Assignments for Unit 1: Galileo Case Study

Week #1: Jan 12
Read carefully the Introduction to the Galileo Case Study (also sent as e-mail attachment)
For Thursday prepare an oral presentation on your assigned topic on the handout in Tuesday's class

Week #2: Jan 19
Read Losee, Chapts. 1 - 3
Submit HW on Mill's Methods

Read Lesson #6 (PDF pages 51-57) of Nature of Scientific Inquiry on e-reserve
Read "The Sidereal Messenger" in The Essential Galileo by Maurice A. Finocchiaro, available on Google Books
Submit HW on the Aristotelian System

Week #3: Jan 26
Read Lesson #7 (PDF pages 58-66) of Nature of Scientific Inquiry on  e-reserve 
Read excerpts from Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, edited by Stillman Drake, especially
the beginning, pp. 3-21, and a section near the end, pp. 460-464. Available on Google Books
Submit HW on The New Astronomy

Read the first part of Lesson #8 (PDF pages 67-73) of Nature of Scientific Inquiry on  e-reserve 
Read an introduction to his Letter (sent as e-mail attachment) 
Read Galileo's "Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina" in The Galileo Affair by Maurice A. Finocchiaro, available on Google Books
(You can find a printable, abridged version in the classic translation at Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina. However, it is missing the last section
 where he discusses the Joshua story!)
Prepare assigned HW

Week #4: Feb 2
Prepare assigned Review Questions

Exam #1 on Thursday, Feb 5 

Assignments for Unit 2: Phlogiston and Philosophy

Week #5: Feb 9

Read the first few pages of NK's "History of the Classification of the Elements." Stop when you get to Dalton's Atomic Theory!
Read on e-reserve Conant's Intro to Harvard Case Histories (pp. vii - xvi) and the Intro to "Overthrow of the Phlogiston Theory" (pp. 67-74). (Stop when you get to Section 1: The Opening Phase...)
Read casually Jim Loy's "Phlogiston Theory," ignoring remarks about Sulphur.

Prepare assigned oral report for Thursday.
(Perhaps begin philosophy readings listed for next week.)

Week #6: Feb 16

Read Excerpt from Popper's Conjectures and Refutations at http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/popper_falsification.html
Read a summary of Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions at http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/kuhnsyn.html
Read Excerpt from Lakatos' "Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes" at http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/lakatos_prediction.html
Read Chapter 5, Intro to Part II, Chapters 7, 8, 11, 13 in the Losee textbook.

Prepare HW on Philosophy and Case Studies for Thursday

Week #7: Feb 23

Read Conant's "Overthrow of the Phlogiston Theory" on e-reserve
Read casually Barrotta's "Scientific Dialectics in Action" on e-reserve
Read about Lavoisier's textbook: http://www.chem.yale.edu/~chem125/125/history99/2Pre1800/Lavoisier/Nomenclature/Lavoisier_on_Elements.html

 

Prepare HW on Popper's account of science. (Write brief answers to questions at the end of the Handout.

Week #8: Mar 1
Prepare assigned Review Questions

Exam #2 on Thursday, Mar 5 

 

Assignments for Unit 3: Darwinian Controversies

Week #9: Mar 9
Prepare assigned Oral Report Topic on Background to Darwin

Turn in your choice for Term Project
Read an overview to Darwin: Gary Stix, "Darwin's Living Legacy," Scientific American, Dec, 2008 and look at the accompaning Timeline

Spring Break

Week #10: Mar 23
Read Bowler, "Setting the Scene" on  e-reserve
Prepare HW on Backgound to Darwin

Read Darwin/Wallace 1858 submission to the Linnean Society
Prepare HW on Darwin/Wallace papers

Week #11: Mar 30
Read rapidly the following two selections from Darwin's The Origin of Species: Introduction (it's listed just above Chapter 1) and Chapter 15 ("Recapitulation and Conclusion") 
to get a summary of his "long argument" but also how he presented it to a mixed audience.
Also skim through the descriptions of the intervening chapters  and sample very briefly one of these chapters to see what sort of scientific detail he provides.
Now read carefully the following three passages from Richard Owen's long and hostile review of Origin -- found on  e-reserve  under the name of Hull, the editor-- paying special attention to the structure of his 
arguments against Darwin:
a) pp. 171-173 (page numbers from the original, presented as pdf pages 1-2)
b) Last sentence on p. 199 to last paragraph on p. 204. (What Owen calls a "palaeothere" is called palaeotherium today.)
c) pp. 210-215.
Prepare HW on Scientific Reactions to Darwin

Read Hull's Introduction to Darwin's Critics and Sedgwick's short, hostile review (listed under Hull's name), which are both on  e-reserve
Then read quickly Bowler on Modern Debates on  e-reserve to see similarities to the criticisms of Evolutionary Theory today.
Prepare HW on Religious and Philosophical Objections to Darwin

Week #12: April 6
Prepare assigned Review Questions

Exam #3 on Thursday, April 9th

Assignments for Unit 4: Term Projects

Week #13: April 13
Week #14: April 20
Week #15: April 27