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Handbook 1997 : Faculty of Arts : History and Philosophy of Science

136-224/324 The Scientific Revolution

Credit Points:

When taken from History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Arts:
16.7 2nd and 3rd year
When taken from History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Science:
12.5

Coordinator:

Dr Keith Hutchison

Prerequisite/s:

Normally 12.5 points of first-year HPS.

Timetable:

Semester 1

Contact:

Up to three hours of lectures, seminars or tutorials a week

Objectives:

This unit aims to train you in writing clear, coherent, and persuasive analyses of ambiguous and difficult issues; plus give understanding of:

  • 16th and 17th debates about the powers of matter;

  • 16th and 17th debates about the foundations of knowledge;

  • the complexity of the processes governing the acceptance of cosmologies;

  • the difficulties in understanding the thoughts and attitudes of people remote from us.

Content:

The emergence of modern science during the 16th and 17th centuries. Medieval and renaissance conceptions of the world. The attacks on these conceptions in the 16th and early 17th centuries: Renaissance naturalism, experimentalism, scepticism. The new 'Mechanical Philosophy': Descartes. The retreat from mechanism: Newton. The controversies generated by Newton's science. Theological and social overtones of the competing philosophies.

Assessment:

Written work not exceeding 5000 words together with a 3-hour examination. Exemption from the examination may be granted on the basis of the written work and a class test late in the semester.

Prescribed Texts:

Reading guides and booklist issued by the Department.

  • Descartes, Meditations on first philosophy, Translated D.A. Cress, (Hackett Pub.).
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Handbook 1997 : Faculty of Arts : History and Philosophy of Science 
Status:                   OFFICIAL 1997
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Copyright © University of Melbourne 1997.