History of Science Online - Course Info - Time tips - Semester Schedule - Weekly Assignments - Timeline - Projects - Week 15: 17th Century - The Newtonian Synthesis

This week's assignments

Congratulations! We have nearly reached the end of our semester-long time travel tour of the history of science. This last week we reach the final stop on our time-travel tour: a brief introductory glimpse of Isaac Newton.

Nominations for best web projects are now here!
Did your classmates nominate the same projects you did? Did they nominate you?
Be sure to cast your vote at D2L!

Want more? Consider enrolling in the sequel to this course, HSCI 3023 History of Science, Newton to the Present, which examines Newton in more depth! Like this course, HSCI 3023 is taught every semester and counts for General Education credit. Go here for next semester's course listings.

In all periods surveyed in this first (HSCI 3013) introductory survey course, you have studied the natural knowledge of different cultures as it took forms quite different than science does today. Even with Newton, his "natural philosophy" reflects how scientific disciplines were closely inter-related instead of separated into their modern fields. In addition, the case of Newton illustrates how religious beliefs provided the very fabric of the culture. Secularization, or the relegation of religious discourse to the private sphere, out of the public square and of little relevance to science, was nearly inconceivable.

In the 18th century, the modern scientific disciplines emerged with something like their modern disciplinary boundaries, and scientific societies began to have a stronger influence upon society. Also in the 18th century, women began to play a more prominent role in both the production and dissemination of science.

In the 19th century, the sciences became professionalized, in the sense that one could earn a living as a scientist outside of courts and universities, instead of relying upon an independent source of wealth for science as a leisure pursuit. The late 19th century perhaps represents the high point of social respect for the authority of science, before the wars of the 20th century demonstrated that scientific and technological power is not always unequivocally beneficial to humanity.

Also in the 20th century, science became practiced on a scale not easily imagined before the term "Big Science" was coined to refer to the organized work of physicists during World War II.

These and many other developments are surveyed in HSCI 3023, so if you want to hear the rest of the story, consider enrolling in the sequel!

Since we have also merely scratched the surface in a superficial way each week in this course, you might be interested in some of the many courses available from the History of Science Department devoted to specialized topics in the history of science, some of which we have briefly noted this semester. Check out course descriptions (or the History of Science minor) at the History of Science Department website.

And please keep in touch with me in the future!

	HSCI 3013. History of Science to 17th century Kerry Magruder, 2004-08 Report typos or broken links Many thanks to Mythology and Folklore and other online courses developed by Laura Gibbs.	Search course websites:
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