Undergraduate Course: History of Science 1 (STIS08005)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Introductory survey of science in world history from ancient times to the present, centered on the natural sciences (in their broader intellectual, institutional, and technical contexts) in the modern West (in its broader geopolitical, social, and economic contexts). The course discusses the changing meanings and conditions of scientific knowledge, showing how such knowledge has depended upon and reshaped its historical contexts. The course is appropriately combined with History of Western Medicine. |
| Course description |
The course surveys science in world history from ancient times to the present, focusing on the natural sciences in the modern West (including the pivotal history of science in Edinburgh) and their respective wider contexts while also interrogating the historical association between science and western modernity. We shall develop an approach to understanding scientific knowledge and authority as embedded in historically specific social, cultural, economic, and political settings. Asking what makes something scientific and how the historical sciences have interacted with their changing environs, we shall examine broad transformations in the ideas, institutions, status, apparatus, applications, and consequences of science, broadly construed to include aspects of engineering, mathematics, health, philosophy, theology, and other related subjects. These questions will be closely linked to the changing faces of science's practitioners, targets, and constituents, which we shall examine in terms of gender, class, race, religion, and cultural identity.
A typical 110 minute lecture period will consist of 75 minutes of instruction broken up by 5-10 minutes of break time, followed by 25-30 minutes of optional guidance, feedback, and discussion. We encourage participation from students based across the university's campuses and will offer a variety of accommodations (such as lecture recording and supplemental guidance and feedback sessions) to facilitate this.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Available to all first and second year students |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2019/20, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 40,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
156 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Assessed by a portfolio of responses (6 x 300 words) to questions based on weekly lectures and readings (60%) and a final essay (1600 words) integrating themes across the course (40%). Further information will be provided at the beginning of the course. |
| Feedback |
We will provide optional formative feedback on selected draft portfolio responses during the term, as well as evaluative feedback on your final submitted portfolio and essay. The course organiser will be available for further discussion and feedback during the course. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Explain major developments in the ideas, institutions, and products of science in world history
- Apply contextual and comparative perspectives to scientific knowledge and practices from disparate times and places
- Discuss how scientific knowledge and practices relate to their wider political, economic, social, and cultural contexts
- Critically evaluate the use of historical evidence in historical argument
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
A typical 110 minute lecture period will consist of 75 minutes of instruction broken up by 5-10 minutes of break time, followed by 25-30 minutes of optional guidance, feedback, and discussion. We encourage participation from students based across the university's campuses and will offer a variety of accommodations (such as lecture recording and supplemental guidance and feedback sessions) to facilitate this. |
| Keywords | Science,Technology,Ancient,Classical,Medieval,Early Modern,Modern,Cross-Disciplinary |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Michael Barany
Tel: (0131 6)50 9096
Email: mbarany@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Ethan Alexander
Tel: (0131 6)50 4001
Email: Ethan.Alexander@ed.ac.uk |
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