*History of Science 97a. Tutorial — Sophomore Year
Catalog Number: 4719
Stephanie Kenen and members of the Department
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Sophomore tutorial introduces students to basic problems and methods in the history of science. Students are expected to develop skills in analyzing original sources and in oral and written presentation. Organized into small sections with occasional lectures to the entire class. The first term examines the period from ancient Greece to the Scientific Revolution. Specific topics vary from year to year. Several short papers assigned.
Note: Required for undergraduate concentration in History and Science.
*History of Science 97b. Tutorial — Sophomore Year
Catalog Number: 5235
Stephanie Kenen and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
The second term of sophomore tutorial examines the period from the Scientific Revolution to the beginning of the 20th century. Specific topics vary from year to year. Course culminates in a closely supervised research paper.
Note: Required for undergraduate concentration in History and Science.
*History of Science 98r. Tutorial — Junior Year
Catalog Number: 1120
Stephanie Kenen (fall term), David S. Barnes (spring term) and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
One half year of the junior tutorial is a seminar organized around a special topic. The second half year is a skills-oriented tutorial which may be taken indivudually or in small groups. In it, students are encouraged to develop research skills and to prepare a senior thesis proposal in a field of their own choice. A substantial amount of writing (and rewriting) is required in both terms.
Note: Ordinarily taken by juniors in both terms.
*History of Science 99. Tutorial — Senior Year
Catalog Number: 6619
Bridie Andrews and members of the Department
Full course. Hours to be arranged.
Note: Ordinarily taken by seniors as a full course. Either half year may be taken as a half course, if special permission is obtained. Students are expected to complete a thesis or submit a research paper or other approved project in order to receive course credit.
History of Science 106. History of Ancient Science
Catalog Number: 3958
John E. Murdoch
Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.), at 11. EXAM GROUP: 4
Examination of selected key aspects and issues in the development of ancient science together with an investigation of the treatment of these issues from various historiographic points of view. Emphasis upon the kinds of problems historians of ancient, especially Greek, thought have deemed most relevant for treatment and the types of approaches made to these problems. (DF:E1)
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
[History of Science 107. History of Medieval Science]
Catalog Number: 5071
John E. Murdoch
Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.), at 11. EXAM GROUP: 4
A study of the scope and nature of scientific thought in the Latin Middle Ages, with emphasis upon the relation of that thought to other aspects of medieval culture, in particular, religion, philosophy, and the universities. (DF:E2)
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
History of Science 112. Medicine and Society in Medieval and Renaissance Europe
Catalog Number: 8576
Katharine Park
Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.), at 12. EXAM GROUP: 5
A survey of medical theory, organization and practice in the context of other forms of contemporary healing, notably religious and magical. Topics include changing conceptions of health and illness, the evolution of medical explanation, the gendering of healing and the body, the professionalization of medicine, the rise of hospitals and related institutions, and responses to “new” diseases such as syphilis and plague. (DF: E2)
History of Science 113. Imaging Techniques in Early Modern Science: Conference Course
Catalog Number: 2253 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Mario Biagioli
Half course (fall term). Tu., 4–6. EXAM GROUP: 18
In recent years, historians and sociologists have examined the role of visual representations and imaging techniques in modern science. Course looks at the emergence of these practices during the Scientific Revolution. By looking at the development of instruments such as the telescope and the microscope and at the printed representation of visual evidence in astronomy, anatomy, and natural history, we analyze the scientific and cultural dimensions of the debates about the epistemological status of visual evidence and of its mechanical reproductions. (DF:E3)
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
[History of Science 120. History and Philosophy of 20th-Century Physics]
Catalog Number: 5116
Peter L. Galison
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 8:30–10. EXAM GROUP: 10, 11
Philosophical questions raised by historical developments in 20th-century physics, and conversely, historical-scientific questions raised by philosophical inquiry. Late 19th-century reductionist world views leading to special and general relativity. Einstein’s response. Issues in quantum theory and quantum mechanics surrounding causality, determinism, realism, and probabilism. Nuclear fission, and the atomic and thermonuclear weapons. Growth of large-scale experimental high-energy physics. What is meant by “unified” field theories in contemporary physics? Readings: scientific, historical, and philosophical texts. (DF:M3)
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
[History of Science 121. History and Philosophy of Experimentation]
Catalog Number: 5851
Peter L. Galison
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 11. EXAM GROUP: 13
Origin of experimentation in late Renaissance and Early Modern alchemical inquiry up through the transformation of modern physics and accompanying computer simulations and large-scale research. Combines historical, sociological, and philosophical analyses in recent studies of Newton’s prisms, Millikan’s oil drops, pasteurization, solar neutrinos, laser, and weak neutral currents. Topics include: realism, replicability, theory/experiment relation, and problems of philosophical naturalism. What constitutes a laboratory demonstration? What are standards of evidence and how have they changed? (DF: M3)
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
*History of Science 122. Physics and War
Catalog Number: 1061
Peter L. Galison
Half course (spring term). F., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
Physics has transformed warfare in the 20th century and warfare, in turn, has radically altered physics. We will examine the shifting role of physics in World War I, World War II, the Korean and Vietnam Conflicts, the Cold War and beyond. Topics will include: Nuclear Weapons, Radar and Electronics, Large-Scale Physics, Simulations, National Laboratories, Star Wars, Nuclear Waste, and Stockpile Stewardship. (DF: M3)
History of Science 130. Modern Biology
Catalog Number: 0179
Everett I. Mendelsohn
Half course (fall term). W., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 3
Covering the period 1750 to the present; movement from natural history to experimental biology; relations between the field and the laboratory; role of observations, representations, experimental practices, instruments and theories; relationship between biology and the physical-chemical sciences, between organisms, machines and molecules; scientific practices and social implications of the new biology. (DF:M2)
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
[*History of Science 138. Conservation, Ecology, and Environment: Conference Course]
Catalog Number: 2390 Enrollment: Limited to 25
Everett I. Mendelsohn
Half course (fall term). W., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7
An examination of the science and politics of conservation, ecology, and environment, and their cultural location, using some comparative materials from Europe, Russia and Africa. Particular attention to public organizations, government policy, and scientific knowledge and practice. (DF:M2)
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
[History of Science 142. Ethics and Values in Modern Medicine and Science]
Catalog Number: 6403
Allan M. Brandt
Half course (fall term). M., W., at 11. EXAM GROUP: 4
A historical survey of a series of ethical and value conflicts in medicine and science during the last century. Among the topics considered are issues in the history of the doctor-patient relationship; the growth and impact of medical technologies; genetic engineering; regulation of scientific research; the ethics of health policy. The social, political, and cultural contexts of medical and scientific developments are assessed in historical perspective. (DF:M2)
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
History of Science 143. History of Germs
Catalog Number: 4541
David S. Barnes
Half course (spring term). M., W., (F.) at 11. EXAM GROUP: 4
The scientific and cultural history of pathogenic microbes, from Medieval and Renaissance notions of contagion through the Bacteriological Revolution to the present day. Emphasis on responses to epidemic and endemic diseases, the growing prestige of biomedical science since the mid-19th century, and the role of social conflict in shaping fears of contagion. (DF:M1,M2)
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
[History of Science 144. Medicine, Degeneration, and Eugenics]
Catalog Number: 3148
Stephanie Kenen
Half course (spring term). M., W., (F.), at 10. EXAM GROUP: 3
In the later 19th and early 20th centuries, eugenic thinking paralled fears of degeneration in the widespread preoccupation with the decline of civilization. This course will look at the role of scientific and especially medical “experts” in promoting both the problem of and the remedy for the decline of civilization. Emphasis will be on changing ideas of “otherness” as symbol and cause of degeneration, and on proposed programs for regeneration (sports, war, selective breeding). Primary focus on the United States and Europe. (DF: M1)
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
*History of Science 147. Science, Sex and Gender: Conference Course
Catalog Number: 4221 Enrollment: Limited to 18
Stephanie Kenen
Half course (fall term). Tu., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
This course will examine scientific ideas about physical and psychological sex differences; shifting positions about gender sameness and difference; “healthy” and diseased sexuality; and the role of social experts in all of the above. Topics will include: evolutionary explanations of anatomical and psychological sex differences; sex differences in intelligence; female reproduction as biological destiny; the male and female hormonal body; the sciences of sexology. Emphasis on 19th and 20th century U.S. and Western Europe. (DF:E3,M1,M2)
*History of Science 151. Cultural History of Medicine
Catalog Number: 3189 Enrollment: Limited to 18
Stephanie Kenen
Half course (spring term). Th., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
This ocurse will examine recent approaches to the history of mediciena dn the body. Topics will include: the use of visual representations in medicine(Illustrations, x-rays, MRIs); the literary genre of the case study ("doctors’ stories"); the so-called "social construction" of illness (especially psychiatric illnesses and diseases of women); the intersection between medical expertise and sexual culture (sexology and social control); medicine and human experimentation (from Tuskegee to clinical trials); commodification of the body (organ transplants, cosmetic surgery). (DF: M1,M2)
History of Science 155v. Foucault and the History of Sexuality
Catalog Number: 8026
Arnold Ira Davidson (University of Chicago)
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 10–11:30. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
This course will center around a close reading of the first volume of Michel Foucault’s The History of Sexuality, with some attention to his writings on the history of ancient conceptualizations of sex. How should a history of sexuality take into account scientific theories, social relations of power, and different experiences of the self? We will discuss the contrasting descriptions and conceptions of sexual behavior before and after the emergence of a science of sexuality. Other writers influences by and critical of Foucault will also be discussed. (DF:M1)
*History of Science 161 (formerly History of Science 161v). The Scientific Revolution
Catalog Number: 4946
Mario Biagioli
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 10–11:30. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
Examines the transformation of scientific culture in the 16th and 17th centuries in relationship to society, politics, and religion. Topics include the development of the disciplines of astronomy, anatomy, and natural history; the emergence of new scientific communities and new views of nature; the development of scientific practices such as observation and experimentation. Figures such as Copernicus, Vesalius, Bacon, Harvey, Descartes, Galileo, and Newton are treated in some detail. (DF:E3)
History of Science 172v. Trauma, Memory, and Psychiatry
Catalog Number: 2113
Allan Young (McGill University)
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 11. EXAM GROUP: 13
The origin and genesis of traumatic memory and its characteristic afflictions (from traumatic hysteria to posttraumatic stress disorder) are tracked from the 19th to the 20th century, through changing styles of psychiatric reasoning (clinical, epidemiological), evolving diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, and forensic codes (relating to compensation and culpability). Topics include the history of pathogenic remembering and forgetting; military psychiatry and the war neuroses from World War I to Vietnam; the return of the repressed, from "Totem and Taboo" to the recovered memory controversy; "trauma" as an element of an emergent transcultural language of suffering. (DF: M1,M2)
[History of Science 173. The Experimental Psychology Laboratory and its Material Cultures: Conference Course]
Catalog Number: 9329 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Robert M. Brain
Half course (spring term). Th., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
Examines the emergence of the experimental psychology laboratory in Europe and the United States, with special reference to the Harvard Psychology Laboratory and the work of its most important founders Hugo Muensterberg and William James. Consideration of the institutional and intellectual conditions of the new psychology will be enhanced by hands-on consideration of its material culture, especially the extensive collection of psychological instruments in the Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. Questions include the problem of the social relations of the laboratory, the problem of the experimental subject, introspective versus “clinical experimental” method, the “markets” for the new psychology, and intellectual and political resistance to the laboratory. (DF: M2)
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
History of Science 175. Madness and Medicine: Themes in the History of Psychiatry
Catalog Number: 6245
Anne Harrington
Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.), at 10. EXAM GROUP: 3
An attempt to integrate the history of medical thought on the nature of madness and the madman with recent historiography on the social history of psychiatry and its institutions. Topics include the birth of the asylum, the challenge of “moral therapy,” madness and the brain, madness from the patient’s point of view, the “discovery of the unconscious,” schizophrenia, and the antipsychiatry movement. (DF:M2)
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
[History of Science 176. Evolution and the Mind: Conference Course]
Catalog Number: 6736 Enrollment: Limited to 20. Preference given to juniors and seniors.
Anne Harrington
Half course (fall term). W., 4–6. EXAM GROUP: 9
Explores tensions and themes in the historical attempt to reconcile the problem of mind and consciousness with evolutionary models of life since Darwin. Examples include the human mind as the Achilles heel of the naturalistic (post-Darwinian) world view, the case for the “emergence” of mind out of matter, the evolutionary argument for mind as epiphenomenon, cosmic Mind as the driving force behind evolution, the problem of the “savage mind,” madness as evolutionary regression. Particular attention to the social and ethical implications of all these debates. (DF:M2)
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
[History of Science 177. Stories Under the Skin: The Mind-Body Connection in Modern Medicine]
Catalog Number: 4338 Enrollment: Preference given to junior and senior concentrators in History and Science, and Psychology.
Anne Harrington
Half course (spring term). M., W., at 11. EXAM GROUP: 4
An historical probe into the logics and stakes of modern (19th-20th century) thinking and practices concerned with “mind–body” interactions. Topics include: hypnosis; hysteria; the rise of psychosomatic medicine; medical investigations of non-Western phenomena such as “chi” and meditative practices; concerns with human connection and disconnection as sources of healing and illness; the recent rise of psychoneuroimmunology. Analytic emphasis is on integrating questions about the nature of embodied experience over time with questions about the logic of our institutionalized efforts to “domesticate” that experience within the changing explanatory frames of Western medical science. (DF:M2)
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
History of Science 180. Science, Medicine and Imperialism
Catalog Number: 3578
Bridie Andrews
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 10. EXAM GROUP: 12
It is a truism that science and medicine were crucial to the development of colonialism and, in particular, to the formal imperialism of the 19th century. Scientific and technological innovations facilitated the expansion of the small maritime trading nations of Europe into every continent, and created a world-wide flow of goods, capital and human labor on an unprecedented scale. This course will examine the history of science in its imperial contexts through a thematic approach: individual topics will include the book and the printing press; exploration and the academy; cartography; tropical medicine; the diseases of empire; economic botany; trains and steamships, information flow and telegraphy; imperial womanhood; and anthropology and race. (DF: M1,M2)
[History of Science 181. Science, Technology, and Modernity]
Catalog Number: 6978
Robert M. Brain
Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.), at 11. EXAM GROUP: 4
Examination of the role of science and technology in the experience of modernity from 1800 to 1918. Themes include the myths of Faust and Frankenstein and the ideals of personal economic development, steam engines and railways, technological utopias and dystopias, telegraphy and the growth of empire, standardization and commodity culture, electric power systems, urban planning, the mechanization of the body, technology and the arts, and technological warfare. (DF:M1)
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
[*History of Science 183. Social and Political Implications of Technology: Conference Course ]
Catalog Number: 8588 Enrollment: Limited to 15
Peter Buck
Half course (spring term). Tu., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
Historical studies of how technology shapes society and politics. Interactions between social engineering and the management of technological change; specific technologies vs. expectations about technology in general as limiting the possibilities for social and political change. Examples drawn from war, transportation, communication, and production. (DF:M1)
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
*History of Science 184. Technology in America: Conference Course
Catalog Number: 1617 Enrollment: Limited to 15
Peter Buck
Half course (spring term). M., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
Examines American society, politics, and culture as shaping and shaped by the technologies of war, work, transportation, and health. Emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. (DF:M1)
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2001–02.
*History of Science 202. Utopia, Science, and Gender
Catalog Number: 3870 Enrollment: Please contact instructor for permision to enroll before the first class meeting.
Katharine Park
Half course (spring term). Tu., 6:15–9:15 p.m. EXAM GROUP: 18
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw the simultaneous emergence of a new literary genre, the utopia, devoted to the detailed imagining of a different and better community or society, and a new set of goals and methods for natural inquiry identified with the Scienctific Revolution. This seminar will explore the intersection between these two developments, viewing them through the lens of the gender. Authors to be read include Christine de Pizan, Walter Raleigh, Catalina de Erauso, Tommaso Campanella, Francis Bacon, Margaret Cavendish, Gabriel de Foigny, Bernard de Fontenelle, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, and Madame de Motteville. (DF: M3)
[*History of Science 204. The Visible Woman: Seminar]
Catalog Number: 5206
Katharine Park
Half course (spring term). M., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
The female body as a visual object in European medicine and culture of the high Middle Ages and Renaissance. Focus on the history of anatomical images, texts, and practices; on contemporary constructions of seeing as a gendered activity; and on recent theories of visuality and theatricality. (DF:E2)
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
*History of Science 206r. Ancient Science: Seminar
Catalog Number: 2410
John E. Murdoch
Half course (spring term). Th., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
Topic for 1999-2000: Aristotle’s views of physical processes are found in Book 1 of On Generation and Corruption and Book IV of the Meteorology together with some consideration of their influence on late Greek philosophy and science. Current interpretations of these views will also be considered.
(DF:E1)
*History of Science 207r. Medieval Science: Seminar
Catalog Number: 8468
John E. Murdoch
Half course (fall term). Th., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
Topic for 1999-2000: The relations of the church, the university, and science and philosophy in the 13th and 14th century Latin Middle Ages and of recent assessments of the condemnation and censure of philosophy and science in this period and of the intellectual freedom at the medieval university. (DF:E2)
Note: Reading knowledge of Latin not required.
[History of Science 212. Science, Magic, and “Traditional” Thought: Seminar]
Catalog Number: 6960
Mario Biagioli and Stanley J. Tambiah
Half course (spring term). Th., 4–6. EXAM GROUP: 18
Examines the differences and similarities between the practices of Western science and those of the European “occult tradition” and non-Western “traditional thought.” Among others, the works of Levi-Strauss, Goody, Horton, Sahlins, Latour, Evans-Pritchard, Foucault, and Yates are discussed. (DF:E3)
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
[History of Science 215. The Evidence of Experience: Seminar]
Catalog Number: 4568
Katharine Park
Half course (spring term). M., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
The meanings of experience in European science, law, and religion between 1250 and 1600. This reading-focused seminar will explore the gendering of experience and the way it was used to ground knowledge and constitute authority in contexts ranging from medical and natural philosophical inquiry to canonization procedures and artisanal practice. (DF: E2)
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
[*History of Science 230r. The Life Sciences: Seminar]
Catalog Number: 0585
Everett I. Mendelsohn
Half course (spring term). Tu., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
Concepts, methods, practices, and social relations of the life sciences in the modern period. Particular attention paid to the relationship of biology to the chemical and physical sciences, complexity, organization, and evolution; the rise of genetics and challenges of eugenics and ecological biology. Focus for the year: the 20th century. (DF:M2)
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01. Open to qualified undergraduates.
*History of Science 244. Research in the History of Medical Ethics: Seminar
Catalog Number: 6301
Allan M. Brandt
Half course (spring term). W., 4–6. EXAM GROUP: 9
Course provides a framework for the historical examination of debates concerning medical ethics, and seeks to identify social, cultural, political, and economic forces that have shaped value conflicts in clinical medicine and health policy. Students are expected to write a research paper utilizing primary and archival source materials. (DF:M2)
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2000–01.
History of Science 248. Approaches to the Historical Study of Bodies: Seminar
Catalog Number: 7813
David S. Barnes
Half course (spring term). Tu., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
Explores a range of methodological perspectives on individual bodies and collective bodies (“the social body”, “the body politic”) in history. Examines biomedical, anthropological, phenomenological, feminist, Marxist, psychoanalytic, and iconographic approaches, among others. Emphasis on historical context and on the practical application of interdisciplinary perspectives in historical research. (DF: M1)
[*History of Science 251. Women, Gender, Feminism and the Sciences: Conference Course]
Catalog Number: 4189
Everett I. Mendelsohn
Half course (spring term). Tu., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
Course has four units: (i) women in science — invisibility and exclusion; (ii) gendered knowledge and practice — discourse, language and labs; (iii) feminist critiques of the sciences — a separate epistemology, a feminine way of knowing? (iv) changing historiographic traditions, Rossiter, Keller, Schiebinger, Haraway, et al. Includes visits by practitioners and historians. (DF:M1)
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01. Open to qualified undergraduates.
History of Science 261. Fraud, Intellectual Property, Authorship and Responsibility in Science
Catalog Number: 3446
Mario Biagioli
Half course (fall term). Th., 4–6. EXAM GROUP: 18
Examines the debates on authorship, responsibility, and credit in science in the wake of recent cases of fraud and misconduct. By bringing together perspectives from law, sociology of science, and literary theory, the seminar analyzes the similarities and differences between intellectual property and authorship in science and in other disciplines. (DF:E3)
History of Science 272v. The Sciences of Fear: Themes in the Perspective of Anthropology and History
Catalog Number: 4005
Allan Young (McGill University)
Half course (spring term). M., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
The history of fear is traced through the discourses of philosophy, evolutionary biology, psychiatry, neuroscience, and anthropology. The focus is on the moral and clinical transfomation of fear during the 19th and 20th centuries; the efflorescence of clinically related conditions, including shock, anxiety, stress, and psychogenic trauma; and the changing meaning of fear within the syntax of the emotions. (DF: M1,M2)
[*History of Science 274 (formerly History of Science 174). Imag(in)ing the Brain: Seminar]
Catalog Number: 6893
Anne Harrington and Robert M. Brain
Half course (spring term). M., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
Explores the relationship between brain images (from phrenological busts to fMRI) and cultural imagination. How does what we “see” in the brain appear revelatory of our humanness, while speaking to religious, social, political concerns? Common readings ground projects that may involve instruments, ethnographic observations of “laboratory life”, or library research. (DF:M2)
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
History of Science 275. “The Minded Body”: Theoretical and Empirical Explorations
Catalog Number: 8536
Anne Harrington
Half course (fall term). M., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
Attempts, via a case study approach, to explore “embodiment” — human bodily experience — as part of the proper world of historical and cultural intellectual analysis. Can historical work be done “under the skin”? Theoretical readings will be drawn here from “body history”, anthropology, phenomenological psychology and medicine. A significant independent research project will be expected. (DF: M2)
[*History of Science 278. In Search of Mind: Seminar]
Catalog Number: 0304
Anne Harrington
Half course (spring term). M., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
A series of “expeditions” through the four “territories” of the mind: language, emotion, meaning-making, and memory. Reading broadly across disciplines and over a century of shifting focuses, we will aim in this seminar to construct new, less linear, ways of imagining the history of the mind sciences in our time. (DF:M2).
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
[*History of Science 280. Science and Spectacle]
Catalog Number: 0796
Robert M. Brain
Half course (spring term). Th., 4–6. EXAM GROUP: 18
Examination of the role of spectacle, ocularity, media technologies, and the “exhibitionary complex” in the making of a scientific culture from the 18th century to the present. Special emphasis on the role of visualization technologies in the modern laboratory and their transfer to extra-mural contexts. (DF:M1)
Note: Expected to be given in 2000–01.
*History of Science 290r. Selected Topics in History and Philosophy of Biology
Catalog Number: 8108
Everett I. Mendelsohn and guest lecturers
Half course (spring term). W., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
(DF:M2)
Prerequisite: Ordinarily one half course at the advanced level in history or philosophy of biology.
History of Science 291v. Historical Epistemology
Catalog Number: 4321
Arnold Ira Davidson (University of Chicago)
Half course (fall term). Th., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
A study of central epistemological categories--such as objectivity, rationality, evidence, proof, and truth--from an historical point of view. What are the conditions under which these categories are specified, develop, and undergo transformation? Attention will also be given to the epistemological consequences of the emergence of new scientific concepts and styles of reasoning. Comparison of French and Anglo-American approaches to historical epistemology. Readings from historians and philosophers. Authors may include Bachelard, Bourdieu, Canguilhem, Daston, Foucault, Ginzburg, Hacking, Putnam, and Veyne. (DF:M1)
Prerequisite: French reading skills.
*History of Science 295r. Critical History: Seminar
Catalog Number: 8360
Peter L. Galison and Mario Biagioli
Half course (spring term). Th., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
Advanced graduate seminar on issues tying the writing of history of science to recent theoretical and philosophical concerns. (DF:M3)
Note: Reading knowledge of French and/or German useful, but not required.
History of Science 297r. Topics in the History of Medieval Latin Science
Catalog Number: 5050 Enrollment: Hours to be arranged.
John E. Murdoch
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
(DF:E2)
Prerequisite: Reading knowledge of Latin.
*History of Science 298r. The Establishment of Medieval Latin Scientific and Philosophical Texts: Seminar
Catalog Number: 4893 Enrollment: Hours to be arranged.
John E. Murdoch
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
The problems and methods involved in preparing critical editions of texts from manuscript materials: principles of establishing the “accepted text,” manuscript tradition, and appropriate apparatus criticus when several manuscripts are employed, as well as the resolution of palaeographic problems. (DF:E2)
Prerequisite: Knowledge of Latin, but no previous experience with palaeography required.
*History of Science 301. Reading and Research
Catalog Number: 5641
Bridie Andrews 1409, David S. Barnes 1701, Mario Biagioli 1756, Robert M. Brain 2676 (on leave 1999-00), Allan M. Brandt 3031, Peter Buck 1894, I. Bernard Cohen 1185, Donald Fleming 1831 (on leave 1999-00), Peter L. Galison 3239, Stephen J. Gould 1707, Anne Harrington 1895 (on leave spring term), Erwin N. Hiebert 1187, Gerald Holton 1883, Stephanie Kenen 1535, Everett I. Mendelsohn 2700, John E. Murdoch 1877, Katharine Park 2974, Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz 3651, and A. I. Sabra 2702
Individual work in preparation for the General Examination for the Ph.D. degree.
History of Science 302. Guided Research
Catalog Number: 5282
Bridie Andrews 1409, David S. Barnes 1701, Mario Biagioli 1756, Robert M. Brain 2676 (on leave 1999-00), Allan M. Brandt 3031, Peter Buck 1894, I. Bernard Cohen 1185, Peter L. Galison 3239, Owen Gingerich 1159 (on leave spring term), Stephen J. Gould 1707, Anne Harrington 1895 (on leave spring term), Erwin N. Hiebert 1187, Gerald Holton 1883, Stephanie Kenen 1535, Everett I. Mendelsohn 2700, John E. Murdoch 1877, Katharine Park 2974, Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz 3651, and A. I. Sabra 2702
Through regular meetings with faculty advisor, this course will focus on research and writing with the purpose of developing a publishable research paper.