History of Science
Objectives
To understand the construction of scientific knowledge from Ancient Greece to the second half of the 20th century;
To identify and contextualize the main actors, institutions, practices, theories and processes that have shaped scientific knowledge;
To understand the social and cultural impact of scientific practices and how they have been influenced by the historical context in which they have taken place.
General characterization
Code
9923
Credits
6.0
Responsible teacher
Daniel de Brito Candeias Gamito Marques
Hours
Weekly - 2
Total - Available soon
Teaching language
Português
Prerequisites
There are no specific requirements, but it is recommended that students have a basic knowledge of history, philosophy and/or at least one subject in the natural sciences or mathematics.
Bibliography
Agar, Jon. Science in the Twentieth Century and Beyond. Bodmin: Polity, 2012.
The Cambridge History of Science Series (8 vols). Cambridge University Press.
Fara, Patricia. Science: A Four Thousand Year History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Johns Hopkins Introductory Studies in the History of Science (var. vols). The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Morus, Iwan Rhys, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Science. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Teaching method
Providing texts for students to read beforehand and then discuss in class;
Presentation of History of Science topics by the teacher and group discussion with the students.
Evaluation method
Presentation (15 min) of a recent article on the history of science and/or medicine and group discussion (20%);
Final essay (8,000 to 10,000 words, including footnotes and bibliography), on a topic in the history of science and/or medicine (50%);
Reading of texts provided and participation in classes (30%).
Subject matter
Antiquity. Philosophy and natural philosophy. Cosmological models, epicycles and deferents. Empiricists and dogmatists in medicine. Humoral theory.
From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Assertoric science. The medieval university. Scholasticism. Aristotelianism and the theory of impetus.
The Scientific Revolution. Curiosity cabinets. Vesalius and Harvey. Heliocentrism. The cosmologies of Copernicus, Tycho Brahe and Kepler. The physics of Galileo. Mechanical philosophy. Bacon and the experimental philosophy. Boyle and Paracelsus. Academies and universities. The phhysics of Newton.
The Enlightenment. The natural history of Linnaeus and Buffon. Colonialism. Phlogiston theory. The chemistry of Priestley and Lavoisier.
Museum vs field sciences. Fossils, Christian theology, geology and geognosy. Museums of natural history. The comparative anatomy of Cuvier. Lamarck, Saint-Hilaire and the living world. Actualism and uniformitarianism in Lyell. Darwin''s theory of evolution.
Laboratory sciences. The biogeography of Humboldt. Imponderable fluids. The electrochemistry of Davy. Liebig''s organic chemistry. Cell theory. Bernard and experimental physiology. The microbiology of Pasteur and Koch. Miasmatic and germ theory of disease.
Statistics and the sciences. The Industrial Revolution. Electricity and electromagnetism. Concept of energy. Thomson, Clausius and entropy. Caloric theory. Statistical methods. The kinetic theory of gases. Biometry. Mendelian laws of inheritance and their rediscovery.
New sciences. Comte and Positivism. Electrons. X-rays, mineral radiation, and radioactivity. Planck, Einstein and quantum physics. Hysteria, the unconscious and psychoanalysis.
Big Sciences. Standardization and internationalization. Science diplomacy. Chamical weapons. Eugenics and Nazism. Scalling-up. The atom bomb. Big Science.
Programs
Programs where the course is taught: