HUM3060, SCI3050, SOC3060 - Science and Civilization - Day 14

 

(key to images)

 
Text: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, (with supplementary readings from primary sources)  

COURSE DESCRIPTION

In this course we intend to challenge ourselves with an episodic perspective that views the history of Western Civilization at times when the understanding of material life was confined, shifting, or expanding in particularly significant ways. Especially, we will examine the idea of 'science' and how the emergence of science dramatically altered our understanding of - and power over - the material earth. In addition to our primary text we will use sources ranging from primary documents to popular media views of some of the key events we are studying. Although the lectures are organized by chronology and biography, it is really the change in world view to which we direct our attention.

 

 




James Hutton and John Snow: Confronting tradition: thinking trumps non-thinking.
Bryson Chapter 20



Linne, Dalton, Mendeleyev: Do you have to understand something, in order to organize it and make it work?
Bryson Chapter 23,



Darwin: For good or ill - modern thought finds a new foundation....
Bryson Chapter 5, Chapter 25