Knowledge, Power and Nature 1500-1700 (HI395) - Module Topics
Module Topics, Reading and Questions
Term 1
Week 1: Getting Started: A Sociocultural History of the Scientific Revolution
Week 2: Humanists, Natural Philosophers and the Late Medieval Universities
Week 3: The Rise of Experience
Week 4: Of Vices and Virtues: Practical Knowledge and the Burden of Past
Week 5: Scholars, Craftsmen and How to Present New Knowledge
Week 6: Reading Week
Week 7: Encountering the New World
Week 8: Mapping the Unknown
Week 9: New Plagues from the New World: The Case of the French Pox
Week 10: Consuming the New World
Term 2
Week 1: Science, Magic and Superstition
Week 2: Playing the Game: Science and Patronage
Week 3: Cabinets of Curiosity: Wonder and the Order of Nature
Week 4: Making and Translating Scientific Knowledge
Week 5: Do Books Make Revolutions?
Week 6: Reading Week
Week 7: The Question of Trust and the Building of Scientific Identities
Week 9: Secret Passions: Descartes' Passions and Newton's Alechemical Dreams