ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE: HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT (PHI 431)

ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE: History of Scientific Thought (PHI 431)

UNIT I: ANTIQUITY

8/29: Logistics and Intro.  What is science?

8/31: What was the scientific revolution? Presocratics.

9/5:  Reading due: Plato, Timaeus: Section 1

http://faculty.unlv.edu/frostarn/TimaeusSelections2.htm

9/7: Reading due: Timaeus Section 2

9/12: Ancient Medicine.  Readings due: Hippocratic texts

"Airs, Waters, Places": Parts 1, 2, 11 http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/airwatpl.html  AND

"On the Sacred Disease": first 10 paragraphs (stop at "Of little children")  http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/sacred.html

9/14: Readings Due: "The Oath" http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/hippooath.html

AND "On Ancient Medicine" Parts 1-7, 13-16, 20 http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/ancimed.mb.txt

AND Aristotle, Physics Book II ch.1 l http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/physics.2.i.html

9/19:  Readings due: Aristotle, Physics Book II chs. 2-3  http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/physics.2.ii.html 

AND On the Heavens Book I, chs. 2-3  http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/heavens.1.i.html 

9/21: Readings due: Ptolemy, Almagest Book I chs. 1-8 (reader) 

9/26: FIRST SHORT PAPER DUE

Readings Due: Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos Book I, chs. 1-2  http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Ptolemy/Tetrabiblos/home.html

AND Ancient atomism: Cicero's testimony (reader)

9/28: Readings due: Epicurus, "Letter to Herodotus" (reader)

10/3: TEST ON ANTIQUITY

UNIT II: RENAISSANCE

10/5: Readings Due: Pico Della Mirandola, "Oration on the Dignity of Man"

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/REN/ORATION.HTM

AND secondary source: http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/REN/PICO.HTM

10/10: Readings due: Marsilio Ficino, The Book of Life, (a)-(d), (p)  http://people.bu.edu/dklepper/RN242/marsilio.html

 AND Cornelius Agrippa, On Occult Philosophy, Book I, Part 1, chapters 11-14  http://www.esotericarchives.com/agrippa/agrippa1.htm#chap11

10/12: Readings Due: Secondary literature on Paracelsus  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/paracelsus/paracelsus_2.html 

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/paracelsus/paracelsus_3.html 

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/paracelsus/paracelsus_4.html

UNIT III: THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD

10/17:  SECOND SHORT PAPER DUE: Renaissance magic 

Reading due: Copernicus On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, Intros and chs.1-4 http://webexhibits.org/calendars/year-text-Copernicus.html 

Optional: Cohen Ch.3

10/19: Reading Due: Copernicus, continued Chapters 5-11

10/24: Reading Due: Kepler, Epitome of Copernican Astronomy Bk IV, Pt II, Chs. 1-2 Part III, Chs 1-3 (reader). Optional: Cohen Ch.6

10/26: Reading Due: Kepler, continued Book IV, Part II, Chs. 3-4

10/31:  Readings due: Galileo, Starry Messenger (reader) 

 Optional: Cohen Chs.4-5

11/02: Readings due: S. Y. Edgerton, from Heritage of Giotto's Geometry (reader)

11/07: THIRD SHORT PAPER DUE: Galileo and Kepler's heliocentrism  

Readings due: Descartes, The World chapters 1-8 (web)  http://www.princeton.edu/~hos/mike/texts/descartes/world/worldfr.htm

11/09: Readings Due: Descartes, continued The World Chs. 10-11

 AND Treatise on Man (web) pp.99-104, 108.  http://lrc.csun.edu/~battias/454/descartes

11/14: Readings Due: Boyle, "On the Grounds and Excellency of the Mechanical Hypothesis" (reader)

11/16: Readings Due: Hobbes, Leviathan Introduction, Book I: chs. I, II, IV  http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-a.html#INTRODUCTION 

11/21: Readings Due: Newton, Principia Mathematica (web) http://members.tripod.com/~gravitee/toc.htm 

The following 3 links:  1. Newton's Preface;  2. Definitions;  3. Axioms or Laws of Motion

 Optional: Cohen Ch.7

11/23: NO CLASS—THANKSGIVING

11/28: FOURTH PAPER DUE: Physiology/ Medicine across centuries

Readings Due: Newton, continued. Follow the following two links:

4. Book III: Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy;  5. General Scholium

[FINAL ESSAY QUESTIONS ASSIGNED]

11/30: Readings Due: Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding

 http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/locke/locke1/Essay_contents.html

Selections:  Book II, Chs. IV, VIII

12/05: Readings Due: Locke, continued

Selections: Book II, Chapter XXIII (paragraphs 1-12 only),

AND Book IV: Ch. III (paragraphs 7-16 only),

AND a Handout with quotations from Sydenham and Locke on medicine

12/07: Readings Due: Questions and discussion for final essays

FINAL EXAM DUE: Noon Tuesday Dec 12 (CDC Building 4)