136-419 Approaches to the History of Science

Formerly available as 136-055. Students who have completed 136-055 are not eligible to enrol in this subject. Formerly available as 136-341. Students who gained credit for 136-341 prior to 1999 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Usually two second-year HPS subjects, including a result of H2B or better in some History of Science.

This unit is a survey of various approaches to the history of science motivated by the questions like the following: Why do people care about the history of science? What questions are important to them? What past episodes are interesting? What assumptions and objectives lie behind different histories? What approaches or methods are most suitable? What kinds of answers are preferable? It is designed to introduce advanced students to the objectives, methods, questions, and disputes which have helped to shape the history of science as a discipline. When we see that different historians can give such radically different accounts of the one episode, doubt must spontaneously arise in the mind of a rational observer about whether any of them has got it right. We will not confront this philosophical problem head-on, but we should be able to observe that there are often good reasons for preferring one approach to another. We will certainly see for example, that recognisable mistakes are a common reason for historians disagreeing. In other cases, historians disagree because they are answering quite different questions, though they may not themselves always be aware of this fact. Sometimes they disagree because one of them has understood the issues better than the others, and achieved a genuine improvement in our understanding!

Written work totalling 4000 words. Students must attend a minimum of 75% of classes.