Paula Findlen and Jessica Riskin

Winter 2017
History 232F/332F Th 1:30-
4:30
Bldg. 160, Rm.
314

All philosophy is based on two things only: curiosity and poor

eyesight . The trouble is, we want to know more than we can see.
-- Fontenelle, 1686

THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

Was there a scientific revolution in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries? How did modern science emerge as a
distinctive kind of knowledge and practices? This course explores
changing ideas of nature and knowledge during the age of
Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, Bacon, and Newton. It examines the
contexts in which western science emerged, issues of scientific
methodology (e.g. induction, deduction, probability, and the rise of
experimentation), the development of scientific institutions, and the
emergence of the scientist as a historical figure. More generally, it is
concerned with how historians have explained and debated the birth
pangs of modern science.
Taking advantage of Stanfords rich holdings in early science
books, we will have you look at rare materials in Special Collections
each week in order to examine original source materials for the
history of science while also getting to know some of the most
important work by historians on this subject.

Course Requirements:
For 232F: There will be an 8-10-page paper due on March 21st and
the topic statement, outline and annotated bibliography for this
paper will be due on February 9th.
For 332F - There will be a 5-7-page book review of a recent
monograph on some aspect of early modern science, due on February
23rd, and a 15-20-page final essay on a topic of your choosing, due
March 21st.
For everyone: you must come to class not only have done all the
readings, but prepared to discuss them. We recommend that you jot
down some notes about points or questions youd like to mention in
class discussion, or aspects of the reading that seem most salient to
you. You must also have hard copies of all the readings in front of you
during each class.

Two-Quarter Graduate Research Option:

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Those graduate students enrolled in HIST 332F may also enroll in a
research seminar with Prof. Riskin during spring quarter to develop
their work for 332F into a full research paper. These students will
submit an 8-10-pp. prospectus instead of a final paper on March 21st,
which they will develop into a 35-50-pp. research essay during the
spring quarter.

Office Hours:
Paula Findlen will hold office hours on Wed 11-12, 1:30-2:30 in
Bldg. 200, Rm. 109 and by appointment. You are also welcome to
reach me by email (pfindlen@stanford.edu).
Jessica Riskin will hold office hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays
11:00 12:00 in Bldg. 200, Rm. 116 and by appointment. You are also
welcome to reach me by email (jriskin@stanford.edu).

No-Electronics Policy: electronic devices interfere with the classs

navigational systems and must be switched off and stowed; note-
taking on paper is very strongly encouraged; you must have a hard
copy of the readings with you at each class.

Special Collections:
Each week we will have rare materials on reserve for you to look at
before seminar. If this is your first time using Special Collections, you
will need to register as a reader the first time you go.
Readings: The books listed below are available for purchase at the
Stanford Bookstore and on two-hour reserve in Green Library. Those
readings marked in the syllabus with an asterisk (*) can be found in
the course reader.

Bucciantini, Camerota, and Giudice, Galileos Telescope

Francis Bacon, The Great Instauration and the New Atlantis
Margaret Cavendish, Observations on Experimental Philosophy
(Hackett ed.)
Lorraine Daston and Katharine Park, Wonder and the Order of Nature
Ren Descartes, A Discourse on Method
Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, Conversations on the Plurality of
Worlds
Anthony Grafton, New Worlds, Ancient Texts
Thomas Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution
Richard Westfall, The Life of Isaac Newton

SCHEDULE:
Week One (1/12): Revolutions and Evolutions
Introduction to the Scientific Revolution
Reading: Cohen*; Porter*
Special Collections: Look at Vesalius

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Week Two (1/19): Transforming the Heavens
Reading: Kuhn, esp. pp. 1-44, 77-184; Westman*; Yates*
Special Collections: Look at Copernicus and Kepler

Week Three (1/26): Understanding Nature

Reading: Daston and Park, pages TBA
Special Collections: Look at Fuchs and Aldrovandi

Week Four (2/2): Seeing the World

Reading: Grafton, Pimentel*
Special Collections: Look at Bartolom de las Casas, Increase
Mather

Week Five (2/9): Observing with Instruments

Reading: Bucciantini et.al.
Special Collections: Look at Galileo

Week Six (2/16): The Discovery of the Mind

Reading: Descartes, pp. xiii-150; Jones*
Special Collections: Look at Descartes

Week Seven (2/23): Inventing a Scientific Society

Reading: Bacon; Hannaway*; Dear*; Shapin*
Special Collections: Look at Bacon, Sprat, and Philosophical
Transactions

Week Eight (3/2): Learning to Experiment

Reading: Cavendish; Shapin*
Special Collections: Look at Hooke and Boyle

Week Nine (3/9): The Scientific Life

Reading: Westfall; Findlen*
Class Exercise: Look at Kircher and Newtons alchemical
library

Week Ten (3/16): Science and Society

Reading: Fontenelle; Schiebinger*; Findlen*
Class Exercise: Look at Algarotti

*** Final paper due: Tuesday, March 21st ***

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 Scientific Revolution Course Reader contents:

I. Bernard Cohen, The Eighteenth Century Origins of the

Scientific Revolution, Journal of the History of Ideas 37 (1976): 257-
288. (online in JSTOR)

Roy Porter, The Scientific Revolution: A Spoke in the Wheel?

in Revolution in History, ed. Roy Porter and Mikulas Teich
(Cambridge, 1986), pp. 290-316.

Robert S. Westman, The Melanchthon Circle, Rheticus, and the

Wittenberg Interpretation of Copernican Theory, Isis 66 (1975): 164-
193 (online in JSTOR)

Frances Yates, The Hermetic Tradition in Renaissance

Science, in Art, Science and History in the Renaissance, ed. Charles
S. Singleton (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1967), pp.
255-275.

Juan Pimentel, The Iberian Vision: Science and Empire in the

Framework of an Universal Monarch, 1500-1800, in Osiris 15 (2000):
17-30.

Matthew L. Jones, Descartess Geometry as Spiritual Exercise,

Critical Inquiry 28 (2001): 40-71. (online in JSTOR)

Owen Hannaway, Laboratory Design and the Aim of Science:

Tycho Brahe versus Andreas Libavius, Isis 77 (1986): 584-610.
(online in JSTOR)

Peter Dear, Totius in verba: Rhetoric and Authority in the Early

Royal Society, Isis 76 (1985): 145-161. (online in JSTOR)

Steven Shapin, The House of Experiment in Seventeenth-

Century England, Isis 79 (1988): 373-404. (online in JSTOR)

Steven Shapin, Pump and Circumstance: Robert Boyles

Literary Technology, in Social Studies of Science, Vol. 14 (1984), 481-
520, online at
https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/3353764/Shapin_Pump.p
df?sequence=1

Paula Findlen, The Janus Faces of Science in the Seventeenth

Century: Athanasius Kircher and Isaac Newton, in Rethinking the
Scientific Revolution, ed. Margeret Osler (Cambridge, U. K.:
Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 221-246.

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 Londa Schiebinger, Maria Winkelmann at the Berlin Academy:
A Turning Point for Women in Science, Isis 78 (1987): 174-200.
(online in JSTOR)

Paula Findlen, Women on the Verge of Science: Aristocratic

Women and Knowledge in Early Eighteenth-Century Italy, in Women,
Gender and Enlightenment, ed. Sarah Knott and Barbara Taylor (New
York: Palgrave, 2005), pp. 265-287.