STS.002 | Fall 2003 | Undergraduate

Toward the Scientific Revolution

Course Description

This subject traces the evolution of ideas about nature, and how best to study and explain natural phenomena, beginning in ancient times and continuing through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. A central theme of the subject is the intertwining of conceptual and institutional relations within diverse areas of …
This subject traces the evolution of ideas about nature, and how best to study and explain natural phenomena, beginning in ancient times and continuing through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. A central theme of the subject is the intertwining of conceptual and institutional relations within diverse areas of inquiry: cosmology, natural history, physics, mathematics, and medicine.
Collage of Kepler, Copernicus, Newton, Galileo, Descartes, and Ptolemy. (Clockwise from top left.)
Clockwise from top left is a collage of Kepler, Copernicus, Newton, Galileo, Descartes, and Ptolemy. (Images courtesy of the Library of Congress and NASA.)