HIST3852 - Introduction to the History of Science
Dr. Brian Regal
Professor for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Department of History, LHAC 212
email: bregal@kean.edu
Course Description:
The course will cover the history of science from a world prospective spanning a period from ancient times to the present. General areas covered will include the origins of science and its development and interaction with society. Specific topics will include, geology electricity, evolution, and the nature of the scientist. The social impact of science on society—religion, literature, philosophy and popular culture—will be examined.
Course Objectives:
This survey course will give the student a basic understanding of the history of science. Students will examine the connections between science and the humanities and come to appreciate that science is not done in a vacuum, but has consequences for wider society. Through a series of written projects and examinations the students will learn fundamental facts and theories of science and how to study and analyze them using the methodologies and techniques of history.
Syllabus: Fall 2021 (NOTE: the syllabus for Fall 2024 will be available shortly).
CSM quick guide for writing the papers: 4.18.2021
Required texts:
Iwan Rhys Morus. The Oxford Illustrated History of Science (Oxford University Press, 2017). ISBN#978-0-19-966327-9
Required additional reading:
Some words historians should know
What the Ancients Knew - India (video approx. 50 min run time)
The Real history of Copernicus and Heliocentrism
Robert Hooke's Micrographia (scroll down the page to find Hooke)
What is the historiography of science?
Supplemental Reading: suggested but not required
John Winthrop, America's first astronomer
Newton's apple legend letter by William Stuckley
Royal Society's influence in America
Robert Purrington. The First Professional Scientist: Robert Hooke and the Royal Society of London (Birkhauser, 2009).
Words of wisdom:
- Taxonomy keeps the Family in Order
- I'd rather be Carbon Dating
- A great vocabulary didn't save the Thesaurus from extinction
- Size matters, ask Pluto
- If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate
- I spilled spot remover on my dog, now I can't find him
On-Line Resources:
American Science History blog
http://americanscience.blogspot.com/
Astrolabe history
Kean University Library General History Research page http://libguides.kean.edu/generalhistory
Cambridge University Historiography of Science page:
http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/research/hs.html
Cambridge University podcast-lecture on the history of religion and science in Early Medieval Ireland, Dr. Elizabeth Boyle, October 9, 2012.
http://www.sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1328604;jsessionid=ABB0457028F1E8E08C855752270C9C41
Madrid Codex (1493), Da Vinci notebook of technical drawings, fascinating
http://leonardo.bne.es/index.html
Einstien Papers Project, Cal Tech
http://www.einstein.caltech.edu/
Isaac Newton's Library / Corpus Newtonicum
https://corpusnewtonicum.wordpress.com/2015/10/16/isaac-newton-library-online/
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society on-line
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=philtransactions
• Hear my friend Professor Holly Dunsworth, Penn State University, discuss human evolution on National Public Radio (5/11/2008):
This I believe, NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90311455
History of Science in Latin America and the Carribean
These are two of the premier history of science societies:
History of Science Society http://www.hssonline.org/
British Society for the History of Science http://www.bshs.org.uk/
Research into the history of science and tutorial resource page
http://www.unh.edu/history/golinski/file6.html
NCSE National Center for Science Education
All things Darwin including correspondence and diaries:
Darwin OnLine http://darwin-online.org.uk/
Source for historical scientific instruments:
Museum of the History of Science, Oxford University, UK
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin
http://www.franklinpapers.org/franklin/
Sciences & Curiosities at the Palace of Versailles
An interesting new exhibit on demonstrating science
http://sciences.chateauversailles.fr/index.php?lang=en
Whipple Museum of the History of Science, Cambriage University, UK
http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/whipple/
__________
A parade of bones, the Oxford Museum of Natural History
Academic Calendar
https://www.kean.edu/offices/registrars-office/academic-calendar
Department of History
https://www.kean.edu/history
All materials on this page copyright 2023.