Origins of Scientific Thinking

3 ECTS credits
90 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 1023225AEW for working students in the 2nd semester at a (A) Bachelor - preliminary level.

Semester

2nd semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Possible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Enrollment Requirements

NOTE: registration for this course is only possible for working students. Day students can register for courses whose code ends with an R. At Inschrijven / studentenadministratie@vub.be you must be registered at the VUB as a working student for the current academic year.

Taught in

English

Faculty

Faculty of Languages & Humanities

Department

History, Archaeology, Arts, Philosophy and Ethics

Educational team

Cornelis Johannes Schilt (course titular)

Activities and contact hours

26 contact hours Lecture
13 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
60 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study

Course Content

In this introductory course, students will be familiarized with an important transformation within European history: the so-called 'Scientific Revolution' which came to full fruition during the seventeenth century, and which led to the birth of modern scientific thinking. This course will focus on developments within what we today call physics, chemistry, medicine, astronomy, and biology, but also on the humanities. At the same time, attention will be drawn to a series of crucial sixteenth- and seventeenth-century epistemological, ontological and social changes without which the emergence of the 'Scientific Revolution' simply cannot be understood.

In Part I of the course, we will go back to ancient times and discover the roots of modern science, leading up to the ‘Scientific Revolution’. In Part II, we will discuss in detail the various developments in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century science, that collectively have become known as the ‘Scientific Revolution’. In Part III, we will develop an informed critique of the concept: how apt was the term ‘Scientific Revolution’? All of this will be done by drawing upon important primary sources and the latest insights from contemporary history and philosophy of science. Finally, in Part IV of the course, we will explore a number of important primary sources in greater detail, on which students will write their final paper.

Course material

Digital course material (Required) : Reader

Additional info

The course reader will contain canonical or state-of-the-art literature. The reader will be distributed electronically and free of charge.

Learning Outcomes

Algemene competenties

- The student is capable to describe, to contextualize and to illustrate the roots of modern science leading up to the 'Scientific Revolution'.

- The student is capable to describe, to contextualize and to illustrate sixteenth- and seventeenth-century transformations that are relevant for understanding the 'Scientific Revolution'.

- The student is able to explain the role and importance of several sixteenth- and seventeenth-century actors and their contributions to science.

- The student is able to explain the old narrative of the 'Scientific Revolution' and to critically assess its merits and shortcomings by means of the state of the art.

- The student can provide a detailed exposé of the differences and communalities between the scholarly analyses on the 'Scientific Revolution' that are treated in the course.

- Based on the knowledge obtained during the course, the student is able to adequately contextualize a chosen primary source in a paper.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 50% of the final mark.
SELF Practical Assignment determines 20% of the final mark.
SELF Paper determines 30% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Examen schriftelijk with a relative weight of 50 which comprises 50% of the final mark.

Within the SELF Practical Assignment category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Activerende werkvormen with a relative weight of 20 which comprises 20% of the final mark.

Within the SELF Paper category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Paper with a relative weight of 30 which comprises 30% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

The grade for this course is determined by: (1) the written exam (50% of the total grade); (2) the student's participation in the activating exercises that require preparation (20% of the total grade), and (3) the written paper (30% of the total grade). Results obtained for (2) and (3) can be transferred to the resit exam.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context