STSC 001.601 Emergence of Modern Science
Cross-listed as HSOC 001
Offered:Spring 2010
Hersch T 5:30-8:30
Fulfills Sector IV and Sector VII requirements
LPS course - only open to LPS students for Spring 2010
Over the past 500 years, science has emerged as a central and transformative feature of Western society and culture, a human enterprise that continues to reshape everyday life in countless ways. Why did science take root in the West, and how did it gradually change the way we see the world? What was the “Scientific Revolution,” and why did it take place when and where it did? How has the thinking of great scientists been shaped
by the culture, religion, and politics of their own times? How has science transformed the way we understand the universe and our place in it? This lecture course will survey
the emergence of the modern scientific worldview from ancient Greece through the end
of the 20th century. Focusing on the life and work of those who created modern
science, we will explore their core ideas, where those ideas came from, what problems they solved, what made them controversial and exciting, and how they related to
contemporary religious beliefs, politics, society, and culture. The course is organized
both chronologically and thematically. In short, this is a “Western Civ” course with a difference.
