The Scientific Revolution

HIS3537-101

Course Calendar

Fall 2003

 

Please Note: Readings must be completed by class-time on the day for which they are assigned.

 

Book titles with ISBN numbers will be available at the ASU bookstore. They can also be purchased over the Internet (www.pricescan.com and www.bookfinder.com allow you to compare the costs of books among online booksellers). All other readings will be available either on library reserve or at the specified web sites. For readings on reserve or on the Internet, please photocopy the assigned pages and bring them with you to class on the days for which they are assigned.

 

 

Week 1: August 27

 

Introductions

 

Lecture/Discussion: Making Sense of the Cosmos – Some Preliminary Thoughts

 

 

Week 2: September 3

 

Lecture: Knowledge in the Middle Ages – Institutions & Sources

 

Discussion: Confronting the Pagan Legacy – Plato, Aristotle, & Lucretius

 

Plato, Timaeus, in Malcolm Oster (ed.), Science in Europe, 1500-1800 (London: Palgrave, 2002), pp. 1-8.  ISBN 0-333-97002-0

Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe, in Oster, pp. 15-20.

David Lindberg, The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, 600 B.C. to A.D. 1450 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), Ch. 2, 9-10.  ISBN 0-226-48231-6

 

 

Week 3: September 10

 

Discussion: Contemplating the Medieval Cosmos

 

Aristotle, “The Four Causes,” from Physics: http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/GREECE/4CAUSES.HTM

Aristotle, Physics and On the Heavens, in Oster, pp. 8-15.

Sacrobosco, The Sphere, in Oster, pp. 24-26.

Lindberg, Beginnings of Western Science, Ch. 3, 5 (pp. 85-105), 11-12.

 

Lecture: The Plague – Medical Crisis in the Middle Ages

 

 

Week 4: September 17

 

Graduate Research Paper: One-Page Proposal Due

Proposal should include a preliminary bibliography that includes at least 2 primary sources and between 10 and 15 secondary sources (journal articles and/or historical monographs).

 

Discussion: Medicine in the Middle Ages

 

Galen, On Anatomical Procedure and On the Natural Faculties, in Oster, pp. 20-24

Lindberg, Beginnings of Western Science, Ch. 13-14.

 

Lecture: Voyaging – The Renaissance and Global Exploration

 

 

Week 5: September 24

 

Lecture/Discussion: Nicholaus Copernicus, Reluctant Revolutionary

 

Nicolaus Copernicus, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, in Oster, pp. 27-35.

[On Library Reserve] Nicolaus Copernicus, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, trans. A.M. Duncan (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1976), Book 1 (Ch. 1-11, pp. 36-55).

G.J. Rheticus, Holy Scripture and the Motion of the Earth, in Oster, pp 35-39.

 

Lecture: The Reception of Copernicanism

 

Galileo Galilei, Sidereus Nuncius, or the Sidereal Messenger, trans. Albert Van Helden (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), Preface and Introduction.  ISBN: 0-2262-7903-0

 

 

Week 6: October 1

 

Graduate Research Paper: Complete Bibliography Due

This bibliography should reflect an exhaustive search of the available literature related to your topic and should include journal articles, articles in collected works, and historical monographs.

 

Lecture/Discussion: Astronomical Investigations from Tycho Brahe to Galileo

 

Robert Recorde, The Castle of Knowledge, in Oster, pp. 45-48.

Tycho Brahe, De Disciplinis Mathematicis Oratio, in Oster, pp. 52-54.

Johannes Kepler, Astronomia Nova and Harmonices Mundi, in Oster, pp. 54-61.

Galileo, Sidereus Nuncius, pp. 29-113.

 

Discussion: Galileo & the Bible

 

Galileo, Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, in Maurice Finocchiaro (ed.), The Galileo Affair: A Documentary History (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989), pp. 87-118.  ISBN 0-520-06662-6

 

 

Week 7: October 8

 

Discussion: The Trial of Galileo

 

Maurice Finocchiaro, “Introduction,” in Finocchiaro, pp. 1-43.

“The Earlier Inquisition Proceedings (1615-1616),” in Finocchiaro, pp. 134-153.

“The Later Inquisition Proceedings (1633),” in Finocchiaro, pp. 256-293.

 

Lecture: Science in the Aftermath of the Galileo Trial

 

 

Week 8: October 15

 

Lecture/Discussion: The Renaissance & the Organic Worldview

 

Oster, Ch. 6, pp. 93-111.

[On Library Reserve] Caroline Merchant, Death of Nature, (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1980), Preface and Ch. 1.

 

Lecture: René Descartes – Creation of a New Methodology

 

 

Week 9: October 22

 

Midterm Exam

Bring One 8 ½ x 11 Inch Blue Book

 

 

Week 10: October 29

 

Graduate Research Paper: Research Update Due (2-3 pages in length)

Your update should briefly identify the major historiographical trends in the literature you have encountered and how your primary sources reflect those trends.

 

Discussion: Descartes and the Mechanical Worldview

 

René Descartes, “Treatise on Light,” in The World and Other Writings, ed. Stephen Gaukroger (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 3-75.  ISBN: 0-521-63646-9

-----, Discourse on Method and Principles of Philosophy, in Oster, pp. 120-133.

 

Lecture: Baconian Empiricism

 

Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, eds. and trans. Peter Urback and John Gibson (Chicago: Open Court, 1994), pp. 1-16, 33-41.  ISBN: 0-8186-9245-4

 

 

Week 11: November 5

 

Discussion: Bacon’s New Philosophy of Science

 

Bacon, Novum Organum, pp. 43-81, 105-114, 129-132 (Aphorisms 1-71, 95-109, 129-130)

 

Lecture: The Institutions of 17th-Century Science

 

Oster, Ch. 9, pp. 173-183.

 

 

Week 12: November 12

 

Discussion: The Human Body a Machine

 

Andreas Vesalius, Preface, On the Fabric of the Human Body, in Oster, pp. 39-44.

René Descartes, “Treatise on Man,” in The World, pp. 99-169.

William Harvey, On the Motion of the Heart and Blood (web).

Please read the following selections:

Letter to the King and Dedication

Prefatory Remarks

Chapter 1: Author’s Motives

Chapter 2: On the Motions of the Heart

Chapter 8: Of the Quantity of Blood Passing through the Heart

 

Lecture: Isaac Newton

 

 

Week 13: November 19

 

Discussion: Newton’s Philosophy of Nature

 

[On Library Reserve] Newton’s Philosophy of Nature: Selections from His Writings (New York: Hafner Press, 1953), pp. 1-26, 112-116.

Isaac Newton, Opticks, in Oster, pp. 168-172.

Roger Cotes, “Preface to the 2nd edition of the Principia,” in Oster, pp. 194-198.

Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs and Margaret C. Jacob, Newton and the Culture of Newtonianism (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1995), pp. 1-60.  ISBN 0-391-03877-X

 

Lecture: The Impact of Newtonianism on the Life Sciences

 

 

Week 14: November 26

 

Thanksgiving Holiday Begins – Class Holiday

 

Have a Terrific Thanksgiving!

Enjoy Reading a Good Book

 

 

Week 15: December 3

 

Discussion: Religious Implications of Newtonianism

 

[On Library Reserve] Newton’s Philosophy of Nature, pp. 41-67.

Richard Bentley, A Confutation of Atheism from the Origin and Frame of the World, in Oster, pp. 184-189.

“Letter from Isaac Newton to Richard Bentley,” in Oster, pp. 189-190.

John Ray, Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of Creation, in Oster, pp. 190-194.

 

Lecture/Discussion: Alternative Views of Newton & Newtonianism in the Eighteenth Century

 

“Extracts from Letters Related to the Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence,” in Oster, pp. 198-201.

W. J. ‘sGravesande, Mathematical Elements of Natural Philosophy, Oster, pp. 201-204.

Voltaire, Letters Concerning the English Nation, in Oster, pp. 265-269.

Dobbs and Jacob, Newton, pp. 61-123.

 

 

Wednesday 12/10: Final Essay, 6-8:30pm

Bring One 8 ½ x 11 Inch Blue Book

 

Graduate Research Essay Due Friday, December 12, by 5pm.

 

Have a terrific winter vacation!!