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Overview of the Pilot Curriculum General Education Requirement
2004-2005 Pilot Curriculum General Requirement Course Descriptions

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Course Description:

During the last 400 years, science has emerged as a central and transformative feature of Western society and culture, a human enterprise that continues to reshape everyday life in countless ways. Why did science take root in the West, and how did it gradually change the way we see the world? What was the “Scientific Revolution,” and what did it change? How is the thinking of great scientists shaped by the culture, religion, and politics of their own times? How has science fundamentally transformed the way we understand the universe and our place in it?

This introductory course will survey the emergence of the scientific world view during the past 400 years, from the Renaissance through the end of the 20th century. By focusing on the life and work of those who created modern science, we will explore their core ideas, where they came from, what problems they solved, what made them controversial and exciting, and how they related to contemporary religious beliefs, politics, society, and culture (art, literature, and music). The course is organized chronologically and thematically. In short, this is a “Western Civ” course with a difference.
Topics include:

• Leonardo da Vinci, “Renaissance Man”
• Copernicus, Kepler, and the New Cosmos
• Galileo and the Inquisition
• Newton and His “Heavenly Clockwork”
• Bacon, Descartes, and the Experimental Method
• Goethe, Faraday, and “Romantic Science”
• Darwin, Evolution, and Creationism
• Pasteur and Scientific Medicine
• Genetics, Eugenics, and the New Biology
• Science, War, and Revolution
• Edison, Einstein, and the “New Physics”
• The Politics of Nature: Nazi and Soviet Science
• The Manhattan Project, the Bomb, and Its Consequences
• The Information Age: Codes, Chips, and DNA
• Science, Immortality, and the Human Future

The course has no prerequisites. Students must register for both lecture and a recitation section. Monday and Wednesday lectures will present the central ideas: attentive lecture attendance is mandatory. Friday sections will afford the opportunity for hands-on observation, discussion, and debate. Readings will be light but carefully chosen, including primary sources. Grading will be based on hour exams, short papers, and project assignments.

This course is intended for a wide variety of students. Freshmen may find it a useful as a holistic introduction to their university studies; more advanced students may find it helpful in filling in gaps and putting what they know in broader perspective.

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