HIS 3464

History of Science: Renaissance to the Present

Spring  2008

 
Max Planck

Note:  The final examination is Wednesday, April 30 at 3:00 P.M.  Please arrange your plans now to avoid requesting to take the exam early.

Dr. Gregory
Office Hours: M, W, F  9:30- 10:30;  W, F 11:45-12:30 or by appt
                      Keene-Flint Hall 225

Students who have a documented disability and who wish to discuss academic accommodations with me are encouraged to do so as soon as possible.

Note: All students are required to abide by the Academic Honesty Guidelines which have been accepted by the University

 Texts:
1.  Frederick Gregory, Natural Science in Western History, available at Goering's Bookstore (1717 NW 1st Ave)
2.  Websites as indicated in syllabus below.

Objectives:
To investigate the cultural context of scientific development in the past; specifically, to explore the relationship between science and religion, philosophy, and politics in history.
To distinguish between the power and utility of science and its wonder and mystery.
To trace the birth of "scientific methodology", its flourishing, and the challenges it faces in the present.

Grading:
There are three 15-minute quizzes (lowest score dropped), one hour exam, and a final. In addition each person must prepare a 3-page paper on a topic from the list of Special Topics below  (no more than 2 students per topic).  If you desire to switch topics with someone else, please provide me with a note signed by both with the topics agreed to.  Please include your sources (normally 3-4, not all of which are websites) in a bibliography.  These papers will be due in class on the day the topic number is indicated in the syllabus.  Students must be prepared to make comments on their topic when called on.  In addition class members will submit a minimum of 4 submissions (note: maximum is 8 submissions) to the class listserv discussion forum (see Discussion Forum below).  The topic constitutes 10% of your grade and the two discussion submissions 5%.  Each quiz is worth 10% of your grade, the hour exam 30%, and the final 35%. (See grade worksheet)

Summary of student responsibilities:
    1.  Sign up for Discussion Forum by 18 January.
    2.  Make sure you are assigned a special topic and complete responsibility on date indicated.
    3.  Print and hand in four contributions to the Discussion Forum by 23 April.(see "Discussion Forum" below.)
    4.  Be present and take at least two quizzes, the mid-term, and the final.

Special Topics
Note: Topics to be prepared for class and handed in on the day indicated. 

Names in parentheses refer to authors listed in Suggestions for Reading in the text.  These can be used to get you going.

Topic

Date

Students




1.  Galileo's 1611 visit to Rome (Shea and Artigas)

Jan 23

Thomas Ratchford

Margot Weissman

2.  Galileo's 1616 visit to Rome (Shea and Artigas)

Jan 23

Samantha Arzillo

Joseph Schreiner

3.  Galileo's daughter  (Sobel)

Jan 28

Colleen Dor

Brittany Westwood
4.  Newton's religion and his crisis at Cambridge in 1675 (Westfall) Feb 1

Matthew Kerbel

Daniel Mossman

5.  Newton and Nicolas Fatio de Duillier (Westfall)

Feb 1

John Giddo

Jennifer Mesa

6.  Werner's vision of earth history (Laudan)

Feb 11

Gheslaine Padilla

James Robertson

7.  Who was George Starkey (Newman and Principe)

Feb 13

Andrew Green

Juliana Switanek

8.  Priestley's visit to France (Fall 1774) and its aftermath (Spring 1775) (Donovan)

Feb 13

Gustavo Cifuentes-Mejia

9.  Franklin's kite experiment (Heilbron)

Feb 18

Ed King

Harrison Diamond
10. Medical quakery (Lindemann) Feb 18

Nevena Cvjetkovic

Leyla Marin

11. Linnaeus's binomial nomenclature (Koerner)

Feb 20

Brittany Marshall

Nick Barshel

12. Cuvier and the revolutions of the globe (Rudwick)

Feb 22

Ashley Taylor

Paul Adams
13.  Catastrophism in Britain (Rupke) Feb 22

Joshua Dean

Ali Rieck

14.  Darwin's middle class heritage (Browne, Voyaging)

Feb 27

Chelsea Moore

Robert Maldonado

15.  Darwin and the Galapagos tortoises (Browne, Voyaging)

Feb 29

Christopher Roeser

Cody Smith

16.  The contents of the Vestiges (Secord)

Mar 3

Jennifer Krause

Matthew Carr

17.  Lord Kelvin's critique of evolution (Burchfield)

Mar 7

Reid Green

David Hedland

18.  Büchner's position on evolution (Gregory)

Mar 17

Bryan Konig

Alden Gonzalez

19.  The ether in the nineteenth century (Morus)

Mar 28

 
Daniel Sahmel
Jacob Patrick

20.  Einstein's youth and education (Fölsing)  

Mar 28

David Strods

Evan Rosenthal

21.  Lise Meitner and nuclear fission (Sime)

Apr 7

Jennifer Fitzpatrick

Kathleen Rogers

22.  Heisenberg and the Nazis over the Munich position (Cassidy)

Apr 9

Martin McBriarty

Scott Hall

23.  Discovering global warming (Weart)

Apr 21

Yolanda Ikner

Tarik Ksaibati

James Robertson

Dicussion Forum:
Explanation of the discussion forum will be given in class, but, to avoid a penalty of 1/3 letter grade per week, you should subscribe to the listserv (i.e., complete items 1 and 2 below) by 18 January as follows:

1.  Send an email to s08-2829-request@clas.ufl.eduwith a message body of subscribe. Do not put anything in the Subject line.  This action subscribes you at whatever email address you are using (so don't use a friend's account to subscribe).  You will receive back 2 messages.  One, titled "Majordomo results", will inform you that your request to subscribe must be authenticated and indicates that you must send another message.  The other, titled "Confirmation for subscribe s08-2829", tells you how to send the authentication message.
2.  Send the authentication message as directed.  You can eliminate typing errors by using your "copy" and "paste" functions to insert the requested message into your email message.  You will now receive 2 more messages from Majordomo, one indicating the authentication has been successful and another welcoming you to the list.  The latter contains information about about the list.
3.  Once enrolled you can participate in the listserv discussion forum by simply sending your email to s08-2829@clas.ufl.edu
When you contribute to the listserv, make sure one can tell who you are (i.e., include your name if it is not clear from your email address),
4.  You are responsible for printing out the four contributions you wish to submit to me.  This must be done by class time on 23 April .

Attendance policy:
Regular attendance is expected. You are responsible for announcements and changes in schedule made in class. THERE ARE NO MAKE-UP QUIZZES OR EXAMS. With a legitimately documented written excuse a missed quiz or exam will not be counted as a zero, but will cause the grade to be determined from the remaining quizzes and exams. If the final exam is missed it will be counted as a zero unless a proper excuse is provided, whereupon it will result in an "I" for the course. Quizzes may be given either at the end of the beginning of the hour. Tardiness is not cause for extra time or a make-up.

Acceptable and unacceptable excuses:
Acceptable excuses for missing a quiz or an exam must be submitted within 2 class meetings of the date of last absence. They must be legitimately documented, written, and possible for the instructor to verify independently. If an absence is due to a visit to the infirmary, please make sure that the person signing the slip indicates the time of day of your visit in the same ink and handwriting as the signature.

Unacceptable excuses include:
1) oversleeping 3) ignorance of quiz/exam date
2) excuses not properly documented 4) non-documentable excuses

Note:  The final examination is Wednesday, April 30 at 3:00 P.M.  Please arrange your plans now to avoid requesting to take the exam early.

Lecture Schedule, Assignments, Quizzes, and Exams

Week 1      Introduction and Background

Jan  7

Goals, requirements and Greek heritage
   

Jan  9

Copernicus's achievement
   
Jan 11 Tycho Brahe's compromise


 
 

Reading for week:  Natural Science in Western History, Chapter 1; Chapter 4, pp. 80-end; Chapter 5, to p.104

                              Equivalence of Tychonic and Copernican Systems

 

 

Week 2 

Scientific Revolution I 

Jan 14

 Kepler I

 

Jan 16

Kepler II


 

Jan 18

Galileo's early years

 

Reading for week: Natural Science in Western History, Chapter 5, pp. 104-end; Chapter 6 to p. -120
                            Observations of the moon,
                            The satellites of Jupiter
                            Also, view Kepler's Laws to see an animated representation of Kepler's first two laws. Also read here about the Third Law.  Read as much of the rest of the webpage as you wish. 

Week 3

Scientific Revolution II

Jan 21

Holiday - No Class 

 

 

Jan 23

Encounters with Rome, 1611, 1616, 1624 + Reports 1 and  2
   

Jan 25

The Dialogues and its argument + QUIZ I


Reading for week:  Natural Science in Western History, Chapter 6, pp. 120-end
                  Galileo and the tides
                  Urban VIII

                  Excerpts from the Dialogues

 

Week 4 

Scientific Revolution III 

Jan 28

 Discussion of the trial of 1633 + Report 3
   

Jan 30

The break with Aristotle
   

Feb 1

The trajectory of Newton's life and career + Reports 4 and 5


Reading for week:  Natural Science in Western History, Chapter 7
                              Documents of the trial

 

Week 5

Scientific Revolution IV and Enlightenment I 

Feb 4

Newton and the apple

Feb 6

The Principia and beyond
   

Feb 8

Origins and development of  Newtonianism


Reading and assignment for week:  Natural Science in Western History, Chapter 8; Chapter 9 to p. 189; Chapter 14
                                                     Newton and the Apple
                                                     Moon as a falling body
                                                     See for yourself.   Change velocities and see where the object falls

                                                     Newton's General Scholium

Week 6

Science and Enlightenment II

Feb 11

Geology in the 18th century + Report 6
   

Feb 13

Imponderable theory: Chemistry + Reports 7 and  8
   

Feb 15

No Class


Reading for week:  Natural Science in Western History, Chapter 9, 189-end; Chapters 10-11

                              James Hutton, Theory of the Earth

                             Antoine Lavoisier,  Easter Memoire

                              Benjamin Franklin, Experiments and Observations on Electricity

 


Week 7 

Science and Enlightenment III 

Feb 18

Imponderable theory: Electricity and medicine + Reports 9 and 10 + Quiz II
   

Feb 20

Species in the 18th century  + Report 11
   

Feb 22

Evolution and catastrophism + Reports 12 and 13


Reading for week: Natural Science in Western History, Chapter 15 to p. 316, Chapters 12-13, 17

                             George Cuvier, Discourse on the Revolutionary Upheavals on the Surface of the Globe (Read down to but not  including

                              "Investigating the Age of Continents")     
 

Week 8

Evolution I 

Feb 25

Mid-Term Examination (covers through Chapter 15, but not Lamarck)

 

Feb 27

Darwin's Early Life and Education + Report 14

Feb 29

Darwin and the Beagle: Ms. Meyer + Report 15  Click here for the Power Point


Reading for week: Natural Science in Western History, Chapter 15, p. 316 to end and Chapter 18 to p. 377


Week 9

Evolution II 

Mar 3

After the Beagle + Report 16
   

Mar 5

The Origin of Species  
   

Mar 7

Scientific issues raised by the Origin + Report 17


Reading for week: Natural Science in Western History, Chapter 18 pp. 377 to end; Chapter 19 to p. 398

                             Charles Darwin, Chapter 4 from Origin of Species  (You may skip the section entitled "Divergence of Character" )

 

 

Mar 9- Mar 16

Spring break



Week 10

Responses to Darwin 

Mar 17

Religious and social responses to the Origin +  + Report 18
   

Mar 19

The evolutionary synthesis
   

Mar 21

The birth of ecological thinking + Quiz III


Reading for week:  Natural Science in Western History, Chapter 19, pp. 398 to end; Chapters 22-24

                              Herbert Spencer, Progress: Its Law and Cause
                            

Week 11

The Culmination of Realism 
   

Mar 24

From Force to energy

   

Mar 26

Classical mechanics and the completeness of science
   

Mar 28

The elusive ether and unrealistic radiation + Reports 19 and 20


Reading for week: Natural Science in Western History, Chapters 16, 20 and Chapter 21 to pp. 450

                             Dead and living forces 

                             The Michelson-Morley Experiment



Week 12

The Breakdown of Realism 



Mar 31

Early Quantum Theory
   

Apr 2

 Quantum Theory II
   

Apr 4

A changing universe


Reading for week: Natural Science in Western History, Chapter 21, p. 450 to end, Chapter 25 to p. 539
                             The dummies guide to special relativity

Week 13

Science and Politics

Apr 7

From the Discovery of the Neutron to Fission  (Clip: E = mc2) + Report 21
   

Apr 9

The rise of Hitler and the plight of science (Ms. Meyer) + Report 22

For Ms. Meyer's PDF notes click here.
   

Apr 11

No class


Reading for week: Natural Science in Western History, Chapter 25, pp. 539 to end; Chapter 26 to p. 549


                           

Week 14

Science and Politics 

Apr 14

The path to the bomb (Ms. Meyer)  For Ms. Meyer's PDF notes click here.
   

Apr 16

No class 

   

Apr 18

No class


Reading for week: Natural Science in Western History, Chapter 26 pp. 549 to 557

                             Interview with Edward Teller Read up to (but not including) the interviewer's question about the highs and lows of his career.

                             Stanley Goldberg, Big Science



Week 15

Science and Contemporary Philosophy

Apr 21

Popper and Kuhn +  Report 23

Apr 23

Review


Reading for week: Natural Science in Western History, Chapter 27, pp. 581 to end

                             Thomas Kuhn, The Nature and Necessity of Scientific Revolutions
 



Final Examination: Wednesday, April 30, 3:00 P.M. in the classroom