Course Description
A survey of the history of science, from the culmination of the
Scientific Revolution in the 1600s to the twentieth century,
considering science and scientific ideas in relation to broader
social, religious, and intellectual issues.
Athena Title
History of Modern Science
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in HIST 3432H
Pre or Corequisite
Any HIST or HONS or BIOL or GEOG or GEOL or PHYS or CHEM course
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
- By the end of this course, students will be able to arrive at conclusions about the history of science by gathering and weighing evidence, logical argument, and listening to counter argument.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to write stylistically appropriate papers and essays. Students will be able to analyze ideas and evidence, organize their thoughts, and revise and edit their finished essays.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to identify how the history of science shaped diverse social and cultural attitudes toward knowledge, science, and the notion of modernity, encouraging them to understand diverse worldviews and experiences.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to apply appropriate methodological approaches to their analysis of primary sources and to organize their evidence to show historical continuities and discontinuities.
Topical Outline
- Merton and his Norms
- Conditions for the Progress of Reason
- Moral Economy of Science
- Historical Embodiments of Natural Knowledge
- Trust in Numbers
- The Scientific Revolution
- Science and Religion
- Continental Drift
- New Biology
- Rise of Genetics
- Twentieth-Century Physics
- Science and War
- Science Technology Relationship
- Ecology and Environmentalism
- Rise of Environmentalism
- Emergence of Human Sciences
- Science and Medicine
- Revolutionizing Cosmology
- Experts and Lay People in Science
