Science and Its Social Context: Galileo, Darwin, and Us

Professor J. V. Grabiner Tuesday, 2:45 - 5:30 Fall, 1997

Office Hours: MWF 9:30 - 10:30, Tu 11-12, also by appointment--just ask.
Office: Fletcher 222, phone 607-3160; secretary 607-3061
Email: jgrabiner@pitzer.edu

Books:

Stillman Drake, ed., Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo
I. Bernard Cohen, Birth of a New Physics
Bertolt Brecht, Galileo
Philiip Appleman, ed., Darwin (2d edition)
Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, Inherit the Wind
Phillip Kitcher, Abusing Science

Tentative Calendar:

Sept. 9: Introduction to the issues and to writing about them. Brief readings from Bruno Latour and Michael Shermer, to be distributed. Also, using the Sky and Telescope handout, find the summer triangle, Venus, Jupiter, and the moon. Observe their positions and see if they move and how much. (Sept. 5 and 6 are good times to watch Venus.)

Sept. 16: Background. Read Cohen, chapters 1-5, supplements 1-2, 6. Go look at the Galileo mural on the northeast corner of Avery Auditorium.

Sept. 23: Galileo, selections from The Starry Messenger, in Drake, 21-58. Also read Drake's introductory materials, 1-20, 59-86.

Sept. 30: Galileo, Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, in Drake, 173-216, and Drake's introductory materials, pp. 145-172, 217-227, 281. Also, from Galileo's The Assayer, Drake,pp. 237-238.

Oct. 7: Berthold Brecht's play, Galileo.

Oct. 14: Charles Darwin, selections from The Origin of Species, in Appleman, pp. 35-131. Do not miss this class.

Oct. 21: Fall Break.

Oct. 28: Darwin, selections from The Descent of Man, Appleman, pp. 132-187. Some 19th-century responses, Appleman, pp. 220-243.

Nov. 4: Modern economics, sociobiology. Appleman, pp. 389-414, 444-512.

Nov. 11: Discussion of the play by Lawrence and Lee, Inherit the Wind. Start reading Kitcher, which is a long book. Hand in proposed paper topic.

Nov. 18: Debating evolution and creation: Kitcher, all.

Nov. 25: Summing up.

Dec. 2: Student reports: 15 minutes each.

Dec. 9: More student reports. Final paper due Friday, December 12. There will be no final exam.

There will be short writing assignments throughout the course of the semester.