STSC001
Course Map
Surveying Science: Mapping the Universe, Mapping Ourselves
Instructor: Joanna Radin
What is this course about?
This course provides a scientific spin on the traditional Western Civilization survey. Taking science as a lens
through which to view Western culture, we see that science, like civilization, has a rich and expansive history.
Through specific, largely chronological, efforts to locate science within societies from Ancient Greece to the
contemporary United States, we will survey how those before us looked to science as a means of mapping
themselves, their connections to each other, and their place in the universe. Specifically, we will consider:
Where has science been undertaken in various eras; what kinds of institutions and organizing schema have
been developed to support science and vice versa? This course itself can be approached as providing a
particular kind of map for understanding how ideas about “why the universe is the way it is” have traveled
and changed over time.1
To help make this daunting task more manageable and rewarding, each lecture is structured around a pointed
question meant to give students mental maps for navigating the worldview of the time period/topic under
examination. Through the process of answering each lecture question, we will examine how science has been
used to interpret the natural world, and how interpretations are reflective of the time periods and cultural
contexts in which they are made. This effort will provide means for engaging with ideas about the historical
relationship between science, art, religion, politics, and consciousness. Essentially, we will think about how
science has functioned to facilitate the relentless human endeavor to understand, or map, the universe and all
that is in it. In doing so, we will confront the extent to which such an exercise can illuminate the origins and
implications of our current efforts to locate ourselves.
Requirements and Expectations?
Attendance at all lectures is required and vital for successful grasp of course concepts and details. Lectures
will be accompanied by selected visuals.2
Readings from the text are assigned by week should be completed prior to class each Monday.
Recitations will be held weekly (except where noted on syllabus), on Fridays from 11-12 and will be
comprised of student presentations and discussion; students will take turns–working in small groups with
oversight of TA– to lead discussion on the primary sources (provided in the bulk pack) that complement
weekly readings from the course textbook. These presentations will be graded and are intended to help
further engagement with course themes and provide an opportunity for considering, in closer detail, aspects
of selected topics covered. Each week, two groups will each present on one of the two assigned sources for
10 minutes; the remaining 30 minutes will be spent in discussion led by presenters and facilitated by TA.
There will be two exams: a midterm and a final. Exams will be administered during recitation and will consist
of a combination of several short answer and brief essay-style questions.
Short answer: Vesalius, Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton, Alexander von Humboldt – which time
period did each live and work within?
Short essay: Briefly compare and contrast the scientific methods proposed by Bacon and Descartes.
Materials?
Course text and bulk pack (containing all cited primary sources) can be obtained at the campus store. A onepage lecture “map” will be provided at the beginning of each class.
Text: A. Ede and L.B. Cormack, A History of Science in Society: From Philosophy to Utility (Toronto: Broadview
Press, 2004)3
Note: This paragraph would serve as the “blurb” for the course catalogue
Note: The nature of visuals to be used are represented on the course announcement: for each lecture we would view
images appropriate for interpretation as maps, emblematic of the period/topic under consideration.
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Hereafter referred to as M&D
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STSC001
Course Map
Week 1
Reading: None
Primary Source:
 Analyze variety maps (conventional and unconventional) provided in bulk packs
Wed, Sept 5: Surveying Science: Orientation
Fri, Sept 7: Recitation (NO PRESENTATIONS THIS WEEK)
Week 2: Ancient Legacies
Reading: E&C Introduction and Chapter 1
Primary Sources:
 “Causation and Movement” Aristotle. The Physics. P.H. Wcksteed and F.M. Cornford (eds).
(Cambridge: Harvard U Press, vol 1., 1929) pp. 116-135; 191-121
 “Saving the Appearances” Ptolemy. “Selection from the Almagest” in G. Schwartz and P. Bishop,
(eds), Moments of Discovery. (New York: Basic Books, 1958), pp. 174-180.
Mon, Sept 10: “Ode on a Grecian Urn”: Ancient Science
Wed, Sept 12: From Alexandria to Rome: Orienting and Engineering the Universe
Fri, Sept 14: Recitation
Week 3: Medieval Science and The Renaissance
Reading: E&C pp. 57-102, 103-109, 118-121, 139-142
Primary Source:
 “The Philosopher’s Stone” Paracelsus. The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Aureolous Philippus
Theophrastus Bombast, of Hoehnheim, called Paracelsus the Great: Now for the First Time Faithfully Translated
into English. A.E. Waite (trans) (Boulder, CO: Shambhala, 1976), p. 3-11
 “The Surgical Art” Andreus Vesalius. “Selection from De Humani Corporis Fabrica” in G. Schwartz
and P. Bishop (eds) (New York: Basic Books, 1959), pp. 517-528.
Mon, Sept 17: Locating Learning in the Medieval Era: Knowledge Lost, Found, and Transformed
Wed, Sept 19: The Renaissance: Rebirth and Reproduction (1350-1600)
Fri, Sept 21: Recitation
Week 4: Mapping the Renaissance
Reading: E&C pp. 109-118, 127-132
Primary Source:
 “In the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ” Excerpts from the diaries of Columbus’ voyages, located
online at: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/columbus1.html
 “Osiander’s Anonymous Preface.” In Copernicus: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, trans. A.M
Duncan. (New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1976) p. 22-23
Mon, Sept 24: Navigation and Cartography in the Age of Exploration
Wed, Sept 26: Mapping the Cosmos: Copernicus, Tycho, and Kepler
Fri, Sept 28: Recitation
Week 5: Politics of Science
Reading: E&C pp. 122-138, 143-149, 158-166
Primary Sources:
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Course Map
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“On Naturally Accelerated Motion” Galileo. Two New Science. Trans. Stillman Drake (Toronto: Wall &
Thompson, 1974), pp. 153-167.
“A New Theater of Nature” Robert Hooke. Micrographia, or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute
Bodies, made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries thereupon. (London: J. Martyn and J.
Allestry, 1665), pp. 131-135
Mon, Oct 1: Galileo in Focus: Martyr or Maverick? (1564-1642)
Wed, Oct 3: Scientific Methods and Scientific Societies:
Descartes, Bacon, and the Royal Society
Fri, Oct 6: Recitation
Week 6: Inventing the Enlightenment
Reading: E&C p. 150-157, 181-184
Primary Sources:
 “Preface” Isaac Newton. The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, Florian Cajori (ed), A.Motte
(trans), (Berkeley: U of CA Press, 1934), pp. xvii-xviii, 1-14.
 “United States Declaration of Independence” available online at:
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/
Mon, Oct 8: Envisioning Isaac: Newton’s Worlds (1643-1727)
Wed, Oct 10: Importing the Enlightenment: Situating Science in America
Fri, Oct 12: Recitation
Week 7: From Reason to Revolution
Reading: E&C p. 184-223
Primary Sources: (TO BE PRESENTED ON OCT 26)
 “The Families of Plants”, Genera Plantarum. The Botanical Society at Litchfield, 1787. In Readings on
the Literature of Science, (eds) W. Dampier and M. Dampier, pp. 185-195
 “The Elements of Chemistry”. Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, 1790. Elements of Chemistry in a New
Systematic Order. Robert Kerr (trans) (Edinburgh: William Creech, 1790), pp. xii-xxxvii
Mon, Oct 15: A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place: Enlightenment “Institutions”
Wed, Oct 17: Revolution, Revolution, Revolution
Fri, Oct 19: Recitation: MIDTERM EXAM
Week 8: The Romance of Science
Reading: E&C p. 225-227
Primary Sources: NONE
Mon, Oct 22: FALL BREAK
Wed, Oct 24: A Tale of Two Humboldts: Romantic Science (1790-1830)
Fri, Oct 26: Recitation (Presentation of previous week’s primary sources)
Week 9: Mapping Evolution
Reading: E&C p. 227-244
Primary Sources:
 “Geology and Genesis” Georges Cuvier. Essay on the Theory of the Earth. Fourth ed. Robert Jameson
(trans) (Edinburgh: W. Blackwood, Murray, and Baldwin, 1817), pp. 7-12, 173-175
 “Deep Geological Time” Charles Lyell Principles of Geology, vol. 1. (London: John Murray, AlbermarleStreet) pp. 83-91, 144-5.
Mon, Oct 29: Transformation Fueled by Fossils: The Rise of Geology and Paleontology
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Wed, Oct 31: A “Rock” Star: Darwin
Fri, Nov 2: Recitation
Week 10: Mapping and Mobilizing the Invisible
Reading: E&C p. 244-249,
Primary Sources:
 “The Cell Theory,” Theodor Scwhann. Microscopic Researches in the Structure and Growth of Animals and
Plants. H. Smith (trans) (London: The Sydenham Society, 1847) pp. 161-166.
 “The Electromagnetic Effect” John Christian Oersted. “Experiments on the Effect of a Current of
Electricity on the Magnetic Needle.” Annals of Philosophy 16, pp. 273-276.
Mon, Nov 5: Medical Maps: Cells, Germs, and Public Health
Wed, Nov 7: On the Grid: Magnetism, Electricity, and Power
Fri, Nov 9: Recitation
Week 11: Progress and Posterity
Reading: E&C, p. 249-263, 265-271, 295-301
Primary Sources:
 “The German Ideology.” Karl Marx. (1846), available online:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/index.htm, Read only Part I.
 “The Chemical Atom” Dalton, J. A New System of Chemical Philosophy. (Manchester: S. Russell, 18081811), pp. 141-144
Mon, Nov 12: The End of the Century of “Progress”
Wed, Nov 14: Chemical Heritage: Killing and Healing Bodies
Fri, Nov 16: Recitation
Week 12: Interwar Ideas
Reading: E&C, p. 309-319
Primary Source: (TO BE READ, BUT PRESENTED ON NOV 30)
 “The Foundation of Genetics” Gregor Mendel. “Experiments in Plant Hybridization” in Bateson, W.
Mendel’s Principles of Heredity (Cambridge: Cambridge U Press, 1913). Pp. 335-366
Mon, Nov 19: Controlling Life: Biology and Ideology
Wed, Nov 21: NO CLASS: THANKSGIVING!
Fri, Nov 23: No Recitation
Week 13: Science and Wars, Hot and Cold
Reading: E&C, p. 272-301, 322-334, 341-374
Primary Sources:
 “What is the Theory of Relativity” Albert Einstein. Essays in Science. Alan Harris (trans) (New York:
Philosophical Library, pp. 53-60)
Mon, Nov 26: Time’s Arrow: Einstein and the Evolution of Physics
Wed, Nov 28: Panic Attack: Cold War Science (1946-1991)
Fri, Nov 30: Recitation (Presentation of this week and previous week’s primary sources)
Week 14: Mapping the Future
Reading: E&C, p. 334-339, 375-386, 393-401
Primary Sources: (TO BE READ, NO PRESENTATIONS)
 “The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey” Spencer Wells. (NY: Penguin Books, 2002), p. xiii-xvi
and Chapter 9
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Course Map
Mon, Dec 3: Information Overload: Managing Anxiety, Mapping Life
Wed, Dec 5: The “Journey of Man”: Mapping the Universe, Mapping Ourselves
Fri, Dec 7: Recitation FINAL EXAM
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