Next semester I’m preparing to teach two courses at Beijing Normal University. No one is actually making me do this; I went to Beijing Normal University in the first place because I wanted to teach. Whether I end up staying at Beijing Normal University as a lecturer or not, I might as well first build up some experience—at least then my postdoc won’t have been for nothing.
I’m planning to offer one general-education elective and one major course; the general-education elective will be a General History of Science. I listened to Teacher Wu’s lectures on the general history of science in several rounds at Peking University, and I’ve already served as a teaching assistant for two terms, so I do have some confidence in handling this course directly. Of course, as the course proceeds, I’ll gradually move away from Teacher Wu’s pattern and develop my own way of teaching it.
Since this is my first time teaching the course, to be on the safe side, the outline I submitted basically still followed Teacher Wu’s framework. But I did make some small adjustments.
Overall, I place more emphasis on the unity and continuity of the general history, and relatively less on “comprehensiveness.” For example, I don’t plan to handle ancient Chinese science by inserting a special section for it; the overall thread will be the history of Western science, and ancient Chinese science will at most appear interspersed in the history of Western science as comparison and reference. As for the related history of technology, unless it is an important link connected with scientific thought—such as glass, clocks, printing presses, and the like—I won’t specially introduce the rest either. So my “general history of science” is in essence a brief history of Western science.
As for the specific sections, I added several topics: the late Middle Ages and Christianity, printing, Newtonian mechanics, the mathematical revolution, and so on. I have relevant chapters on the first three in my Stories from the History of Scientific Culture, but when teaching I’ll probably adjust the narrative style, while the section on the history of mathematics is, in my view, something I simply had to add.
Below I append the lecture outline I provided when applying to open the course.
General History of Science
A General History of Science
【Course Number】
【Course Category】General-education elective
【Credits】2
【Applicable Major】No restriction
【Class Hours】32
【Date of Preparation】2014-10-12
【Instructor Name】Hu Yilin
【Semester Offered (Spring, Fall)】Spring
I. Course Introduction
II. Teaching Objectives
History of science is an interdisciplinary field that bridges the sciences and the humanities. This public course on the general history of science aims to sketch for the natural sciences an overall, vivid picture, to understand the origin and development of contemporary technological civilization, and to explore the relationship between science and the humanities. It should help liberal-arts students grasp the scientific spirit, and science students possess a historical consciousness.
III. Teaching Content and Class-Hour Allocation
(1) Introduction (2 class hours)
Main content: Why study the history of science / An overview of historiography of science (intellectual history, social history)
Teaching requirements: Let students understand the aim and positioning of this course, and decide whether to enroll.
(2) Prehistory of Science (2 class hours)
Main content: Knowledge traditions in prehistoric civilizations; ancient civilizations such as Babylon and Egypt; the relationship between science and craftsmanship; ancient Chinese science
Teaching requirements: Understand the similarities and differences between Western science and other scientific traditions
Key point: the relationship among knowledge, technology, and science
(3) Classical Greek Science (2 class hours)
Main content: natural philosophers, Plato, Aristotle, mathematical astronomy
Teaching requirements: Understand the origins of science
Key point: the concept of “nature” and the opening up of the realm of interiority
(4) The Hellenistic Period (2 class hours)
Main content: Euclid, Ptolemy, Archimedes, Galen, and others
Teaching requirements: Understand the characteristics of Hellenistic science, and its similarities and differences from classical Greek science
Key point: Eastern pragmatism
(5) The Decline of Classical Scholarship and the Rise and Fall of Islamic Science (2 class hours)
Main content: the Roman period, the decline of classical scholarship, the rise and fall of Islamic science
Teaching requirements: Understand the contingent and necessary factors in the decline of classical scholarship; understand the basic characteristics of Islamic science
Key point: the problem of the continuity of science, institutional conditions
(6) The Late Middle Ages and Christianity (2 class hours)
Main content: Christianity’s destruction of and promotion of science, the scholastic tradition. The rise of the university
Teaching requirements: Understand the background for the emergence of modern Western science, and the Middle Ages as the necessary soil for modern science.
Key point: scholastic disputation
(7) Printing and the Renaissance (2 class hours)
Main content: the revival of classical scholarship, natural history, the independence of nature, craftsmen and knowledge
Teaching requirements: Understand the crucial significance of printing as the “catalyst” of modern science
Key point: the key to modern science is “moving away” from “nature.”
(8) The Copernican Revolution (2 class hours)
Main content: Plato—Ptolemy—Copernicus, Tycho, Kepler, Galileo
Teaching requirements: Understand the precursor to the Scientific Revolution, namely the origin and development of the astronomical revolution
Key point: the intellectual significance of the new astronomy
(9) Newton’s Synthesis (2 class hours)
Main content: the establishment of the system of mechanics, the mechanical view of nature, the mathematization of nature and the naturalization of mathematics
Teaching requirements: Understand the historical significance of classical mechanics
Key point/difficulty: the concepts of “force” and “cause,” the end of natural philosophy
(10) The Mathematical Revolution (2 class hours)
Main content: Pythagoreanism, from Apollonius to Descartes, the new meaning of “all things are numbers,” Stevin, Viète
Teaching requirements: Understand the relationship between mathematics and the natural sciences
Difficulty: the history of mathematics must also be anti-Whiggish
(11) From Alchemy to Chemistry (2 class hours)
Main content: Paracelsus, Helmont, Boyle, Lavoisier
Teaching requirements: Understand the relationship between alchemy and chemistry, and the rise of the experimental tradition
Key point: the historiographical thread of chemical theory
(12) The Enlightenment (2 class hours)
Main content: the institutionalization of science, academic journals, university education, the deification of Newton, science as a new culture
Teaching requirements: Understand the social environment and social status of science
Key point: science as culture, the age of the “new”
(13) The Industrial Revolution (2 class hours)
Main content: the alliance of technology and science, electricity, mass production
Teaching requirements: Understand the relationship of separation and combination between science and technology
Difficulty: the situation of the first industrial civilization differs from that of the second industrial civilization
(14) The Age of Big Science and Technology (2 class hours)
Main content: genetics, relativity, quantum mechanics, computers, ecology
Teaching requirements: Learn about the new landscape of contemporary science, reflect, and summarize
(15) Class Discussion (2–4 class hours)
Main content: free discussion, Q&A
Teaching requirements: Insert one or two discussion sessions into the course according to the teaching schedule.
IV. Textbooks and Learning Resources
No textbook is specified. The following are reference books for the general history; references for individual topics are omitted for now.
Maclellan, A World History of Science and Technology, trans. Wang Mingyang, Century Publishing Group, 2007
Wu Guosheng, The Course of Science, Peking University Press, 2002, or Hunan Science and Technology Press, 2013
Lindberg, The Beginnings of Western Science, 2nd ed., trans. Zhang Butian, Hunan Science and Technology Press, 2013
Dijksterhuis, The Mechanization of the World Picture, trans. Zhang Butian, Hunan Science and Technology Press, 2010
Cohen, The Creation of the Modern World: How Science Was Born, trans. Zhang Butian, Hunan Science and Technology Press, 2012
V. Prerequisite Requirements and Suggested Teaching Strategies and Methods
No prerequisites.
Teaching strategies and methods: classroom lecturing as the main mode, with requirements for class discussion and extracurricular reading. No compulsory textbook is specified; students freely choose from the recommended reference books according to their interests, engage in autonomous learning, and independently write reports and discuss them with others.
VI. Assessment Method (Required Item)
Class attendance and participation in discussion: 20%;
Reading report (choose one or two books from the recommended reading list): 30%;
Final short essay (topic of your own choosing): 50%
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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