The Scientific Self: Evaluation

The evaluation will take place during the semester on the basis of three written assignments:

1. A portrait of a scientist

You are required to select a seventeenth century ‘scientist’ (natural philosopher) and assemble a 4 pages presentation of his life and work. You need to read at least:

a. a standard biography of your character (NOT Wikipedia or internet-source)
b. two encyclopedia articles on his work/personality (NOT Wikipedia)
c. one of his works (full)
d. two papers/articles on a certain aspect of his work


After submitting the paper presentation you will be required to give a slide/seminar presentation of your character. Both the paper presentation and the ppt. presentation will be uploaded on the discussion group.

How to write the presentation: try to find out who she/he was and what she/he did; why was his work important for the emergence/advancement of science/philosophy? Whose contemporary he/she was? What kind of scientific contacts/philosophical connections he/she had? Was she a professional scientist? What else? (social class, major profession, connections, source of income….). What else did he/she write? Which of his works survived? Who read them and why?

And, most important of all: what kind of inheritance did we receive from your character? Why should we care today about him or his works?

Note: Some of the characters of our story are not only scientists. However, in your presentation you should concentrate on the scientific aspects of their activities, trying to show in what way these were important and how are they related with other activities/aspects of their personality.

Deadline for the 4 pages presentation of a scientist (to be sent through email and uploaded on the group): 23rd March


2. A scientific/philosophical problem of the seventeenth century: the issue at stake, people involved, sides, works involved, how did it develop, what was the outcome

A four-pages presentation of the emergence of a scientific/philosophical problem and the disputations surrounding it based on:

a. at least one full-account of the problem (book/books on the subject)
b. at least 2 papers/articles/talks discussing different aspects of the problem

Before choosing your topic we need to discuss. We will select the bibliography after/during this discussion.

Deadline for selecting the topic and having the preliminary discussion with me: 23 March
Deadline for handing in the written material: 11th of May

3. A two pages abstract of a paper for the summer seminar at Bran plus a complete application file for the Princeton/Bucharest seminar in early modern philosophy

Deadline: 1st of May

The Scientific Self: Course Syllabus

1. The scientist’ persona: A discussion of Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis




Bibliography:
Francis Bacon, New Atlantis

Secondary literature:
Shapin, The Scientific Life, 2009, ch.2, ‘From calling to Job: nature, truth, method and vocation from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century’
Jalobeanu, Preface to Noua Atlantida , Nemira, 2007

Further reading:
Bronwen Price, ed. Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis. New Interdisciplinary essays, 2001
S.McKnight, Francis Bacon’s theology, 2006, ch. 1
Dear, P., The Intelligibility of Nature, ch.1


2. Who is the natural philosopher? Solomon House and other societies

Bibliography:
Bacon, General plan (of the Instauratio Magna)
Robert Hooke, Micrographia, Preface
Excerpts from Oldenburg letters (Oldenburg to Spinoza and Spinoza’s replies)

Further primary reading:
The first number of Philosophical transactions (online on Gallica.fr)

Secondary:
Jalobeanu, D. ‘The fascination of Solomon’s House in seventeenth century’s England’, in V. Alexandrescu, Branching off, Zeta Books, 2009

Further reading:
Lynch, Solomon’s Child: Method in Early Royal Society, ch 1


3. Experimental philosophy/experimental science, Baconian experiments and the Royal Society

Bibliography:
Birch, History of the Royal Society – excerpts on the web-page of the course
Excerpts from Oldenburg letters (to be posted on the group)

Secondary bibliography:
Kuhn, T. Mathematical versus experimental traditions in the development of the physical sciences, The Essential Tension, 1977, 31-66

Secondary reading/further reading:
Hunter, M. ‘The Early Society and the Shape of Knowledge’, in Kelley, Popkin, Shapes of knowledge from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, Kluwer, 1991, 189-203


4. Experimental philosophy and the method of reasoning

Bibliography:
Bacon, Novum Organum, p. II, fragments
Bacon, Historia densi et rari , in Instauratio magna : the last texts, OFB vol XIII, 1-60

Secondary bibliography :
Peter Urbach, Francis Bacon’s philosophy of science, ch.1-3

5. Gentlemanly virtue, moral philosophy and early modern science

Bibliography:
Bacon, preface to Natural and Experimental History, OFB XII
Bacon, Valerius Terminus
Sprat, excerpts from the History of the Royal Society, part. III

Secondary bibliography:
Eamon, B., Science and the Secrets of Nature, p. 259-266 with notes
Jalobeanu, Experimental philosophy as therapy


Extras:
TALKS:
Fri 26 March (extra) Ed Slowick: Hobbes and the ‘phantasm’ of space

No course on the 14th of April

Tue 20 April (extra) Roger Ariew (University of South Florida) Galileo’s telescopic observations

6. Experiments and the new physics: Descartes

Bibliography:
Descartes, Discours de la methode, VI
Excerpts from the scientific treatises (Dioptrics)

Secondary bibliography :

M. Martinet, Science et hypothese chez Descartes, Archive internationale d’histoire des sciences, 24, 1974, 319-39
C. Larmore, Descartes’ Empirical Epistemology, in Gaukroger, ed, Descartes: philosophy, mathematics and physics, Brighton, 1980
S. Sakellariadis, Descartes’ Use of Empirical Data to Test Hypotheses, ISIS, 73 (1982), 68-76


7. Experiments and the new physics: the Royal Society

The problem of finding the true laws of collisions

Bibliography:
Descartes, Principles, II (excerpts)
Oldenburg (correspondence)- excerpts
Wallis, Wren, Huygens’ accounts on collisions from Philosophical transactions

Secondary bibliography:
Jalobeanu, in Jalobeanu, Anstey, Vanishing bodies: the philosophy of matter from Descartes to Hume, Routledge, forthcoming (2011)
Jalobeanu, The nature of body in 17th century English natural philosophy, in Anstey, The Oxford handbook of seventeenth century British philosophy, forthcoming

8. Experimenting with spirits: the human body and the human soul as a subjects to experiment

Bibliography:
Bacon, History of life and death, introduction plus selected experiments
Shakespeare, Hamlet: Who/What is the ghost? (and how can we prove it?)
Glanvill and More’s experiments with ghosts (Sadducismus triumphatus)

Secondary bibliography:
Daniel Garber – the paper on ghosts
Wallace, Francis Bacon on the nature of man, 1967, ch.2-4

9. A science of the soul: the faculties of the mind

Bibliography:
Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, p. II (the division of sciences)
Bacon, De Augmentis Scientiarum, II, VII

Secondary reading :
Wallace, Francis Bacon on the Nature of Man, 1967, ch.5-7
Grazia Tonelli Olivieri, ‘Galen and Francis Bacon : Faculties of the Soul and the classification of knowledge’ in Kelly, Popkin, eds., The Shapes of knowledge from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, Kluwer, 1991, 61-83


Extras (16-21 May)
Mini-worskhop on Bacon and imagination with Koen Vermeir and Dana Jalobeanu


10. The disciplinary status of scientia de anima: between natural philosophy and metaphysics

Primary:
Simplicius, On Aristotle on the Soul, 1.1-2.4
Aristotle: De part. An, I, 1, 641a-b10

Secondary:


11. A science of the soul (II) Treatises on the immortality of the soul

Descartes, Meditations (1-3)
Charleton, The immortality of the soul, dialogues 1-2

Secondary: Ariew et.all Background to Descartes’ Meditations, CUP 2001

12. Sciences of the embodied soul: Treatises on passions

Charleton, The natural history of the passions

Secondary:
Dana Jalobeanu, Experimental philosophy as therapy…

13. Experimental philosophy, natural philosophy and therapeutics

Sprat, History of the Royal Society, Excerpts from part III
Hooke, Micrographia, Preface
Hooke, A general scheme

14. Experimental versus speculative philosophy: the problems of the seventeenth century’ science

Sprat, History, part III excerpts
A comparison of Descartes and Bacon’s experiments
Ben Chaim, Experimental philosophy, ch.1
Peter Anstey, Experimental versus speculative philosophy, in Anstey, The science of nature in seventeenth century, 2004