HSCI 3814 || Intro to History of Science
This course meets with HSci 1814. All basic requirements are the same. Your work on the Map Project, Historical Simulation and original texts is expected to be deeper and more thorough, reflecting the course level. In addition, you must read and review a historical narrative or original text (approved by me). Evaluation is distributed as follows:
Complete and submit the contract form.
Book Review Guidelines
The following are pre-approved [X denotes books already claimed]:
David Lewis, We, The Navigators
indigenous navigation in the Pacific Islands
Colin Ronan & Joseph Needham,
The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China (any volume)
Mark Plotkin, Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice
a modern ethnobotanist seeks to understand native medicine
Roberto González, Zapotec Science:
Farming and Food in the Northern Sierra of Oaxaca
Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms
the worldview of a 16th-century miller--who was tried by the Inquisition
Jean Hamburger, The Diary of William Harvey
Dava Sobel, Galileo's Daughter
Lawrence Principe, Robert Boyle, Aspiring Adept
Michael White, Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer
Ben Jonson, The Alchemists and Thomas Shadwell, The Virtuoso
17th-century dramas satirizing science
========
Galen, On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Body
Plato, Timaeus
Agricola [Georg Bauer], De re metallica [On Metals]
Walter Gilbert, De Magnete [On the Magnet]
William Harvey, De Generatione
Galileo, Starry Messenger and Dialogues on the Two Chief World Systems
Robert Boyle, New Experiments Physico-mechanical (1682 edition with replies to Linus, Hobbes and continued experiments)
Isaac Newton, Opticks
or Dennis Sepper, Newton's Optical Writings: A Guided Study
Transactions of the Royal Society for any one year, up to 1700.
Key Elements of the Review:
~2250 wds (~10-12 pp.)
Remember that your aim is to demonstrate your understanding of and skills in historical interpretation.
Summarize the book briefly yet fully, highlighting especially noteworthy elements.
Articulate the historical perspective of the scientist or principal character. Discuss the contemporary status of knowledge and new findings. As in the Map Project, discuss how the person's interpretation reflects his or her time, place, values and culture.
Link to relevant themes from class discussion.
Be prepared to profile what someone might learn from the book in ~3 minutes to other class members on an appropriate date.
|
