to
do the following by the end of the semester: understand some
of the ways that changing social contexts have shaped the sciences
over time; comprehend the importance of historical debates to contemporary
science and participate in those debates; fluently speak, read,
and write in a humanistic way about the sciences.
Successful completion of this course fulfills the American and
Western Cultural POK. History majors can take this course to fulfill
the pre-modern requirement.
Note: I strongly encourage
you to contact me by e-mail, rather than voice mail.
Come see me during my office
hours for issues that are better discussed face-to-face.
| office | Mood-Bridwell 216 |
| greenmue@southwestern.edu I do not generally check e-mail between 10 a.m. Friday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. |
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| telephone | 512.863.1595 |
| office hours | Tues. 3-5 p.m., Wed. 4-5
p.m. or by appointment (please try to schedule an appointment rather than just drop in) |
In this course, you must complete the following assignments. To calculate your final grade, I will multiply each of your assignment grades by the percentage given for each assignment, and add those numbers together. See the policies section for more information about grading.
1. reading response notebook & unit papers (70% total: 20% for notebook + 10% for each unit paper):
Throughout the semester, you will keep a reading response notebook in which you reflect on each set of assigned readings. Five times during the semester, you will hand in your notebook, along with a 3-page unit paper in which you expand on some of the ideas you raised in your reading response notebook.2. poster and 3-page explanatory paper (15%):
Important note: Bring your reading response notebook with you to class each day. You will find it useful to refer to your notebook during class discussion. Also, I may decide spontaneously to collect notebooks if students are not keeping up with the reading. If you do not have your notebook, or you have not kept it up-to-date, your final notebook grade will diminish accordingly. Your notebook will be up-to-date if you have printed notebook entries for every required class period up to and including the day I require you to turn in your notebooks. This means you must write your notebook entries right after completing each set of readings, rather than write them all in a mad dash just before a unit paper is due.
Guidelines for reading response notebook: Make a page-long entry in your reading response notebook for every class except for days when we have no assigned reading. At the end of each class, I will give you a question for you to reflect on as you read for the next class. Your reading response should respond to that question (about half a page) and raise another point that interests you (another half-page). The style of these reading responses may be less formal than the style you would use in a paper, but you must keep your remarks focused and make several specific references to material from the readings. This means quoting or paraphrasing the text (no long quotes) and citing your source using in-text annotation. You must make some use of each of the day’s readings in your reading response, though you may focus most of your energies on one text.
Guidelines for unit papers: At the end of each unit (see schedule for due dates), I will collect your reading response notebook for grading. On each of those dates, you also will hand in a unit paper. In each unit paper, you will respond to that unit’s question. For example, at the end of unit 1, you will write a paper replying to the question, “Why has science flourished in the West?” Base your arguments on the assigned readings, your reading response notebook, your notes, and class discussions. Research beyond these sources is not necessary. Your unit paper must have a thesis (main argument) that is clearly stated in the first paragraph. Dedicate the rest of your paper to demonstrating how the texts that we have read make your thesis plausible. As in the reading response notebook, make specific references to material from the readings by quoting or paraphrasing the texts (avoid long quotes) and citing your sources using in-text annotation.
Specific guidelines for each particular unit paper may be found by clicking on the links in the schedule below.
Outstanding unit papers (“A” quality) will never stray from one focused thesis that gives a thoughtful, non-obvious, creative, but also plausible answer to the unit question; make good use of multiple texts to support that thesis; think between the lines of our sources; cite sources amply and appropriately; and read fluently. Good critical essays (“B” quality) will diverge from the above standard in one substantial way or a few minor ways. Competent critical essays (“C” quality) generally will not have a well-focused or non-obvious thesis, offer only a superficial reading of the texts, fail to cite specific material from the texts, adopt such a haphazard style that the professor cannot understand the essay readily or fail to meet the length requirement of three pages. Poor critical essays (“D” or “F” quality) will make more than one of the mistakes mentioned under the “competent” criteria above.
If you are satisfied with the grades on your first four unit papers, you may opt to not write the fifth unit paper. If you take this option, the grades on your four unit papers will still constitute 50% of your final grade; I will simply make each paper count 12.5%.
Style rules for both the notebook and the unit papers: Cite sources using in-text annotation at the end of the sentence, like this: (Dear 79). [The last name of the author and the page number(s).] Do this whenever you borrow information or ideas from a text, even when you are not quoting the text directly. Print your notebook and essay pages in 12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides.
At the end of the semester, you will hand in a poster that you have researched, written and designed. I will choose the best of these posters, and display them in Mood-Bridwell.3. participation (15%):
The top of your poster should pose one of the questions listed below (e.g., How important was the Galapagos expedition to Charles Darwin’s formulation of his evolutionary theory?). The rest of your poster should answer that question, using a combination of texts, images, diagrams, or whatever you deem useful to make your point. To research your poster, you will need to look beyond the course readings. This will almost certainly require ordering articles and books through interlibrary loan, so you should begin work on your poster early in the semester.
On 16 September, turn in a piece of paper on which you have typed your name and the question you have chosen/written, along with an alternate question, in case more than one person requests the same topic. At some point before Thanksgiving, you need to visit me during office hours to discuss your progress on your poster.
You can find materials for constructing your poster (including 32" x 40" foam core, about $5) at the SU Bookstore. Purchase this foam core well ahead of time, so that if the bookstore has run out, you will have time to ask them to order more. Please buy the foam core and not the bendable science exhibit posterboard. Make sure you buy the right size, and not the smaller foam core.
Any text you put on your poster must be legible (typed text is usually preferable). You should include images (pictures, diagrams, etc.), but each image should contribute to your poster’s point, and you should include near each image some text that explains the image’s contents.
Include on the poster a short list of sources that viewers can consult for more information on your subject. Also include your name somewhere on the front of the poster.
Two pointers: first, designing a poster requires a different thought process and style of presentation than writing a paper; and second, always remember your audience (an educated but not captive audience of students, faculty, staff, and other visitors to Southwestern). In other words, do not fill your poster with extraneous information. Every word and image on your poster should be relevant and legible. Your content and visual display should provoke thought in those who view it. Present your information in such a way that you will challenge your audience, but not talk over their heads.
When you turn in your poster, you will also need to turn in a three-page paper in which you explain briefly in narrative form your answer to your topic question (about two pages). Then devote about one page of your paper to discussing your rationale for designing the poster as you did. Your paper should contain a complete bibliography and a list of sources for your illustrations. Though this may seem at first like a brief assignment, I do expect you to conduct significant research. In other words, consulting only the sources I recommend is not sufficient.
Criteria for grading this assignment: depth of research; imaginativeness of poster content and design; intelligibility of writing and explanations; use of knowledge and insights from class readings and discussions (where appropriate); care in constructing poster (e.g., pieces are firmly attached).
During many of our class meetings, I will make some introductory remarks, but I will rarely if ever lecture for the entire class period. Because so much of class time will be devoted to discussion, part of your grade will depend on your prepared participation. Not only that, but the entire success of the course depends on your prepared participation as well. You do not need to say fantastically clever and insightful things every time you open your mouth; all I ask is that you do the required reading diligently, be willing to take some risks, and try out some ideas with the rest of the class.
Please see an important note about attendance in the policies section below.
Criteria for calculating your participation grade (in order of importance): the quality of your comments, and particularly their rootedness in the assigned texts; the frequency of your participation; your ability to get other students talking by raising questions or debating other students directly; when I am lecturing, your attentiveness and inquisitiveness; quizzes, if necessary.
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Ordering books and articles through interlibrary loan Southwestern’s library
will not have some of the texts you will need for your
research in this course. Through the interlibrary loan (ILL)
service, you can order any books and articles that you need but
that Southwestern’s library does not own. When you order something
through ILL, the library finds another institution that has a copy
they are willing to lend, and requests it. When the SU library receives
a book, they call your voice mail to let you know you can pick up
the book at the circulation desk. If you ordered an article, you will
receive it via campus mail. |
1. attendance: I expect you to attend every class except for those days on which you have a documented medical or other legitimate emergency or religious observance. I do not plan to keep careful track of your absences. However, you should realize that every absence will seriously harm your final grade, since you will not have participated fully in discussions and will not have heard all the lectures. If you are absent more than four times without documented excuse, I will try to contact you and, if necessary, call Academic Services. If the problem continues for no documented reason, you may automatically fail the course. If you have a legitimate, documented excuse but for a prolonged absence, you may need to withdraw from the course.
2. lateness: Do not arrive late to class. If you are regularly late, I will ask you to leave. I have this strict policy because lateness is disrespectful not only to me, but also to your fellow students.
3. grading: The maximum percentages awarded
for course assignments add up to 100. I use a standard
grading scale:
| 97–100 | A+ | 73–76.5 | C |
| 93–96.5 | A | 70–72.5 | C– |
| 90–92.5 | A– | 67–69.5 | D+ |
| 87–89.5 | B+ | 63–66.5 | D |
| 83–86.5 | B | 60–62.5 | D– |
| 80–82.5 | B– | 0–59.5 | F |
| 77–79.5 | C+ |
If your grades consistently
improve over the course of the semester, your class presence
is consistent and attentive, and your final grade is on
the cusp between two grades, I will consider shifting your
final course grade up to the next level. For example, if your
final course grade worked out to an 86, but your grades had consistently
improved during the semester and you were a consistent and attentive
class participant, I would consider shifting your final grade
up to a B+.
4. late
assignments: I
will not accept late assignments in this course. If you have a documented
medical excuse or other genuine emergency, you may discuss special arrangements
with me as long as you do so in a timely fashion. If you know in advance
that you will be away for a legitimate reason (e.g., a university-sponsored
trip), you must notify me in a timely way of your pending absence and turn
in your assignment in advance of the due date. All other late assignments
will receive a 0.
5. honor code issues: You must hand-write and sign the full honor code on each assignment in this class. That means writing out and signing your name after the following:
I have neither given nor received aid on this examination [paper, etc.], nor have I seen anyone else do so.You may not write P.I.F. or any other variant of the honor code. You also may not submit any assignment via e-mail, since such a submission would not bear a signed honor code. By university regulations, I cannot grade your assignment if you have not written and signed the full pledge.
6.
internet sources: You may not cite internet sources in any of the written
assignments in this course. The following are exceptions to this
rule and may be used, since they are clearly of a scholarly
nature: articles from full-text databases like JSTOR and
Project Muse; online primary sources (texts written by historical
actors that have been re-published on the web); internet
pages that I have approved well in advance of your turning in
the assignment.
For information about how to determine the scholarly
value of a web site, visit either of these sites: Thinking
Critically about World Wide Web Resources or Evaluating Internet
Sources.
7. disabilities: Southwestern University will make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented disabilities. Students should register with the Office of Academic Services, (3rd floor Cullen, 863-1286). Professors must be officially notified by the Academic Services Coordinator that documentation is on file at least two weeks before the accommodation is needed.
You will find the following
at the university bookstore.
Each date listed below tells
you what topic we will discuss in class, and what you need
to have read in preparation for that day’s class. 
= date on which an assignment is
due. HOSR = History of Science Reader.
T Aug 26: Introduction to the course and to history of scienceTh Aug 28: “Science” before the 13th century
read: 1. Lloyd, “Histories, Annals, Myths” and “The Modalities of Prediction” [HOSR]
reading response notebook question:
Why does Lloyd write about the history of prediction instead of the history of science?
images to use in class:
Aristotelian cosmos [Peter Apian, Cosmographia (1524)]
Hephaestus
humoral system; humoral imbalance
Islamic anatomy [nerves, Mansur ibn Ilyas, The Anatomy of the Human Body (Tashrih-i badan-i insan), late 14c]
Unit 1: Why has science flourished
in the West?
This unit will focus on the 13th-15th
centuries.
T Sep 2: The Islamic world in its scientific heyday
read: 1. Goldstein, “The Gift of Islam” [HOSR]
2. Sā،id, excerpt from Book of the Categories of Nations [HOSR]
reading response notebook question:
Lloyd argued that we should assess a culture’s interest in nature and systematic inquiry “in the light of their original aims, ambitions, needs, in the contexts of the problems as they saw them” (1). How did some of the aims, ambitions, needs or problems particular to Islamic culture in the late medieval period shape how nature was studied?
in class: how to read primary sources
map of Abbasid caliphate, ca. 900
Muslim astronomers
Th Sep 4: Scientific traditions in China through the Ming period
read: 1. Marks, “Science and Technology in Traditional China” [HOSR]
2. Deane, “Instruments and Observation at the Imperial Astronomical Bureau during the Ming Dynasty” [HOSR]
reading response notebook question:
Does Marks or Deane (focus on one) more effectively follow Lloyd’s maxim (quoted under 2 Sep above) about how to do good history of “science”? Include in your response a discussion of at least one aspect of the Chinese cultural environment that Marks or Deane argue shaped how the Chinese studied nature.
T Sep 9: Late-medieval Europe
read: 1. Lindberg, “Revival of Learning in the West” & “Recovery and Assimilation of Greek and Islamic Science” [HOSR]
2. Bacon, “On Experimental Science” (1268) [on-line reading]
reading response notebook question:
What indicators do Lindberg and Bacon provide that, compared to the modern U.S., late-medieval Europe – like the Islamic world or China – had very different motivations for studying and ways of understanding nature?
for use in class: St. Anselm quotation Th Sep 11: Why not the Islamic world or China?
read: 1. Needham, “Poverties and Triumphs of the Chinese Scientific Tradition” [HOSR]
2. Sivin, “Why the Scientific Revolution Did Not Take Place in China – or Didn’t It?” [HOSR]
[Pay careful attention to where Needham and Sivin agree and disagree with each other. Also note when each piece was originally published.]
reading response notebook question:
What’s the shift in perspective between Needham (writing in 1969) and Sivin (1984)? In other words, why does Needham wonder “why didn’t the Scientific Revolution happen in China,” and why does Sivin think that’s the wrong question?
read: 1. Long, “Power, Patronage, and the Authorship of Ars” [HOSR]
reading response notebook question:
Joseph Needham excoriated historians who argued that the ancient Chinese were sophisticated merely technologically and not scientifically (41-52). The historians Needham argues against imply that the Scientific Revolution in Europe was primarily an intellectual achievement. How would Long disagree in her own way with this traditional assessment of the Scientific Revolution in Europe?
images to view in class:
Niccolò Tartaglia
using gunner’s quadrant to measure artillery elevation (from Tartaglia, La nova scientia (1537))
due:
Bring a list of your top two choices for poster topic.
(See assignment description above. Also see the list of available topics below.)
read: 1. Dear, pp. 1-29 images to view in class:
breaking through the heavenly spheres
illustration from Harvey, “On the Motions of the Heart and Blood” (1628)
portrait of Isaac Newton
Newton’s death mask
cabinet of Ferrante Imperator, Historia Naturale (1672)alchemical lab
Boyle’s air pump, from New Experiments Physico-Mechanical (1660)
frontispiece (detail) to Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)
Louis Barrias, Nature Unveiling Herself before Science (1899)
due:
1st unit paper [click here to read guidelines]
T Sep 23: Humanism and craft traditions in early modern science
read: 1. Dear, pp. 30-64
2. Della Porta, excerpts from Natural Magick (1584) [on-line reading]
- read book 1, chs. 2 & 3; book 2, ch. 2; book 8, ch. 7; look over table of contents of book as whole
reading response notebook question:
Della Porta has a strong vision of how natural philosophy should be – a moral vision of the good natural philosopher. What was one important feature of the good natural philosopher, and does Dear describe others during the Renaissance sharing this vision of natural philosophy as it should be?
Th Sep 25: Mathematics and the mechanical philosophy
read: 1. Dear, pp. 65-100
2. background information on Galileo’s letter to Christina [on-line reading]
3. Galileo, Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany [on-line reading]
reading response notebook question:
Using Dear as a guide, find one aspect of Galileo’s letter to Christina that was rooted in tradition, and one that pushed at the boundaries of natural philosophy.
for use in class:
Aristotelian universe
Ptolemaic system
Copernican system
retrograde motion
Kepler’s laws
T Sep 30: Scientific institutions and the birth of modern experiment
read: 1. Dear, pp. 101-48
2. Sprat, excerpts from A History of the Royal Society [on-line reading]reading response notebook question: For Sprat and the creators of new scientific societies that Dear describes, why was it so important to study natural philosophy beyond the universities? What positive effects was this supposed to have on their work?
for use in class: anatomical school, Montpellier
garden at Montpellier (established 1593)Th Oct 2: Cartesians, Newtonians, and the legacy for the 18th century
read: 1. Dear, pp. 149-70
2. Jacob, “Christianity and the Newtonian Worldview” [HOSR]
3. Voltaire, excerpts from Lettres Philosophiques (1778) – read letters XV & XVI [on-line reading]
reading response notebook question:
Taking Newtonian and Cartesian ideas as representative of scientific thinking ca. 1700, what would you say has changed the most about the sciences between 1500 and 1700? What has changed the least?
read: 1. Outram, pp. 1-46 for use in class: excerpts from Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1962) due: 2nd unit paper [see guidelines] Th Oct 9: Scientific voyaging and classifying
read: 1. Outram, pp. 47-79
2. Terrall, “Heroic Narratives of Quest and Discovery” [HOSR]reading response notebook question:
How could the Enlightenment’s new vision of science as a series of heroic quests (as described by Terrall) help to solve some of the problems faced by the sciences (as described by Outram)?
T Oct 14: Fall break – class does not meet
Th Oct 16: Gender and Enlightenment science
read: 1. Outram, pp. 80-95
2. Bate and Russel, “An Account of the Remarkable Alteration of Colour in a Negro Woman” [HOSR]
3. Schiebinger, “The Private Lives of Plants” [HOSR]
for use in class: Saartje Baartman, the “Hottentot Venus” reading response notebook question:
How did the eighteenth-century sciences help to define the appropriate place for women in public life?
recommended lecture:
History Department Annual Colloquium
Dorinda Outram, Gladys I. and Franklin W. Clark Chair in History at University of Rochester
“Masks and Metamorphosis: Taking Things for Real in the Enlightenment”
4 p.m., Prothro Room (2nd floor of library)
T Oct 21: Science and public order
read: 1. Outram, pp. 96-113
2. Rupp, “The New Science and the Public Sphere in the Premodern Era” [HOSR]
3. Frederick II, king of Prussia, “Discourse on the Usefulness of the Arts and Sciences in a State” (1772) [HOSR]
reading response notebook question:
During the Enlightenment, what was the strongest argument for the sciences as an exemplar for how good government should be ordered?
for use in class:
Desaguliers, excerpt from The Newtonian System of the World (1728)
Th Oct 23: Science and the development of democratic republics
read: 1. Outram, pp. 114-27
2. Cohen, “Science and Politics: Some Aspects of the Thought and Career of John Adams” [HOSR]
3. Banneker’s letter to Jefferson [on-line reading]reading response notebook question:
What about the Enlightenment sciences made them so appealing as a model for representative, constitutional government? (Also, though you do not need to write about this, think about how the sciences could have been a model for both absolutist monarchies and constitutional republics in the eighteenth century.)
read: 1. Jacob, “The Cultural Origins of the First Industrial Revolution” [HOSR]
2. Ure, excerpt from The Philosophy of Manufactures (1835) [on-line reading]
due: 3rd unit paper [see guidelines]
for use in class:
London industrialized
power loom weaving, ca. 1833
Blake, Newton (ca. 1805)
room occupied by a London tailor & his family, 1863
Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck
acquired characteristic in a giraffe
Great Chain of Being
Georges Cuvier
Th Oct 30: Roots of evolutionary theory
read: 1. Bowler, “The Origins of Darwinism” [HOSR]
2. Claeys, “The ‘Survival of the Fittest’ and the Origins of Social Darwinism” [HOSR]
reading response notebook question:
At the beginning of his piece, Bowler argues that in order to understand Darwinism well, we need to balance and blend internal and external influences on science. With that in mind, to what extent did social Darwinism (described in Claeys) arise from internal, scientific issues in Darwinism and to what extent from concerns from outside the sciences?
T Nov 4: Human evolution and eugenics
read: 1. Paul, pp. 1-71
2. U.S. Supreme Court decision on Buck v. Bell (1927) [on-line reading]
reading response notebook question:
At first blush, the decision reached in Buck v. Bell is shocking. How does Paul help us understand the logic (warped or otherwise) that undergirded this court case?
for use in class:
Gregor Mendel
Mendel’s seven pea traits
Th Nov 6: European imperialism and the sciences of race
read: 1. Paul, pp. 72-114
2. Pearson, excerpt from National Life from the Standpoint of Science (1900) [on-line reading]
reading response notebook question:
Why, in the context of the early twentieth century, did scientific answers to race questions become so authoritative?
for use in class:
Eugenics Archive
benefits of marriage for women
European imperialism in Africa, 1880-1900
T Nov 11: Modern genetics
read: 1. Paul, 115-35
2. Dreger, “Metaphors of Morality in the Human Genome Project” [HOSR]reading response notebook question:
What strategies have scientists in the latter half of the twentieth century used to re-configure and re-assert their authority over human progress?
for use in class: molecular revolution notes help out another student:
A psychology student at Centenary College is conducting a survey on social class, and would appreciate undergraduate involvement at Southwestern. Click here to take the 10-minute survey.
Unit 5: Why has the public come simultaneously to revere and fear the sciences?
This unit
will focus on the physical sciences in the 20th century.
read: 1. “American Modernism: A Brief Introduction” [on-line reading]
images for
use in class:Eric Heckel, Zwei Wunderte (Two Wounded Soldiers), 1915
German chemist Fritz Haber (1868-1934) with Albert Einstein in 1914
Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Pablo Picasso (French Cubist), Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907)
Marcel Duchamp (French-American Dadaist, Surrealist, Cubist), Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1912)
Giacomo Balla, (Italian Futurist), Mercury Passes across the Sun Seen through a Telescope (1914)
