New Course for Fall 2012: Scientific Revolutions

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Richard Houston. Astronomy. ca. 1750. University of Oxford, Museum of the History of Science This course is a history of the scientific revolutions in Europe between 1450 and 1750.  It is divided into three modules.   In the first module, we will study the intellectual and philosophical underpinnings of early modern science.  We will read the writings of natural philosophers such as Aristotle, Bacon, Galileo, and Descartes.  In the second module, we will examine how science is a practice deeply embedded in social structures and cultural exchange.  We will read philosophies of science and technology and analyze early modern science from the perspective of gender studies and the history of consumer societies. In the final module, we will curate an online exhibition on the practice of early modern science. The theme of the exhibition will be "Making Nature."

 

Required Books: Undergraduate
  • Aristotle. A New Aristotle Reader. Ed. J. L. Ackrill. Princeton University Press, 1988.
  • Daston, Lorraine J., and Katharine Park. Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150-1750. Zone, 1998.
  • Dear, Peter. Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge and Its Ambitions, 1500-1700. 2nd ed. Princeton University Press, 2009.
  • Descartes, Rene. Discourse on Method and Related Writings. Translated by Desmond M. Clarke. Penguin Classics, 2000.
  • Galilei, Galileo. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican. Translated and edited by Stillman Drake. Modern Library, 2001.
  • Harkness, Deborah E. The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution. Yale University Press, 2007.
  • Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3rd ed. University Of Chicago Press, 1996.
  • Shapin, Steven. The Scientific Revolution. University Of Chicago Press, 1998.
  • Smith, Pamela, and Paula Findlen, eds. Merchants and Marvels: Commerce, Science, and Art in Early Modern Europe. Routledge, 2001.

 

Required Books: Graduate

  • Aristotle. A New Aristotle Reader.  Ed. J. L. Ackrill. Princeton University Press, 1988.
  • Daston, Lorraine J., and Katharine Park. Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150-1750. Zone, 1998.
  • Dear, Peter. Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge and Its Ambitions, 1500-1700. 2nd ed. Princeton University Press, 2009.
  • Descartes, Rene. Discourse on Method and Related Writings. Translated by Desmond M. Clarke. Penguin Classics, 2000.
  • Galilei, Galileo. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican. Translated and edited by Stillman Drake. Modern Library, 2001.
  • Gerbino, Anthony, and Stephen Johnston. Compass and Rule: Architecture as Mathematical Practice in England 1500-1750. Yale University Press, 2009.
  • Hanson, Craig Ashley, and Craig Hanson. The English Virtuoso: Art, Medicine, and Antiquarianism in the Age of Empiricism. University Of Chicago Press, 2009.
  • Harkness, Deborah E. The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution. Yale University Press, 2007.
  • Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3rd ed. University Of Chicago Press, 1996.
  • Shapin, Steven. The Scientific Revolution. University Of Chicago Press, 1998.
  • Smith, Pamela, and Paula Findlen, eds. Merchants and Marvels: Commerce, Science, and Art in Early Modern Europe. Routledge, 2001.

 

Please watch this page for more details about this course, which I will offer for the first time in Fall 2012.

TeachingJason Kelly