Location: 3rd Floor
New Academic Building
University of King’s College
Halifax, NS B3H 2A1
Telephone: (902) 422-1271 ext. 204
Fax: (902) 423-3357

Director
Kyle Fraser, BA (Vind), MA (Dal), MPhil, PhD (Cantab)

Teaching Staff at King’s
Michael Bennett, BA (Vind), MA (Western), PhD (McMaster)
Mark Burke, BA (Vind), MA (Concordia), PhD (Ottawa)
Melanie Frappier, BScA, MA (Laval), PhD (Western)
Kyle Fraser, BA (Vind), MA (Dal), MPhil, PhD (Cantab)
Gordon McOuat, BA, MA, PhD (Tor)
Stephen Snobelen, BA, MA (Victoria), MPhil, PhD (Cantab)
Ian Stewart, BSc (Trent), MA (Tor), PhD (Cantab)
Aaron Wright, BA, BSc (McGill), MA, PhD (Tor)

Teaching Staff at Dalhousie
Gillian Gass, BSc (Dal), MA, PhD (Tor)

I. Introduction

Science and technology shape who we are, our environments, our conditions of work and play, and what we consider to be trustworthy knowledge. The History of Science and Technology (HOST) program explores the historical, cultural, and philosophical contexts of this engagement to elucidate the nature of scientific knowledge and to understand the role of science and technology in the development of past and present societies.

HOST is an interdisciplinary program that bridges the sciences and the humanities. It explores topics as diverse as the ancient origins of technology, medieval natural philosophy, alchemy and magic, ecology and the Anthropocene, the history of medicine and disease, religion and nature, the Scientific Revolution, science in movies, art, and literature, and how modern science is, every day, influencing and transforming our political, cultural, and economic institutions.

HOST courses are open to all students registered at Dalhousie University or the University of King’s College. We also welcome visiting students (attending on a Letter of Permission) from other universities.

II. Program Options

Students registered in the BA, BSc, or Bachelor of Journalism (Honours) degree at either King’s or Dalhousie have two options for pursuing a degree in the HOST program: (a) the Combined Honours degree or (b) the Minor.

A. Combined Honours

Pursuing an honours degree requires a higher quality of work than is required by the other undergraduate programs (such as the 120 credit hour Major). Students who intend to apply to graduate school or professional programs (e.g. medicine or law) are especially encouraged to take an Honours degree as scholarships and admission committees tend to look more favourably on students with Honours-level degrees. Choosing a Combined Honours degree enables you to pursue your studies in two disciplines, while demonstrating your seriousness and abilities as a student.

The HOST Combined Honours degree is available to students pursuing a BA, a BSc (second subject only), or a Bachelor of Journalism (Honours).

The Combined Honours BA or BSc degree in HOST is offered jointly by Dalhousie University and the University of King’s College.

B. Minor

The Minor in HOST indicates a willingness and ability to approach issues at the crossroad between the sciences and the humanities from an interdisciplinary perspective. It is available to students registered in a 120 credit hour Bachelor of Applied Computer Science, Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Community Design, Bachelor of Computer Science, Bachelor of Informatics, Bachelor of Management, Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Science (Medical Sciences), or in the Bachelor of Journalism (Honours) program.

If you are a Dalhousie student and include a Minor in HOST in your studies, your degree is granted by Dalhousie University. If you are a King’s student, your degree is granted either jointly by Dalhousie University and the University of King’s College or by Dalhousie in association with King’s.

III. Degree Requirements

A. Combined Honours

Students are encouraged to apply to the program and seek advice on course selection as early as possible, even before registering for the second year. All students must meet the degree requirements for the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, or the Faculty of Science, or Journalism program as detailed in the Degree Requirements section of this calendar. For each individual student, the entire degree program, including elective courses and honours requirements, is subject to supervision and approval by the two concerned programs.

BA and BSc Combined Honours
The History of Science and Technology combined honours degrees are based on the general requirement that the 120 credit hours needed to graduate include:

1. A minimum of 66 credit hours in the honours subjects beyond the 1000 level.

• BA students must complete no fewer than 30 credit hours in each subject.
• BSc students are encouraged to complete at least 30 credit hours in History of Science and Technology but may elect to complete only 24 credit hours with program’s approval.

2. With the approval of both the Dalhousie department concerned and of the History of Science and Technology program, students may elect to take a maximum of 84 credit hours in the two honours subjects. In this case:

• BA students cannot take more than 48 credit hours in either subject;
•  BSc students are limited to 54 credit hours in either subject, with the larger number of credits being in their science subject.

3. The four 3 credit hour “core” courses in History of Science and Technology:
•HSTC 2001.03 (or equivalent)
•HSTC 3001.03 (or equivalent)
•HSTC 4001.03 (or equivalent)
•HSTC 4600.03

Note: With special permission from the Director, HSTC 3031.03 may be substituted for HSTC 2001.03, HSTC 3001.03, or HSTC 4001.03.

4. An honours qualifying examination. History of Science and Technology students usually obtain this grade in their primary subject (the subject in which they have completed the most credit hours); permission is required from the primary subject advisor if a student wishes to obtain the grade in the secondary subject. In the History of Science and Technology program the honours thesis (HSTC 4650.03) fulfills the requirement of the honours qualifying examination.

5. Students will be eligible to take “Independent Reading” courses only when they reach their third or fourth year. The permission of a member of the teaching staff and the Director of the program is necessary in order to take one of these courses, and their availability is strictly limited.

BJH with History of Science and Technology
Students registered in the combined honours in Journalism and History of Science and Technology are required to complete a total of 123 credit hours and should, therefore, plan their degree during their first year. In many cases, students will not be able to satisfy all degree requirements in eight semesters and may need to take courses in the summer, or devote an additional academic year to their studies. Students are required to complete 84 credit hours between the two subjects, 54 of which much be in Journalism and 30 of which must be in History of Science and Technology and include the program’s four half-year “core” courses (or their full-year equivalents), as described above in the BA & BSc Combined Honours requirements. Students must complete all non-credit Journalism curriculum requirements of the BJH program. They must also complete JOUR 4002.03, the Journalism Honours Project.

B. Minor

The Minor in HOST requires a minimum of 18 to a maximum of 27 credit hours taken at the 2000 level or above.  This must include:

1. Any one of the following three core courses:

• HSTC 2001.03: Ancient and Medieval Science (or equivalent)
• HSTC 3001.03: The Scientific Revolution (or equivalent)
• HSTC 4001.03: Science and Nature in the Modern Period (or equivalent)

2.  6 credit hours at the 3000 or 4000 level.

DALHOUSIE SELECTIVES

Students enrolled in the Combined Honours or Minor program in HSTC can opt to have a maximum of one 3-credit hour course at Dalhousie University count towards the HSTC side of their degree.  The Registrar’s Office at King’s should be notified if students wish to pursue this option.

Eligible selectives for 2022-23 only:

• There will be no selectives offered in the 2022/23 academic year.

IV. Courses offered

HSTC 1201.03 Introduction to the History of Science I: from the Ancients to the Birth of the Modern
This course covers the historical foundations of science, from ancient Babylonia to the Enlightenment. Open to first-year students and above, it can be taken as a humanities or a science course and serves as preparation for its modern counterpart, HSTC 1202.03 / HSTC 2212.03 / HIST 2076.03 / SCIE 2002.03.

Instructor:  Michael Bennett
Format: Lecture/tutorial
Cross-listing: HSTC 2211.03, HIST 2075.03, SCIE 2001.03
Exclusions: HSTC 1200.06, HSTC 2200.06, HIST 2074.06, SCIE 2000.06

NOTE: HSTC 1201.03 and HSTC1202.03 must normally be taken in the same academic year

HSTC 1202.03 Introduction to the History of Science II: From The Birth of the Modern to the Present
This course covers the creation of modern science, from the radical changes of the Enlightenment to contemporary notions of technoscience and our place in nature and the cosmos. It follows the themes and contexts introduced in HSTC 1201.03, HSTC 2211.03, HIST 2075.03, SCIE 2001.03. Open to first-year students and above, it can be taken as a humanities or science credit.

Instructor:  Michael Bennett
Format: Lecture/tutorial
Cross-listing: HSTC 2212.03, HIST 2076.03, SCIE 2002.03
Prerequisites: HSTC 1201.03 or permission of the instructor
Exclusions: HSTC 1200.06, HSTC 2200.06, HIST 2074.06, SCIE 2000.06

NOTE: HSTC 1201.03 and HSTC1202.03 must normally be taken in the same academic year

HSTC 2001.03: Beginnings of Wisdom: Science in the Pre-modern World
This course introduces key developments in pre-modern science. Fundamental concepts in the physical sciences, astronomy and cosmology are treated through the study of primary sources from antiquity (Near Eastern and Greco-Roman) and the medieval Islamic, Jewish and Christian cultures. We will be attentive to the wider cultural contexts in which science was pursued and to intersections between science and other ways of knowing (e.g., myth, magic, religion).

Courses at the 2000 level are open to all students, even first-year students, unless otherwise noted. Courses at the 3000 and 4000 series are available to students in their second year or above.

Instructor: Kyle Fraser
Format: Lecture/Seminar
Exclusion: HSTC 2000X/Y.06
Crosslisting: CLAS2001.03

HSTC 2002.03: Medieval Natural Philosophy: from the Roman Empire to the Age of Dante
This course introduces key developments in medieval understandings of nature (better called “natural philosophy” rather than “science”) through a direct engagement with primary sources. We consider how the texts and authorities of antiquity (Plato and Aristotle, most notably) were assimilated, adapted and transformed during the Roman Empire, in Islam, and in later medieval Christian Europe. Questions such as the role of ‘nature’ in defining human happiness, the good life, and the character of political power will figure prominently. We will attend to the limits of ‘natural’ reason in relation to established disciplines like theology, as well as more contested areas of knowledge such as magic, astrology and alchemy. The approach taken will be that of intellectual history, in the sense that we will focus on fundamental concepts articulated by the authors and on careful textual exegesis, while always attentive to the wider historical and cultural contexts. Especially given that this course’s authors, texts and contexts are quite distant in time from our contemporary world, there will also be occasions for us to reflect on the challenges facing the modern inquirer into pre-modern conceptions of nature and scientific knowledge.

Instructor: Ian Stewart
Format: Lecture/Seminar
Exclusion: HSTC 2000X/Y.06
Crosslisting: CLAS2002.03

HSTC 2011.03/HSTC3011.03/HSTC4011.03: The Lecture Series
In some years a lecture series course is offered. Students are allowed to take up to three such courses, one for each year of upper-level study. Each course will consist of six bi-weekly evening lectures given by specialists from Atlantic Canada and beyond and a weekly two hour tutorial. The lectures will offer students reflections on a number of contemporary issues and themes. Each year a different theme will be explored.

Instructor: Staff
Format: Seminar/evening lectures

HSTC 2102.03: Origins of Modern Medicine
This course looks at defining moments that led to modern health and medicine, beginning with the ancient world leading up to the development of ‘modern’ institutionalized medicine at the birth of the 20th Century. Focus will be on changing ideas about the causes of disease and the possibilities of medicine, but also on the broader conceptions of health, life and death and their social/cultural place. This course also stands as the Core Area Credit in the Medical Humanities Certificate Program.

Instructor: Gordon McOuat
Format: Lecture/Seminar/Discussion

HSTC 2105.03: The Life, Science and Philosophy of Albert Einstein
In 1999 Time Magazine named Albert Einstein “Person of the Century” for the impact his scientific work had not only on physics, but also on culture in general. In this course, we will explore how Einstein’s proof of the existence of atoms, his belief in light particles (the photons), and his application of the famous principle of relativity revolutionized both modern physics and philosophy. We will also pay attention to the main events of Einstein’s life (his divorce, the rise of Nazism in Germany, etc. Einstein’s pacifism and Zionism, his attitude toward religion, his personal relationships with other scientists such as Poincaré, Bohr, etc.) to understand the personal, social and cultural contexts in which these revolutionary theories were developed.

Instructor: Melanie Frappier
Format: Lecture/Discussion

NOTE: No prior knowledge of physics, mathematics, or philosophy is expected. This course is for everyone with an interest in science, but is not a science course (mathematics will be kept at a minimum).

HSTC 2120.03 Magic, Science and the Occult: from Antiquity to Postmodernity
A perennial source of fear and fascination, magic and related forms of ‘occultism’ (e.g. alchemy and astrology) have been dismissed as pseudo-science and even stigmatized as ‘Satanism’. This course aims to recover the original meaning of occultism from the perspective of the practitioners of magic. It explores the origins and development of the ‘occult sciences’, highlighting their often-overlooked contributions to the history of science, and their continuing evolution in the modern world.

Instructor: Kyle Fraser
Format: Lecture/Seminar
Crosslisting: EMSP 2360.03, HIST 2990.03, RELS 2120.03

HSTC 2202.03: The Beginnings of Western Medicine: the Birth of the Body
This course will look at how the body was viewed in ancient scientific theory and practice. Western medicine as a rationalized scientific practice finds its origins in the Ancient Greek philosophical and medical texts attributed to “Hippocrates”. Through a close reading of selected ancient medical texts including work by the most influential pre-modern medical author Galen (2nd century CE), this course will explore ideas of how the human body is constituted, how it relates to the cosmos as a whole, what the role of the physician was seen to be, and how illness and healing were conceived.

Instructor: Ian Stewart
Format: Lecture/Tutorial
Crosslisting: CLAS 2202.03

HSTC 2204.03: The Darwinian Revolution
Arguably, the Darwinian Revolution marks the greatest revolution in our conception of nature and our place within it, deeply challenging views on chance, teleology, history, the soul and nature. This course opens up the historical and philosophical background to the Darwinian revolution, the main episodes of that revolution and the consequences for contemporary moral, scientific and social theory. Emphasis will be placed on reading contemporary primary texts.

Instructor: Michael Bennett
Format: Seminar

HSTC 2205.03: Totalitarianism and Science
The question of who has authority over funding, direction and priorities of modern science is a central political concern. This course considers the case of totalitarian states (USSR and Nazi Germany) and consists of two parts. Part I analyses the essential features of totalitarian regimes. Part II concentrates on the fortune of particular sciences (medicine, biology, physics) under them.

Instructor: Staff
Format: Lecture/Tutorial
Crosslisting: HIST 2985.03, CTMP 2205.03

HSTC 2206.03: Bio-Politics: Human Nature in Contemporary Thought
To what extent do biology and culture determine what it is to be human? Drawing on theorists ranging from Foucault to Steven Pinker, this course will examine the recent political, moral and existential issues raised by attempts to answer that question. Topics will include evolutionary psychology, genetic screening, race, bio-engineering and the spectre of determinism.

Instructor: Michael Bennett
Format: Lectures and Student Workshops
Crosslisting: CTMP 2203.03

HSTC 2209.03 Environmentalism: origins, ideals and critique
In this course, we examine the ideals of environmentalism from its origins in the late 18th century to the present. Topics include the romantic critique of industrialization, forest management and sustainability, wilderness preservation, animal rights, radical environmentalism, and environmental justice.

Instructor: Stephen Boos
Format: Lecture/Seminar
Crosslisting: CTMP 2206.03

HSTC 2210.03 Engineering the Planet: the Anthropocene Era, from Prehistory to Today’s Global Crisis
This course explores the notion of the Anthropocene, the idea that the Earth has been significantly and permanently altered by human activity. Through the lens of environmental history, the course examines the material, social, and conceptual technologies used to relate and manipulate environments over the last 12,000 years.

Instructor: Ian Stewart
Format: Lecture/Seminar
Exclusion: HSTC3210.03

HSTC 2211.03 Introduction to the History of Science I: from the Ancients to the Birth of the Modern
This course covers the historical foundations of science, from ancient Babylonia to the Enlightenment. Open to first-year students and above, it can be taken as a humanities or a science course and serves as preparation for its modern counterpart, HSTC 1202.03 / HSTC 2212.03 / HIST 2076.03 / SCIE 2002.03.

Instructor:  Michael Bennett
Format: Lecture/tutorial
Cross-listing: HSTC 2211.03, HIST 2075.03, SCIE 2001.03
Exclusions: HSTC 1200.06, HSTC 2200.06, HIST 2074.06, SCIE 2000.06

NOTE: HSTC 2211.03 and HSTC 2212.03 must normally be taken in the same academic year

HSTC 2212.03 Introduction to the History of Science II: From The Birth of the Modern to the Present
This course covers the creation of modern science, from the radical changes of the Enlightenment to contemporary notions of technoscience and our place in nature and the cosmos. It follows the themes and contexts introduced in HSTC 1201.03, HSTC 2211.03, HIST 2075.03, SCIE 2001.03. Open to first-year students and above, it can be taken as a humanities or science credit.

Instructor:  Michael Bennett
Format: Lecture/tutorial
Cross-listing: HSTC 2212.03, HIST 2076.03, SCIE 2002.03
Prerequisites: HSTC 1201.03 or permission of the instructor
Exclusions: HSTC 1200.06, HSTC 2200.06, HIST 2074.06, SCIE 2000.06

NOTE: HSTC 2211.03 and HSTC 2212.03 must normally be taken in the same academic year

HSTC 2220.03:  Ideas of the Sea and Seafaring:  Intercultural Perspectives 
A survey of intercultural ideas of the sea and seafaring from ancient to modern times. Topics include oceanic myths and origin stories, the myth of Atlantis, marine natural history, sea monsters, mermaids, the law and freedom of the sea, Black Atlantic identity, scientific sea voyages, oceanic science fiction, modern sea power, and marine conservation. 

Instructor:  Simon Kow 
Format:  Lecture/Discussion 
Cross-listing:  EMSP 2490.03, CTMP 2207.03

HSTC 2310.03: Women and Gender in Early Modern Science
This course will explore the roles of women, and questions about women’s nature, in the development of Early Modern science. The course will consider several interrelated aspects of scientific culture in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. First, we will look at the place of women in scientific institutions of the time. Although women were, for the most part, excluded from universities and scientific academies, some women were able to do scientific work through their participation in salons and craft guilds.

The second part of the course will look at the contributions of some particular women to the fields of physics, astronomy, botany, and medicine. We will then examine how science interpreted sex and gender. We will pay special attention to the biological sciences and their treatment of sex differences, conception, and generation. We will consider how these biological theories were influenced by, and at the same time used to uphold, various political and social structures.

Finally, the course will explore the ways in which gender and nature were portrayed in the broader cultural context. We will, for example, discuss the ways in which women were depicted as scientists and as symbols of science in art and literature.

Instructor: Kathryn Morris
Format: Lecture/Seminar
Crosslisting: EMSP 2310.03, GWST 2310.03

HSTC 2340.03: The Origins of Science Fiction in Early Modern Europe
In 1500, literate Europeans lived in a bounded, geocentric universe. By 1800, the sun had replaced the earth at the centre of a limited planetary system situated in infinite space. These changes prompted Early Modern philosophers, scientists, and writers to consider the possibility that the universe might contain a plurality of worlds. This course will explore the ways in which the “plurality“ theme was developed in some of the earliest works of science fiction. We will consider this theme as it appears in stories of inter galactic voyages, utopian societies, and encounters with extraterrestrial beings, paying special attention to the ways in which Early Modern writers used these tales to speculate on philosophical, political and scientific issues.

Instructor: Kathryn Morris
Format: Seminar
Crosslisting: EMSP 2340.03
Exclusion: EMSP 2330.03

HSTC 2350.03 The Body in Early Modern Europe
This course will explore how the emergence of the modern self intersected with changing conceptions of the body. We will explore such topics as the rise of Renaissance anatomy; Early Modern History of Science & Technology 101 perceptions of gender, race, and sexual difference; new explanations of madness and melancholy; monstrous and demonic bodies; representations of the diseased body; and the emergence of the modern ideal of the disciplined body.

Instructor: Kathryn Morris
Format: Lecture/Tutorial
Crosslisting: EMSP 2350.03

HSTC 2400.03: Science and the Media
From the first Babylonian astronomical records on cuneiform to the public understanding of science on television and the Internet, the various media have long been crucial to the success and spread of science. This course provides a history of science in the media from the ancient and medieval use of geometrical diagrams, astronomical figures and anatomical illustration through early modern printed texts, popular broadsheets and colour botanical plates all the way to the ubiquity of science in literature, cinema, journalism and online. It focusses on the technologies of communication, the use of the media by science and the ways science and scientists are represented in the media. The expanding presence of science in the media is examined against the backdrop of five revolutions: literary and artistic (writing and the visual arts), mechanical (the printing press), electric (telegraph, telephone and cinema), electronic (radio and television) and digital (computing and the Internet). Specific themes considered include the increasing accuracy of scientific illustration, the rise of scientific journals, public scientific demonstrations, science in poetry and prose fiction, science and art, radio and television documentaries, the advertising and marketing of science, scientific apocalypses and techno-utopias, bioethics, environmentalism, Soviet-era technological iconography, science fiction from Jules Verne and H.G. Wells to Jurassic Park and Interstellar, and science in computing, cyberspace and augmented reality.

Instructor: Stephen Snobelen
Format: Lecture/Seminar
Crosslisting: JOUR 2400.03

HSTC 2410.03: Imagining Artificial Intelligence
Though the term ‘artificial intelligence’ was first coined in 1956, human beings have dreamt of creating intelligent machines for centuries. In this course, we will uncover the rich history of attempts to create artificial intelligence. We will begin with the automata of ancient Greece and work our way through the Islamic golden age toward the modern era of artificial intelligence research. This historical picture will be complemented by an examination of current advances in AI in several fields, including mathematical proof, policing, high-frequency trading, art, and warfare. Along the way, we will also pay close attention to the philosophical, social, and ethical implications posed by these technological developments and their applications to nearly every aspect of modern life.

Instructor: Mark Burke
Format: Lecture/Seminar

HSTC 2500.03: Science Fiction in Film
This course studies the ways science and technology are represented in science fiction film from the birth of cinema to today. This course uses classic and recent science fiction films as a vehicle to discuss and analyse science and technology themes of the past, present and imagined future. Themes examined include the “mad “scientist; science as malevolent versus science as salvation; the survival of humanness in a technological world and the contrary trend of dehumanisation in the face of advancing technology; scientific utopias and dystopias; science fiction as self-fulfilling prophecy; voyages into space and inner space; time travel; computers and artificial intelligence; nuclear holocaust and environmental apocalypses; alien life; genetic engineering; imagined technocracies; neo-Luddism; ethics and technology; and science fiction as a vehicle for social and political commentary. Examples of films screened include classics of science fiction such as Metropolis (1927), Frankenstein (1931), The Time Machine (1960), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Solaris (1972), and Bladerunner (1982), along with more recent films such as Gattaca (1997), Moon (2009), The Martian (2015) and Arrival (2016).  These feature films will be supplemented with footage from civil defence films, government celebrations of science and technology along with science documentaries. Films will be accompanied in course by discussion and criticism.  Students will also read scholarly treatments of cinematic science fiction.

Instructor: Stephen Snobelen
Format: Film screening/Discussion

HSTC 2809.03 Making History: A Global History of Technology through Reproductions from Prehistory to the First Industrial Revolution
This course explores the reciprocal influences of technology and social, political, cultural and economic institutions from the Stone Age to the First Industrial Revolution (ca. 1800) using case studies from the history of technology and historical reproductions.

Instructor: Melanie Frappier
Format: Lecture/Seminar
Exclusion: HSTC 1800.03

HSTC 2810.03 History of Chinese Science and Technology
This course introduces central features of the history of science and technology at the heart of Chinese and East Asian history. Focus will be on the long-term global trajectories of environmental and technological change that transformed the production of goods, the conduct of governance, and the relationships between humans and their environments.

Instructor: Staff
Format: Lecture/Tutorial
Cross-listing: CHIN 2040.03

HSTC 2811.03 Asia and the West: Centuries of Dialogue
This course will explore some of the most important engagements of modern Western thinkers with various texts and traditions of East and/or South Asian thought, examine the very aspects of Asian thought that intrigued modern Western thinkers, and assess Western values and projects in their lights.

Instructor: Simon Kow
Format: Lecture/Seminar
Crosslisting: CTMP 2102.03, EMSP 2390.03, CHIN 2082.03
Exclusion: EMSP 2450.03, CHIN 2080.03

HSTC 3001.03: The Scientific Revolution
This course examines the history and historiography of the Scientific Revolution (1500–1800). Beginning with the late Medieval developments that prepared the ground for the Scientific Revolution, this course examines the revolutions in astronomy, medicine, physics, natural history and the earth sciences through the innovative work of such natural philosophers as Copernicus, Vesalius, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes and Boyle up to the achievement of Isaac Newton’s Principia mathematica (1687) and Opticks (1704). The course then evaluates the immediate spread and legacies of Newtonianism and considers more broadly developments in astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology and the emerging life sciences along with their impact on culture and society in the Enlightenment.

Instructor: Stephen Snobelen
Format: Lecture/Seminar
Exclusion: HSTC 3000X/Y.06

HSTC 3002.03: Science in the Enlightenment
This course examines the history and historiography of science in the long eighteenth century Enlightenment along with Romantic views of nature that extend into the early nineteenth century. Beginning with the Newtonian achievement in mathematics, physics and optics, this course evaluates the immediate spread and legacies of Newtonianism and then considers more broadly developments in astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology and the emerging life sciences along with their impact on culture and society.

Instructor: Stephen Snobelen
Format: Lecture/Seminar
Exclusion: HSTC 3000X/Y.06

HSTC 3031.03 Science and Culture I: The Discourses of Modernity
This class engages one of the main questions of our modern world: what is science and how does it relate to the rest of modernity? It explores the rise of a “scientific” world view, the clashes over methodologies, the disputed meanings of technology and the oppositions between the social/cultural and the natural, introducing recent crises of rationality and its defence.

Instructor: Gordon McOuat
Format: Lecture/Tutorial
Crosslisting: CTMP 3001.03
Exclusions: CTMP 3000.06 / HSTC 3030.06

HSTC 3032.03 Science and Culture II: Resetting the Modern
This class follows on HSTC 3031.03/CTMP 3001.03, using the case studies and recent debates within Science and Technology Studies, feminist theory, postcolonial and ecological thinking, to deepen the critical engagement with science and reset the place of science and technology in our contemporary world.

Instructor: Michael Bennett
Format: Lecture/Tutorial
Prerequisite: HSTC 3031.03 or permission of the instructor.
Crosslisting: CTMP 3002.03
Exclusions: CTMP 3000.06 / HSTC 3030.06

HSTC 3100.03: Aristotle’s Physics
The Physics defines nature and its study both for Aristotle and for much of the development of science and philosophy of nature in the west. The class will treat the dialectic which Aristotle finds in earlier thinkers on nature, the definition of nature, the causes, chance and necessity, time, the void, infinity and limit in nature and place. Finally, it will consider the understanding of change which is at the heart of the work as a whole. Problems in earlier considerations of nature in the ancients generally and especially in the Pre-Socratics and Plato will be treated, as well as the relation of Aristotelian arguments to the social and technological context of his time.

Instructor: Staff
Format: Lecture/Tutorial

HSTC 3101.03: Human Experiments
This course explores the history, method, and meaning of experimenting on humans through a series of case studies that question how these experiments mediate between experimenters, their subjects, and the state and how these relationships have influenced our ideas of scientific objectivity, autonomy and consent, race, gender, and class divides.

Instructor:  Melanie Frappier
Cross-listing: CTMP 3204.03
Exclusion: HSTC 3615.03 and CTMP 3411.03 for the 2017/18 academic year only.
Class format: Lecture/discussion and seminar
Instructor: Gordon McOuat

HSTC 3102.03: Plagues, Pandemics, and People: A Global History of Epidemics
This course offers a survey of the global impact of epidemic diseases, from the bubonic plague to COVID-19. We will pay special attention to how infectious diseases — understood as biosocial events — have shaped culture, human behaviour and power relations, transformed our natural and urban environments and upset geopolitics, while leading to profound medical reforms.

Instructor: Melanie Frappier
Format: Seminar

HSTC 3120.03: Distilling Nature’s Secrets: The Ancient Alchemists
This course explores the scientific and esoteric currents which contributed to the rise of alchemy in the late Ancient World. This ‘sacred science’ of transmutation was a cultural synthesis of Greek natural philosophy, late pagan mysticism, and Near Eastern metallurgic technologies. The physical processes enacted in the alchemical laboratory — where metals were decomposed, purified and transformed — were experienced inwardly by the alchemist himself as a spiritual drama of death and resurrection, analogous to the rites of initiation in the mystery cults. Alchemy was thus a form of ritual technology, aimed simultaneously at the purification of self and cosmos. The texts studied in the course range from technical manuals preserved on papyrus, to the highly esoteric and visionary works of the Hermetic philosopher Zosimos (circa 300 CE). The relation between these technical and occult dimensions will be of central concern.

Instructor: Kyle Fraser
Format: Lecture/Seminar
Cross-listing: CLAS 3120.03

HSTC 3121.03: In Search of the Philosopher’s Stone: The History of European Alchemy
This course traces the development of alchemical theories and practices in the Medieval Latin West up to the emergence of Early Modern chemistry. It employs a multi-disciplinary approach which treats the scientific, technological, esoteric and iconographic dimensions of alchemy as interdependent.

The entire development of European alchemy is covered from the transmission of the Greek and Islamic alchemical traditions in the 12th century up to Newton, whose alchemical theories represent a point of transition to Early Modern chemistry in one direction and to a more spiritualised occult philosophy in the other.

Instructor: Kyle Fraser
Format: Lecture/Seminar
Crosslistings: EMSP 3321.03, HIST 3990.03, RELS 3121.03
History of Science & Technology 103

HSTC 3130.03: The Origins of Chemistry: From Alchemy to Chemical Bonds
This course explores the scientific and social developments of modern chemistry from the work of alchemists to the chemical revolution of Lavoisier and Dalton, from the beginnings of organic chemistry and biochemistry, to the development of the periodic table, and from our early notions of atom to those of chemical bonds.

NOTE: There is no science pre-requisite for this course.

Instructor: Melanie Frappier
Format: Lecture/Seminar

HSTC 3200.03: Science and Religion: Historical Perspectives
This course tells the story of interactions between religious belief and the study of nature from deepest Antiquity to 1800.

Beginning with an overview of the history and methodology of the study of science and religion, encounters between science and religion are traced from the dawn of civilization to the end of the eighteenth century, with a special focus on the early modern period. From an examination of the biblical view of nature and Creation, ancient Babylonian astrology and divination and Plato’s Timaeus, this course moves through a treatment of the centrality of theology to Medieval science on to natural theology and the “Watchmaker” Design Argument of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Models of conflict, harmony and complementarity offered to characterize relations between science and religion are explored through case studies such as the understanding of the soul, Galileo’s controversy with the Church and instances where religious belief inspired natural philosophers like Boyle and Newton. Claims that certain confessional traditions (notably Protestantism and its dissenting offshoots) facilitated the rise of modern science are also appraised. Science-religion relations are examined both from the standpoint of mainstream religion and with respect to religious heterodoxy, prophecy, alchemy, magic and witchcraft. This course employs examples from Judaism, Christianity and Islam and involves the reading and discussion of primary texts.

Instructor: Stephen Snobelen
Format: Lecture/Seminar
Crosslisting: EMSP 3330.03, HIST 3075.03, RELS 3200.03

For information on the Sir John William Dawson Essay Prize in Science and Religion, please see “VIII. Prizes”.

HSTC 3201.03: Science and Religion: Contemporary Perspectives
This course tells the story of interactions between religious belief and the study of nature from 1800 to today.

Beginning with an overview of the history and methodology of the study of science and religion, encounters between science and religion are traced from the rise of Darwinism in the early nineteenth century to the contemporary postmodern age. From an examination of nineteenth-century natural theology and the religious impact of Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859), this course moves on to such contemporary topics as the religious interpretations of quantum mechanics, the Big Bang, the anthropic principle, medical science, bioethics, evolutionary psychology, chaos theory, aesthetics in nature, science fiction, and extra-terrestrial life (including the SETI project) and the quest for techno-immortality. Case studies of “conflict” emanating from Darwinism, the Scopes Trial, the ongoing Creation-Evolution debates and the New Atheism are contrasted with examples of harmony and interdependence between science and religion in the careers of modern scientists, along with phenomena like the new Intelligent Design (ID) movement. The religious scope of the course is intentionally wideranging, and examinations of science-religion interaction within Indigenous spirituality are added to treatments of traditional eastern and western religions.

Instructor: Stephen Snobelen
Format: Lecture/Seminar
Crosslisting: CTMP 3201.03, RELS 3201.03, HIST 3076.03

For information on the Sir John William Dawson Essay Prize in Science and Religion, please see “VIII. Prizes”.

HSTC 3202.03: Ecology and Religion
This course examines the relationship between spirituality and the human encounter with the environment in history and today. Beginning with an examination of some of the ancient, Medieval and early modern religious foundations of ecology and the environmental movement, the course moves on to focus on contemporary green theology, the practice of religious environmentalism and the interaction between religious traditions and the environmental sciences and technologies. It engages with primary sources from the scholarship about Western (Abrahamic), Eastern (Dharmic) and Indigenous religions, along with twenty-first century green theology, religious environmentalism, ecofeminist perspectives and Dark Green Religion. Grounded in the history of science and technology, this course takes an interdisciplinary approach to its themes, incorporating historical, literary, theological, political, sociological and philosophical perspectives.

Instructor: Ian Stewart
Format: Seminar/Discussion

HSTC 3205.03: Knowledge is Power: Francis Bacon and the Birth of Modernity
Modern Western culture draws close connections between three facets of human experience: a) our knowledge of nature; b) our visions of what it is to be human; and c) power, or the political, social and technological means by which we relate the first two: nature and human nature. The Renaissance period (roughly 1400-1630) was highly influential in laying the foundations for such modern connections, even as it seems to us to be a period rather different from our own. We will examine those connections in an exploration primarily of the works of Francis Bacon (1561-1626). Besides being one of the most famous figures in the history of science, especially because of his impact on the methods and goals of science, Bacon was also one of the most central and influential Renaissance figures to interpret his own period generally, who also pursued a vision of the future. After an introduction to the late Medieval/early Renaissance period that preceded Bacon, we will read closely a range of Bacon’s works, along with a selection of works by some of his most important contemporaries. Lectures will supplement students’ reading with historical background; seminars will provide students opportunities for discussion of the primary texts themselves. Further reflection on some influential interpretations of Bacon and the Renaissance, both from our own period and from earlier ones, will broaden our exploration.

Instructor: Ian Stewart
Format: Seminar/Lecture
Crosslisting: EMSP 3340.03

HSTC 3212.03 The Biosphere: Global perspectives in Science and Philosophy
Intended for both science and humanities students interested in ecology, this course will focus on the historical, philosophical and methodological aspects of the central concept of ‘biosphere’ in order to provide a picture of the history and actual state of affairs in the study of global ecology. We will address both purely scientific and philosophical topics such as the holism vs. reductionism debate; the compatibility of the global approaches with the most influential version of contemporary Darwinism (STE); pre-Socratic precedents for the notion of biosphere; modelling nature in the modern global ecology, and many others.

Instructor: Staff
Format: Lecture/Tutorial

HSTC 3250.03 Going Wild: Exploring the Animal Nature of Humans
The major concentration of this course is the question of how and to what extent evolutionary sciences can explain the brilliance and insanity of the “moral animals” including the current course of the Western civilization. We will discuss the evolutionary foundations of romantic(!) love, suicide, sports, diets, and sexual self-identification.

Instructor: Staff
Format: Seminar
Exclusion: HSTC 3615.03 for the 2009/10 and 2010/11 academic years

HSTC 3270.03 Leonardo Da Vinci: Between Art and Science
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) moved easily between the artistic, literary, and scientific circles of Renaissance Italy. Scholars, however, often treat his art and science as competing interests. In this course, students consider the relationship between art and science, imagination and knowledge, by exploring all aspects of Leonardo’s career.

Instructor: Staff
Format: Lecture/Discussion
Crosslisting: EMSP 3270.03
Exclusion: EMSP 3620.03 and HSTC 3611.03 for the 2017/18 academic year only.

HSTC 3301.03: Macromolecules-The Rise of Molecular Biology
Molecular biology is arguably as important as quantum theory. At the beginning of the 20th century molecular biology barely existed; by the end of the century it was part of everyday life. How did this happen? We will examine how we think about biological molecules, and why-and the implications for social policy going forward.

Instructor: Staff
Format: Lecture/Seminar/Discussion

HSTC 3302.03 History of Biology

HSTC 3310.03: Hidden Worlds: Microscopy in Early Modern Europe
Microscopes were introduced into Europe at the beginning of the 17th century. In the words of Robert Hooke, the microscope opened up “a new visible World” to the understanding – a strange new landscape populated by vast numbers of new creatures. This course will explore the influence the microscope, and the microworld that it opened up, on the development of Early Modern science.

The first part of the course will take a close look at the early microscope technology and its evolution in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. The second part of the course will explore the role of the microscope in the evolution of Early Modern science. In the final part of the course we will consider the challenges that new kinds of experience raised for Early Modern philosophy, as well as the possible influence of philosophical debates on the acceptance of the new technology.

Instructor: Kathryn Morris
Format: Seminar
Crosslisting: EMSP 3310.03

HSTC 3320.03 Oracles, Omens and Astrology in the Ancient World
In all of the cultures of antiquity there were specialists who claimed knowledge of future events based in the reading of ominous “signs” in various media, earthly and heavenly. This course examines the history of divination and astrology in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Instructor: Kyle Fraser
Format: Lecture/Seminar
Crosslisting: CLAS 3320.03

HSTC 3331.03: History of the Marine Sciences
In this course, we will trace the history of marine sciences from the ancients to the 20th century. Topics may include ancient cosmologies, voyages of discovery, ocean circulation, and a range of scientific perspectives and technological developments that have shaped human understanding of the oceans.

Instructor: Gillian Gass
Format: Lecture/Seminar
Crosslistings: HIST 3073.03, BIOL 4664.03, OCEA 4331.03/5331.03, SCIE 4001.03, MARI 4664.03

HSTC 3350.03: Art, Optics, and Technologies of Illusion
On the basis of a wide range of technologies of vision such as camera obscura, stereoscopes, and virtual reality, this course focuses on the ways in which artistic methods and applied science have contributed to our changing understanding of perception. Ultimately, this course asks: what does it mean to “fool the eye”?

Instructor: Justina Spencer
Format: Lecture and Discussion
Crosslisting: EMSP 3350.03

HSTC 3400.03: The History of Mathematics
In the history of western thought, mathematics has had a central place. Its own history has “internal” aspects, characterized by a cumulative development of great and greater complexity and a proliferation of powerful methods for solving problems which mathematics generated from within itself, and which thereby gradually transformed its very nature. However, this class will seek to regard such “internal” aspects in the context of their place within and their contribution to broader philosophical inquires and to conceptions of how the natural world is known. Central “moments” in the history will be featured, beginning with ancient Greek mathematics through to the development of non-Euclidean geometry in the 19th-century and beyond.

Instructor: Melanie Frappier
Format: Seminar

HSTC 3401.03: Technology and History in North America
This course explores the relationship between technology and North American histories—histories of nations, of social classes, and of bodies. Topics may include colonialism; Indigenous history; feminist and women’s history; industry and economy; and natural resource extraction. This course sheds fresh light on classic topics such as firearms and the fur trade. Students will experience the foundation of historical scholarship by developing a self-directed archival research project.

Instructor:  Aaron Wright
Format:  Seminar
Crosslisting: HIST 3302.03

HSTC 3403.03: Anti-Colonial Science
This course examines the intersections of science and colonialism, from Early Modern European colonization to today. Topics include: feminist, postcolonial, and Indigenous theories of science; how colonialism shapes science, and vice versa; and Indigenous and local resistance. This is not a course about Indigenous Knowledges, per se. This course is about how science—and the way we think about science—has been a force for and against colonialism. One theme of this course is the meanings and responsibilities of concepts including ‘anti-colonial,’ ‘decolonial,’ ‘postcolonial,’ especially as they relate to ‘science.’ Students in this course will collectively peer-review and publish an issue of the open-access course journal, Anti-Colonial Science: A course journal. Students will become familiar with academic publishing and learn the critical skills of writing, reviewing, and revising. In this way, students connect their engagement with the course material to their fellow students, and our wider communities.

Instructor:  Aaron Wright
Format:  Seminar
Exclusion: HSTC 3615.03, EMSP 3620.03, CTMP 3411.03 for the 2021/22 academic year only

HSTC 3411.03: Feminism and Science
Science has been the subject of intense scrutiny by contemporary feminist theorists. The course will examine the various feminist critiques of natural science, as well as the positive proposals that feminism has brought to science and scientific culture. Questions that will be addressed include: Is the style of science gendered? Has feminism influenced the content of various sciences? How has science contributed to gendered constructions of nature? Is there such a thing as value-free scientific research? How do feminist theories of knowledge differ from traditional understandings of scientific knowledge and scientific objectivity? The readings for this course will include work by Donna Haraway, Sandra Harding, Evelyn Fox Keller, Helen Longino and Hilary Rose.

Instructor: Kathryn Morris
Format: Seminar
Crosslisting: CTMP 3215.03, GWST 3215.03

HSTC 3412.03: Hypatia’s Daughters: Women in Science
From Hypatia to Hildergard von Bingen, from Mary Somerville to Marie Curie, this course surveys through primary sources the scientific contributions made throughout history by some of the most important women scientists and natural philosophers while examining how their respective social contexts shaped their philosophical and scientific practices.

NOTE: This course complements, but is distinct from EMSP 2310: Women and Gender in Early Modern Science, which focuses on the work of early modern women scientists, and from HSTC 3411: Feminism and Science, which focuses on questions from feminist epistemology (“Is the style of science gendered?” “Has feminism influenced the content of various sciences,” etc) —which will only be indirectly discussed in this course.

Instructor: Melanie Frappier
Format: Lecture/Tutorial
Crosslisting: GWST 3412.03

HSTC 3415.03 Brewing Civilization: The History, Culture and Science of Beer
Beer and the process of brewing stand at the origins and centre of the key developments of the “West”, its cultural institutions and scientific developments. This lecture/seminar class will take an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the relation between brewing history, science and culture by focusing on primary texts along with in-class reconstructions of particular experiments and activities associated with the history of brewing.

Instructor: Mark Burke
Format: Lecture/Seminar
Exclusion: HSTC3611.03 for the 2007/08 and 2013/14 academic years

HSTC 3430.03: Experiments in the Mind: Thought Experiments in Physics
Einstein’s elevator, Schrödinger’s cat, Maxwell’s demon: the history of physics is full of these instructive fictions that are thought experiments. This course examines the historical contexts of many thought experiments in order to understand the different roles they played in the conceptual development of physics from Antiquity to the present.

Instructor: Melanie Frappier
Format: Lecture/Discussion/Seminar

HSTC 3501.03: The Nature of Time in Antiquity and the Middle Ages
This course will consider views of time beginning with Mesopotamian notions of narrative, Egyptian conceptions, and the encounter between linear and circular time in Judaic thought. The vision of Greece will be brought out through epic narration, in Pre-Socratic thought, in Greek historical texts. The course will treat some central texts, in Plato on the concept of time in the soul, in Aristotle, where time becomes the measure of motion, in the willed totality in Stoic and Epicurean thought, in Plotinus, where time is grounded in pretemporal duration. The course will then take up the relation of this duration and time to revelation, creation and conversion in Medieval Christian, Islamic and Jewish thought.

Instructor: Staff
Format: Seminar
Exclusion: HSTC 3500.03

HSTC 3502.03: The Nature of Time in the Modern World
From the Renaissance notion of fortune to the possibility of time travel, this seminar examines the impacts our changing notions of time have had on philosophy, cultures, societies, religions and science and technologies over the past 500 years.

Instructor: Staff
Format: Seminar
Exclusion: HSTC 3500.03

HSTC 3610.03: Studies in Ancient and Medieval Science
Topics vary each year. Some of the topics are “Causation”, “History of Dissection”, “Mesopotamian Science”, “Sciences and Cultures in Antiquity”, “The Mangle of Praxis”, “Ptolemy”, “Ancient Method”, “Embryology”, “Posterior Analytics”, etc. For descriptions of the current year’s Studies topics, please contact the History of Science and Technology program.

Instructor(s): Staff
Format: Lecture/Discussion

NOTE: Not more than two studies courses (six credit hours), and no more of one of each course number, can be taken for credit towards the History of Science and Technology program.

HSTC 3611.03: Studies in Early Modern Science (1500-1800)
Topics vary each year. Some of the topics are: “Science and Society”, “Popularisation of Science”, “Science and Religion”, “Technology and Scientific Instruments”, etc. For descriptions of the current year’s Studies topics, please contact the History of Science and Technology program.

Instructor(s): Staff
Format: Lecture/Discussion

NOTE: Not more than two studies courses (six credit hours), and no more of one of each course number, can be taken for credit towards the History of Science and Technology program.

HSTC 3615.03 Studies in Science and Nature in the Modern Period: History of the Environment
Topics vary each year. Some of the topics are: “The Century of the Gene”, “Cybernetics”, “Nazi Science”, “The Political Economy of Science”, etc. For descriptions of the current year’s Studies topics, please contact the History of Science and Technology program.

Instructor(s): Staff
Format: Lecture/Discussion

NOTE: Not more than two studies courses (six credit hours), and no more of one of each course number, can be taken for credit towards the History of Science and Technology program.

HSTC 4001.03: Science and Nature in the Modern Period
This course examines the development of science in its social, philosophical, political, and cultural contexts from the end of the 18th century to the present. Topics will include the development of our contemporary notion of evidence, the debates over the “scientific method”, the “historicisation of nature” the rise of “big” science, the acceptance of probabilistic accounts of the world, and the construction of human nature in modern biology. Emphasis will be on the physical and biological sciences.

Instructor: Melanie Frappier
Format: Seminar
Exclusion: HSTC4000X/Y.06

HSTC 4002.03: Science and Nature in the 20th and 21st Century
From relativity to the human genome project, from the A-bomb to CRISPR, science has shaped our socio-political institutions, our environment, and our understanding of human nature. This course explores the conceptual debates that surrounded some of the major scientific developments of the last century and their long-lasting, global consequences.

Instructor: Melanie Frappier
Format: Seminar
Exclusion: HSTC4000X/Y.06
Prerequisite: HSTC 4001.03 is recommended, but not required.

HSTC 4102.03: Topics in Ancient Natural Philosophy
Through the close reading of one selected ancient work, this course seeks to explore fundamental problems in ancient natural philosophy, such as: How did the Ancients see the validity of their approaches to the natural world? What sorts of phenomena were seen as ‘natural’ in antiquity? What are the limitations to textual evidence for ancient science? How did theories about the natural world inform how the Ancients saw their place in the cosmos? How did ancient social values affect views of nature?

Instructor: Staff
Format: Seminar

HSTC 4120.03: Artefacts: The Material Culture of Science and Technology
The history of science and technology is not just about ideas, it is also about things. Through the creation of their own exhibit, students will learn how to ‘read’ artefacts, discuss the current material culture literature, study artefact conservation, and explore the challenges faced by today’s science museums.

Instructor: Staff
Format: Seminar

HSTC 4200.03: Philosophies of Technology: From Techne to Technology
This course will explore the history, structure and associated problems of our coming to be technological, beginning with an elaboration of the concept of “techne” in the Ancients and its modification in the technical arts and instrumental reasoning of the Enlightenment and of 19th-century industrial ideology. Post-Enlightenment critiques polarised around the place of the machine and alienation in Karl Marx and the “question concerning technology” in Martin Heidegger will then be examined, leading up to an examination of the present state of technological discourse. In each case, we shall mark the importance of contextualising the debate by exploring the actual historical evolution of technology. Lectures will be devoted to presenting a social and historical background to the development of modern technologies whilst seminars will focus on the reading of primary texts in the field.

Instructor: Gordon McOuat
Format: Seminar
Crosslisting: CTMP 4200.03

HSTC 4201.03: Contemporary Technologies: Living with Machines
This seminar will explore in detail the implications of powerful contemporary debates concerning the meaning and place of technology. What do we mean by technology? Can there be a philosophy of technology? What are the political and cultural ramifications of going technological? Topics will include: technological determinism in history, feminist critiques, technology and development, the meaning of expertise, technology, art and the “lifeworld”, “social construction” versus “actor-network” theory, Donna Haraway’s concept of cyborg culture and the “modern technological sublime”. The course will be conducted in seminar format with particular emphasis placed on the elucidation of historical and contemporary case-studies. Whenever possible, guest lecturers from the “real world” of technology will be invited to participate in the course.

Instructor: Staff
Format: Seminar
Crosslisting: CTMP 4201.03

HSTC 4300.03: Nature and Romanticism
Kant’s “Copernican Revolution” in philosophy, ironically, marked a resurrection of a full-blown “idealist” philosophy of nature. This course will investigate the attempts of Kant’s followers to construct a natural philosophy and its engagement with the rival mechanical world picture. It explores the implications of this endeavour for the growth of romanticism, vitalism and our modern picture of “nature”. It begins with an examination of the ambiguous heritage presented by Kant’s writings on nature and proceeds through the attempts to develop a complete program of idealist Naturphilosophie and its spread throughout European thought by the medium of romanticist art and natural philosophy.

Instructor: Staff
Format: Lecture/Tutorial
Crosslisting: HIST 5004.03, EMSP 4300.03

HSTC 4301.03 The History of Neuroscience
This course examines the history of the attempts to find the neurobiological basis for human thought and behaviour, from the ancient world to the present. It will be of interest to honours students in History of Science and Technology, as well as honours and graduate students in Psychology and Neuroscience.

Instructor: Staff
Format: Seminar
Exclusion: NESC 4587.03

HSTC 4400.03 Newton and Newtonianism
This seminar involves a close study of the work of Isaac Newton, along with that of his supporters and detractors. Beginning with an overview of pre-Newtonian science, topics range from Newton’s rejection of Cartesianism through his contributions to mathematics, physics, astronomy and optics, along with his inductive scientific method, laws of motion and calculus priority dispute with Leibniz. Also considered are lesser-known aspects of his career, such as his secretive pursuit of alchemy, his heretical theology, his attempts to unravel the Apocalypse, his role in British statecraft and his autocratic rule of the Royal Society. A taxonomy of the forms of Newtonianism that emerged after Newton’s death also allows an exploration of iconographical and apologetic uses of Newton, and his differing legacies in the Britain and France. This seminar concentrates on primary readings, including Newton’s Principia (1687), Opticks (1704), alchemical treatises and unpublished theological papers, as well as the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence (1717), anti-Newtonians and 18th-century popularizations of Newtonianism such as Voltaire’s Philosophical letters (1733) and Maclaurin’s Account of Newton’s discoveries (1748). Attention is paid to the social, cultural and political aspects of Newtonianism and no prior knowledge of science is required.

Instructor: Stephen Snobelen
Format: Seminar
Crosslisting: EMSP 4310.03

HSTC 4510.03/4511.03: Independent Readings in History of Science and Technology
Students are assigned to a member of staff for regular meetings to discuss readings in a selected area. Papers and research projects are expected.

Restrictions: This course is restricted to students registered in the History of Science & Technology Honours program. Permission of the instructor and the Director of the program are required. Students must complete 60 credit hours before registering in these courses.

HSTC 4600.03 Disputes: Methodologies in the History of Science and Technology
This course will introduce selected methodological topics within the secondary scholarship in the field of history of science, including a consideration of select topics within the philosophy of science as these bear on the practice of the history of science.

Instructor: Stephen Snobelen
Format: Seminar/Discussion
Restriction: Students must be registered in honours History of Science and Technology. Permission of the instructor and the Director of the program is required.

HSTC 4650.03 Honours Thesis in History of Science and Technology
In this course the student is assigned to a member of staff for regular meetings to discuss readings and present research for the purpose of completing an honours thesis in the History of Science and Technology.

Prerequisites: Honours registration in the History of Science and Technology, permission of the instructor and the Director of the programme.