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Science and Capitalism
Brown University
Department of History
Time: MWF 2-2:50pm
Spring, 2015
History 1783
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Professor: Lukas Rieppel
OH: M 3:30-4:30 & T 12-1
Sharpe House, 305
[email protected]
Course Description: Science is often portrayed as a higher calling, one that is insulated
from the demands of the marketplace. Yet scientists have always been entrepreneurs,
actively marketing and sometimes even directly profiting from their discoveries and
inventions. Why, then, do we take it for granted that business professionals act in their own
self-interest, while we are outraged to learn that a study on climate change was
commissioned by the oil industry or that an important medical trial was bankrolled by a
pharmaceutical company? This course will explore the vexed but longstanding relationship
between science and commerce from the 17th century to our own. In so doing, we will ask
when the modern notion of science as a disinterested pursuit of objective truth took root in
the first place. We will also explore how our knowledge of the natural world has been shaped
by personal, financial, and other kinds of self-interest in a number of diverse contexts.
These will range from Galileo’s invention of the telescope in Renaissance Italy to to the
patenting of genetically engineered organisms in today's globalized world.
Assessment:
Short Essays (3-4 pages): 10% each
Midterm Exam: 20%
Final Exam: 40%
Participation: 10%
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Deadlines:
Midterm Exam: Feb. 20th
First Short Essay: Feb. 20th
Second Short Essay: March 20th
Third Short Essay: April 24th
Final Exam: TBD
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No background in the history of science or economic history is assumed or required.
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Participation: Your participation is a vital part of this course. Please come to class having
completed the assigned reading, ready to engage in a lively and informed discussion.
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Disabilities: Please contact me by the end of the second week if you have a documented
disability so that we can make the necessary accommodations.
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Short Essays: I will assign three short essays over the course of the term. These are
designed to get you to think critically and to engage with the readings for each of the
course’s main units, Natural Philosophy & Mercantilism, Industrialization, and Information
Economies.
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Writing Resources: You are encouraged to make use of Brown’s Writing Center, whose
main offices are located in room 213 of the J. Walter Wilson Building. You can schedule an
appointment to receive help and feedback on your writing here: http://www.brown.edu/
Student_Services/Writing_Center/appointments/.
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A Note On Plagiarism: Plagiarism and cheating are serious offenses. Anyone suspected of
such infractions will be referred to the Dean’s Office.
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Lateness Policy: all assignments must be turned in on the date they are due, or be penalized
one third of a grade for each day they are late. So an assignment that would ordinarily earn
an A would earn an A- if it is one day late, a B+ if it’s two days late, and so on.
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SCHEDULE
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Week 1: Introduction & Overview
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Jan 21: Introduction to syllabus and course mechanics
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Merton, Robert K. “The Normative Structure of Science,” in The Sociology of
Science, University of Chicago Press, 1977 [1942], pp. 267-278.
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Jan 23: Tobacco & Global Warming
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Oreskes, Naomi and Erik M. Conway. “Introduction” and “The Denial of
Global Warming,” in Merchants of Doubt. NY: The Bloomsbury Press, 2010.
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SECTION I: NATURAL PHILOSOPHY AND MERCANTILISM
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Week 2: Beginnings
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Jan 26: The Rise of Merchant Capitalism
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Fulcher, James. “What is Capitalism” and “Where did Capitalism Come
From,” in Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2004,
pp. 1-37.
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Jan 28: The Scientific Revolution
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Koyré, Alexandre. “Preface” and “Introduction,” in From the Closed World to
the Infinite Universe, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1957, pp.
vii-3.
Week 3: Rethinking the Scientific Revolution
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Feb 2: Trust and Trade
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Cook, Harold. “Worldly Goods and the Transformations of Objectivity,”
and “An Information Economy,” in Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine,
and Science in the Dutch Golden Age. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007, p.
1-57.
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Feb 4: Botany & Bio-prospecting
Barrera, Antonio. “Local Herbs, Global Medicines: Commerce, Knowledge,
and Commodities in Spanish America,” in Paula Findlen and Pamela Smith
(eds.), Merchants and Marvels: Commerce, Science and Art in Early Modern Europe,
London, 2002: 163-182.
Week 4: Scientific Personae
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Feb 9: The Gentleman Scientist
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Shapin, Steven. “Who Was Robert Boyle? The Creation and Presentation of
an Experimental Identity,” in A Social History of Truth: Science and Civility in
Seventeenth Century England. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994, pp.
126-192.
Feb 11: The Alchemists Trade & The Astronomer’s Secret
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Biagioli, Mario. “Replication or Monopoly?,” in Galileo’s Instruments of Credit:
Telescopes, Images, Secrecy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
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Week 5: Objects and Institutions
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Feb 18: Museums & Gardens
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Lukas Rieppel, “Museums and Gardens,” in A Companion to the History of
Science, by Bernard Lightman (ed.). NJ: Wiley, forthcoming (2015).
Feb 20th: Midterm Examination
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***First Essay Due in Class Friday February 20th. Also: no class on
Monday.***
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SECTION II: SCIENCE & INDUSTRY
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Week 6: Industrialization
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Feb 23: The Industrial Revolution
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Allen, Robert C. “The Industrial Revolution” in Global Economic History: A
Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 27-39.
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Feb 25: Heat & Work
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Brain, Robert M. and M. Norton Wise. “Muscles and Engines: Indicator
Diagrams and Helmoltz’s Graphical Methods,” in Mario Biagioli (ed.), The
Science Studies Reader, pp. 51-66.
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Week 7: The Avalanche of Numbers
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March 2: Statistics & Control
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Hacking, Ian. “The Argument” in The Taming of Chance, Cambridge
University Press, 1990, pp. 1-10.
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March 4: Scientific Management
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Taylor, Frederick W. The Principles of Scientific Management. NY: Harper and
Brothers, 1911, pp. 1-48.
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Week 8: The History of Objectivity
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March 9: Mechanical Objectivity
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Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, “The Image of Objectivity,”
Representations, Vol. 0, Issue 40, 1992, pp. 81-128.
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March 11: The Accounting Ideal
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Porter, Ted. Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995, pp. i-9, 87-114.
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Week 9: Copyright & Patent Law
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March 16: Patent Law
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U.S. Patent Act, 35 USCS, Chapter 10: Patentability of Inventions, Sects. 100
- 105. (http://www.law.cornell.edu/patent/patent.part2.table.html#chapt10)
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Biagioli, Mario. “Patent Specification and Political Representation,” in
Making and Unmaking Intellectual Property by Mario Biagioli, Peter Jaszi, and
Martha Woodmansee (eds.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
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March 18: Copyright
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Johns, Adrian. “A General History of the Pirates,” in Piracy, University of
Chicago Press, 2009, pp. 1-16.
***Second Essay Due in Class Friday March 20***
SECTION III: INFORMATION ECONOMIES
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Week 10: Big Business / Big Science
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March 30: Corporate Capitalism & Disruptive Innovation
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Lamoreaux, Naomi R., Daniel M.G. Raff, and Peter Temin. “Beyond Markets
and Hierarchies: Toward a New Synthesis of American Business History,” in
The American Historical Review, Vol. 108, No. 2, April 2003.
April 1: Big Parma
Sismondo, Sergio. “Ghosts in the Machine: Publication Planning in the
Medical Sciences,” in Social Studies of Science 39, 2009, 171-198.
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Week 11: Bio-Technology
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April 6: Biotechnology and the Commercialization of Science
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Hughes, Sally Smith. “Making Dollars Out of DNA: The First Major Patent
in Biotechnology and the Commercialization of Molecular Biology,
1974-1980,” in Isis, Vol. 92, 2001, pp. 541-575.
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April 8: Patenting Life
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Diamond v. Chakrabarty, 447 U.S. 303.
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Kevles, Daniel. “Of Mice & Money: the Story of the World’s First Animal
Patent,” Daedalus 131:78-88
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Week 12: Patent Wars
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April 13: Patenting Genes
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Supreme Court of the United States, “Association for Molecular Pathology et
al. v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., et al.,” Decided June 13th, 2013.
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***NOTE: No Class on April 15th or 17th***
Week 13: Our Informational Future
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April 20: GMO’s and Big Agrobusiness
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Kloppenburg, Jack. “Seeds of Struggle,” in First the Seed: The Political Economy
of Plant Biotechnology. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988, pp.
152-190.
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April 22: The High-Throughput Revolution
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Stevens, Hallam. “On the means of bio-production: Bioinformatics and how
to make knowledge in a high-throughput genomics laboratory,” BioSocieties,
Vol. 6, No. 2, 2011: 217-242.
***Final essay due in class Friday, April 24th***