136-224 The Scientific Revolution

Note

All BSc students, except those enrolled in the BA/BSc combined course and the BASc course, can only receive 12.5 points science credit at the 200-level for this subject.

Availability

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Normally 12.5 points of first-year HPS or 75 points of first-year Science subjects.

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

This unit surveys a constellation of important changes in the thinking of educated people in seventeenth-century Europe - a group changes commonly referred to as 'The Scientific Revolution' (because of a belief that these changes led to the development of modern Western science). We examine: the official philosophy of the middle ages, scholasticism, and its notion that material objects were innately active; the appeal of alternative 17c view of the matter as utterly passive; Descartes' mechanical philosophy; the Newtonian retreat from extreme mechanism; the impact of sceptical attacks on the reliability of human reason; the acceptance of a science that was self-confessedly tentative and hypothetical. Throughout the unit, the complexity of the processes governing the acceptance of a philosophy of nature is emphasised; and our discussion is placed into its broader contexts, with religious and political connections repeatedly perused.

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/or 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.).