Jordi Cat

X220
Spring 2002

Science has enjoyed for centuries a privileged place in our culture by
claiming to offer a special unified picture of the world.  This course
surveys important conceptual and cultural themes in the history of
science since Newton: why we trust numbers in science, the rise and
fall of physical and chemical atomism and of hard and rigid matter,
the shift in scientific knowledge as classifications to knowledge as
describing change, the role of tables and equations, the close
relationship between science and religion in the 19th century,
industrial revolution and the rise of energy physics, the appearance
of new notions of space, time and matter in the 20th century, the
Manhattan Project-from quantum uncertainty to nuclear danger-(come and
watch two documentaries!