136-508 Physical Science in the Eighteenth Century

Availability

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Admission to Honours or Master's course in History & Philosophy of Science.

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

In 1700, physics retained much of its old, Aristotelian meaning as the science of nature in general. The subject embraced anatomy, botany, and the system of the world (i.e. cosmology) as well as the topics we more commonly associate with it today, and was not a recognised category of scientific specialization. By the early nineteenth century, the content of 'physics' had shrunk to within more or less the boundaries it has today; specialist journals were being founded to publish reports of specialized researchers; experiment was enshrined as the foundation of the subject, yielding results that were increasingly expressed in quantitative terms; and mathematical techniques were more and more being brought to bear on the analysis of physical problems. What brought about this transformation? How is a scientific discipline formed? In this course we explore this question through a close historical study of topics such as the following: the changing place of physics in the University curriculum; the emergence of experimental natural philosophy; science and enlightenment; the growth and mathematization of various fields of experimental inquiry (especially electricity, magnetism, heat, optics); specialization and the development of new institutional forms.

Assessment

Written work totalling 5000 words.