Fall 2006 Graduate Courses
  (Previous Semesters)

HPS 83100
HPS Colloquium 4:15-5:30 T (Howard)
1 Cr. Hr.
Graduate Students Only

Group Discussion by the HPS faculty and students of a prominent recent work in the field of HPS and research presentations by visiting scholars. Required course for HPS students in first and second years of the HPS Program.

HPS 83601
History of Science, Technology & Medicine to 1750 11:45-1:00 MW (Hamlin)
3 Cr. Hr.
Crosslist: HIST 83975   This course initiates a two-semester survey of the main events in the history of natural philosophy, technology, and medicine from Greek antiquity to the early Enlightenment. The course is intended as an exposure to main currents in scholarship and a wide variety of primary sources, and it will allow students to do bibliographic work in an area of interest. Course requirements will include examinations, presentations and reviews, and an extended bibliographic essay, though these might be modified for students of advanced standing who wish to use the course for other purposes. The course is required for HPS graduate students. Interested graduate students in history, philosophy, and the sciences or engineering are encouraged to contact the instructor.

HPS 83801
Philosophy of Science 12:30-1:45 TR (Howard)
3 Cr. Hr.
Crosslist: PHIL 83801
Graduate Students Only

A survey of major problems, movements, and thinkers in twentieth-century philosophy of science. The course begins with a look at the historical background to logical empiricism, its rise to prominence, and its early critics, such as Popper. After a study of major problems in the neo-positivst tradition, such as confirmation, explanation, and the nature of scientific laws, historicist critiques of neo-positivism, chiefly Kuhn's will be studied next, followed by a consideration of the realism-instrumentalism debate. The course concludes with a brief look at new perspectives, such as social constructivism and feminist philosophy of science.

Readings: Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970. Additional readings will be contained in a course packet.

Requirements: Students will write mid-term and final essay examinations and a fifteen-page term paper on a topic to be chosen in consultation with the instructor.

HPS 93722
The Molecular Revolution in Biology 9:30-10:45 TR (Sloan)
3 Cr. Hr.
Cross-lis: STV 43470

This will be an advanced undergraduate/introductory graduate level course surveying the main events in the history of the functional life sciences since 1800 with particular reference to the conceptions of life and function from the work of Lavoisier to molecular genetics. It is open to students both in Arts and Letters and in the sciences and it does not assume a background in biology. Graduate students in HPS and philosophy are also asked to enroll for 1 hour of HPS 96697 Sec. 01 ("Directed Readings in Functional Biology") that will meet as a once/week seminar at an arranged time. Other students interested in advanced work may enroll in this seminar with permission.

The course will begin with the nature of the "vitalist" revolution of the late 18th century and follow the conceptual and social-institutional foundations of the biophysical program in biology in the nineteenth century. A second unit will explore the origins of transmission genetics after Mendel. The social and conceptual foundations of molecular biology will then be explored through primary and secondary source readings. A final unit will explore the Human Genome Project.

Requirements: Two mid-term take-home examinations and an in-class final. Advanced students will have the opportunity to write a research paper.

Prerequisites: None.

 Texts:
Bernard, Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine
Lenoir, The Strategy of Life
Kohler, Lords of the Fly
Olby, The Path to the Double Helix
Sloan (ed.) Controlling our Destinies
Rheinberger, History of Epistemic Things
Rosenberg, The Structure of Biological Science
Reader of Primary Sources

HPS 93742
History of Economic Thought 11:00-12:15 TR (Mirowski)
3 Cr. Hr.
Crosslist: ECON 43130
Graduate Students Only

This course intends to ask how it is that we have arrived at this curious configuration of doctrines now called "economics"; and importantly, how differing modes of historical discourse tend to ratify us in our prejudices about our own possible involvement in this project. The course will begin in the 18th century with the rise of a self-conscious discipline, and take us through the stabilization of the modern orthodoxy in WWII. Effort will be made to discuss the shifting relationship of economics to the other sciences, natural and social.

Requirements: A basic knowledge of economics (including introductory economics and preferably intermediate economics) will be required.

Thesis direction for terminating Master's students.

Thesis direction for terminating Master's students.

HPS 96697
Directed Readings

Directed Readings carried out under individual HPS faculty supervision.

Dissertation research for Ph.D. students.

Dissertation research for Ph.D. students.