History 2P75
History of Science
Thursday 15-17:00
GL 164
Autumn 2013
Professor Elizabeth Neswald
History Department
573 Glenridge Ave.
Room 227
email: [email protected]
telephone: 905-688-5550 ex. 5327
office hours: Friday 11:00-12:00 and by appointment
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Course Overview
This course gives an overview of the history of science from ancient Greece to the
Scientific Revolution. The course uses the approaches of cultural history in order to
situate scientific actors, institutions and knowledge within their historical context and
wider culture and asks what various resources scientists draw upon to develop and
establish their ideas. In the process, it looks at how the modern idea of science emerged
and questions traditional conceptions of historical progress and revolutions in science.
Course Requirements and Marking
In this year you will be expected to complete following assignments:
1) Essay outline and bibliography 10%
A one page description of your essay topic in full sentences, including a) the
essay topic (what you want to write about), b) your thesis (your question, how you
want to look at this topic, what you want to find out and prove), c) your argument
(what steps you want to take to prove it and in what order) AND a bibliography of
at least SIX sources that you think you will need to write this essay. The
bibliography should include at least ONE primary source**, at least ONE book
and at least ONE journal article. The bibliography should be properly formatted
according to the guidelines given in Rampolla, Pocket Guide to Writing History.
To be handed in to your TA at the start of the seminar in the week of October 7.
Essay topics are listed at the end of the syllabus. Consult your TA if you would
like to do a topic that is not on the list.
**Primary sources are material from the time period you are writing about (a text
written by Galileo, Aristotle or Copernicus is a primary source). Secondary sources are
works written by historians about the topic (about Galileo, the Scientific Revolution,
Greek Science, etc.).
2) Essay 30%
A research paper of 2000-2500 words on a topic relevant to the course (see topic
list, last page of syllabus). You will be expected to use different kinds of source
material and to develop an argument. You are expected to use at least SIX
sources, including books, journal articles, online-journals and primary source
material. At least ONE of the sources should be a primary source, at least ONE a
book and at least ONE a journal article. Be judicious in the use of web resources.
Wikipedia, Sparknotes, Encarta and similar sites DO NOT count as acceptable
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sources. To be handed in to your TA at the start of the seminar in the week of
November 17.
3) Exam 30%
A three-hour exam to take place during the autumn exam period based on the
lectures and course readings. Check the calendar for exact time and date.
4) Seminar participation 20%
Attendance at the weekly seminars is MANDATORY. You will be expected to do
the required readings before the seminar, to prepare questions and observations on
this material and to participate actively in the discussion.
5) Seminar presentation 10%
Each student will be expected to prepare and lead a seminar discussion. Individual
presentations should be 8-10 minutes long, group presentations 15 minutes long.
Each presenter must submit a thesis paper with questions to the instructor at the
beginning of the seminar. Group presenters can submit a joint question paper.
Formalities:
> Seminar attendance is mandatory. More than one unexcused absence WILL jeopardize
your grade.
> Instructors will consider essay extensions in the case of medical or personal
emergencies, but they must be substantiated by documentation and are subject to the
instructor’s discretion. Emergencies do not include temperamental computers (save your
files regularly), all library books on your topic being lent out (get started early), other
courses (allocate your time wisely) or the contingencies of interpersonal relationships
(sorry, can’t help you with that one).
> Work handed in late without the instructor’s permission will be penalized 5% for the
first day and 5% for every two days after.
> To pass the course, you must complete ALL assigned work including the two exams
AND your average mark for all assignments must be a passing mark.
> Plagiarism will NOT be tolerated. It can lead to punishments ranging from failing the
assignment to failing the course to being expelled from the university. Consult the
university calendar for academic misconduct procedures. Plagiarism is the use of another
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writer’s thoughts, words or ideas without giving him/her credit. Paraphrases and
footnotes are ways of giving credit to the other writer. If in doubt, ask your TA or consult
a standard style manual such as Rampolla, Pocket Guide to Writing History.
Course reading for the autumn term:
Mandatory reading:
Early History of Science Package.
(contains Andrew Ede and Lesley B. Cormack. A History of Science in Society Vol. 1
textbook and source material reader)
Recommended reading
1) David Lindberg: The Beginnings of Western Science
2) Peter Dear: Revolutionizing the Sciences
The course package is available at the university bookstore. Recommended reading is in
Reserves and can be purchased through amazon.ca. Other course readings are in library
reserves.
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Lecture and Seminar Topics and Readings
Week 1:
Sept. 5
Lecture 1: Studying the history of science
Lecture 2: Science in Ancient Greece
Lecture Reading: Ede/Cormack, Chp. 1, 11-25, 34-39.
Recommended Reading: Lindberg, pp. 1-4; 21-45; Dear, pp. 1-9.
No seminar
Week 2
Sept. 12
Lecture 3: Aristotle’s Philosophy of Nature
Lecture 4: Aristotelian and Ptolemaic Cosmologies
Lecture Reading: Ede/Cormack, Chp. 1, 25-34, 41-50.
Seminar Reading: 1.1: Pre-Socratics, Thales, 13-14; Pythagoreans, 15-18.
Recommended Reading: Lindberg, Chp. 3, pp.47-68 and Chp. 5.pp. 89-105.
Week 3
Sept. 19
Lecture 5: Hippocrates, Galen and ancient medicine
Lecture 6: Science and Medicine in the Arabic World
Lecture Reading: Ede/Cormack, Chp. 2, 50-73.
Seminar Reading: 1.3.3. Aristotle, Physics, 29-33; 2.1. Ptolemy, 43-49.
Recommended reading: Lindberg, Chp. 6, pp. 113-119; 125-131; Chp. 8, pp. 161-182
Week 4
Sept. 26
Lecture 7: Rediscovering the Ancients
Lecture 8: Medieval Technologies
Lecture Reading: Ede/Cormack, Chp. 3, 75-93
Jean Gimpel, The Medieval Machine, Chp. 1, 1-28 (library reserve).
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Seminar Reading: 2.2. Galen 53-56; 2.7. Ibn Sina (Avicenna), 724-78.
Recommended Reading: Lindberg, Chp. 9, pp. 203-213, Chp. 10, pp. 215-223 and 234240
Week 5
Oct 3:
Lecture 9: Renaissance technologies
Lecture 10: The Renaissance Marketplace of Ideas
Lecture Reading: Ede/Cormack, Chp. 4, 103-109; 115-118; 137-139
Elizabeth Eisenstein, Printing revolution in early modern Europe, Chp. 7 (library
reserves).
Seminar Reading: A. I. Sabra: ‘The appropriation and subsequent naturalization of
Greek science in medieval Islam, in History of Science 25 (1987), 223-243 (library
reserves).
Recommended Reading: Dear, Chp. 1, pp. 10-29
Week 6
Outlines are due this week
Oct. 10
Lecture 11: Moving Sun and Earth: The New Astronomy I
Lecture 12: The New Astronomy II
Lecture Reading: Ede/Cormack, Chp. 4 109-114, 127-132.
Seminar Reading: 3.9. Sacrobosco, 120-126.
Recommended Reading: Marie Boas, The Scientific Renaissance, chp. III, (library
reserves); 68-89; Richard S. Westfall, The Construction of Modern Science, Chp. 1, 324 (library reserves).
October 14 – 18: No Class. Reading week
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Week 7
Oct. 24
Lecture 13: Galileo, experimenter
Lecture 14: Galileo, courtier
Lecture Reading: Ede/Cormack Chp. 4 121-127; 133-137.
Seminar Reading: 4.1 Copernicus, 127-133
Recommended Reading: Dear, Chp. 4, pp. 65-79; Mario Biagioli: Galileo Courtier, Chp.
6 (library reserve)
Week 8
Oct. 31
Lecture 11: Paracelsus and Alchemy
Lecture 15: Blood and Guts: Anatomy from Vesalius to Harvey
Lecture Reading: Ede/Cormack (on alchemy) 64-69 (review), 88-89, 93-95, 118-121;
Ede/Cormack 139-142, 156-161.
Seminar Reading: 4.2. Galileo, 139-144.
Recommended Reading: Dear, Chp. 3, pp. 49-64; Allen Debus, Man and Nature in the
Renaissance, Chp. 4 (library reserves)
Week 9:
Nov. 7
Lecture 14: The Cartesian World Machine
Lecture 18: Newton and the mathematisation of nature
Lecture Reading: Ede/Cormack, Chp. 5, 143-156, 167-169.
Seminar Reading: 2.7.1. Avicenna, 4.4 Paracelsus, 150-154; 5.5. Harvey, 186-191.
Recommended Reading: Dear, Chp. 5, pp. 80-100; Dear, Chp. 8, pp. 149-170
Week 10:
Nov. 14
Lecture 21: Instruments and Experiments
Lecture 19: Institutions of science
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Lecture Reading: Ede/Cormack Chp. 5, 161-166; 169-179
Seminar Reading: 5.1.2. Bacon, Organon, 162-167, 5.4.2. Newton, Opticks, Experiments.
3 and 4, 180-183.
Recommended Reading: Dear, Chp. 6, 101-130; Chp. 7, 131-148.
Week 11
Nov. 21
No Lecture
Seminar Reading: 5.1.1. Bacon, Atlantis, 157-162; 5.6. Boyle, 192-197
Week 12
Nov. 28
Lecture 20: New Worlds of New Things
Lecture 22: Wrap-up
Lecture Reading: Paula Findlen, Inventing Nature. Commerce, Art, and Science in the
Early Modern Cabinet of Curiosities, in: Pamela Smith and Paula Findlen (ed.):
Merchants and Marvels, pp. 297-32 (library reserves); Cunningham, Andrew and
Perry Williams: ‘De-centering the “Big Picture”’ in: British Journal for the History of
Science 26 (1993), 407-432. (library reserves)
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Supplementary Readings:
This is a selection. There are many more books and journal articles available through the
library. Much source material can also be found online.
A good place to start looking is the History of Science, Technology and Medicine
Database.
Surveys and General works:
Crombie, Alistair C.: Augustine to Galileo (1964)
Grant, Edward: A History of Natural Philosophy (2007)
Olby, R. et al (eds.): Companion to the history of Modern Science (1990)
Applebaum, Wilbur (ed.): Encyclopedia of the scientific revolution. From Copernicus to
Newton (2000)
Lindberg, David and R. Numbers (ed.): God and Nature (1986)
Ferngren, Gary (ed.): Science and Religion. A Historical Introduction (2002)
Grant, Edward: Science and Religion 400 B.C. to A.D. 1550 (2004)
Ancient Science
Daryn Lehoux: What did the Romans know? (2012)
Lloyd: G. E. R.: Early Greek Science. Thales to Aristotle (1970)
Lloyd, G. E. R. (ed.): Hippocratic Writings (1978)
Lloyd, G. E. R.: Greek Science after Aristotle (1973)
Sarton, George: Ancient Science through the Golden Age of Greece (1952)
French, Roger: Ancient natural history (1994)
Nutton, Vivian: Ancient Medicine (2004)
Medieval Science
Staley, Kevin: ‘Al-Kindi on Creation. Aristotle’s Challenge to Islam’, in: Journal of the
History of Ideas 50 (1989), 355-370.
Sabra, A. I.: ‘Situating Arabic Science: Locality versus Essence’, in: Isis 87 (1996), 654670.
Grant, Edward: Physical Science in the Middle Ages (1971)
Lindberg, David (ed.): Science in the Middle Ages (1978)
Crombie, Alistair C.: Medieval and Early Modern Science (1963)
Renaissance Science
Singleton, Charles (ed.): Art, Science and history in the Renaissance (1968)
Debus, Allen: The Chemical Philosophy. Paracelsian science and medicine in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (1977)
Hall, Marie Boas: The Scientific Renaissance, 1450-1630 (1962)
Eamon, William: Science and the Secrets of Nature (1994)
Moran, Bruce T.: Distilling knowledge. Alchemy, Chemistry and the Scientific Revolution
(2005)
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Webster, Charles: ‘Paracelsus, Paracelsianism, and the Secularization of the Worldview’,
in: Science in Context 15 (2002), 9-27.
Field, J. V. and Frank A. J. L. James (ed.), Renaissance and Revolution. Humanists,
scholars, craftsmen and natural philosophers in early modern Europe (1993)
Sawday, Jonathan: The Body Emblazoned. Dissection and the Human Body in
Renaissance Culture (1996)
Scientific Revolution
Westfall, R. S.: The construction of modern science (1977)
Cohen, I. Bernard: The Birth of a new physics (1960)
Oster, Malcolm (ed.): Science in Europe, 1500-1800: A Secondary Sources Reader
(2002)
Lindberg, David and Robert Westman (eds.): Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution
(1990)
Hall, A. Rupert: The Revolution in Science 1500-1750 (1983)
Shapin, Steven: The Scientific Revolution (1996)
Shapin, Steven and Simon Schaffer: Leviathan and the Air Pump (1985)
Hall, Marie Boas: Promoting Experimental Learning (1991)
Dear, Peter (ed.): The Scientific Enterprise in early modern Europe (1996)
Moss, Jean Dietz: Novelties in the Heavens. Rhetoric and Science in the Copernican
Controversy (1993)
Kuhn, Thomas: The Copernican Revolution. Planetary Astronomy in the Development of
Western Thought (1957)
Christianson, J. R.: On Tycho’s Island (2000)
Redondi, Pietro: Galileo Heretic (1987)
Renn, Jürgen (ed.): Galileo in Context (2001)
Christianson, Gale E.: In the Presence of the Creator. Isaac Newton and his times (1984)
Westfall, R. S.: The life of Isaac Newton (1994)
Instruments, Images, Experiments and Exhibits
Smith, Pamela and Paula Findlen (ed.), Merchants and Marvels. Commerce, Science and
Art in Early Modern Europe (2002)
Biagrie, Brian S. (ed.): Picturing Knowledge. Historical and Philosophical Problems
concerning the Use of Art in Science (1996)
Daston, Lorraine: Wonders and the Order of Nature (2001)
Biagioli, Mario: Galileo’s Instruments of Credit. Telescopes, Instruments, Secrecy (2006)
Impey, Oliver and Arthur MacGregot (ed.): The Origins of Museums. The Cabinet of
Curiosities in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1985)
Kemp, Martin: Science and Art (1990)
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Autumn Essay Topics/Questions:
If you would like to do a different topic, consult your seminar instructor first.
1. Ancient Science
Explain Aristotle’s philosophy of nature
Discuss the development of Islamic Medicine
Why did Arabic cultures emerge as scientific centres and why did they lose their
domination?
What are the characteristics of Galen’s medicine and its relation to Hippocratic tradition?
What were the uses of astronomy in ancient and medieval times?
2. Medieval and Renaissance Science
Discuss the place of science in the medieval period?
How was Aristotalian natural philosophy received at medieval universities?
How was anatomy studied during the Renaissance?
What role did magic play in the Scientific Revolution?
Discuss the relationship between technology and scientific knowledge in the Renaissance
What were the key characteristics of Paracelsian alchemy and medicine?
Discuss the background to William Harvey’s research programme
Did alchemy help or hinder the development of chemistry?
3. Scientific Revolution
Compare and contrast the celestial systems of Copernicus and Ptolemy
Was the Catholic Church anti-science?
Did religion help or hinder the development of scientific theories?
What role did courtly culture play in the scientific revolution?
Discuss Galileo’s experimental methods
Was Isaac Newton a modern scientist? Why/why not?
Discuss the Cartesian world view
Mechanism vs. Aristotelianism: which is more convincing and why?
4. Material cultures of science
Discuss the development of experimental methods in science
What factors were influential in the emergence of a scientific community in the 17c.?
What role did instruments play in the emergence of modern science?
Discuss the role of collections OR instruments OR images in the history of science
Discuss interactions between science and art in Renaissance and early modern science