Selected Topics
in History of Science
DEk00W Lecture 1
29 February 2024
Why history of science for future teachers?
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Scope: SELECTED topics in history of science, mostly from 19th
and 20th
century
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For literature on earlier times (esp. Ancient times and the Middle Ages), see the
Interactive syllabus
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Method: learning about the field of history of science
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Objective: realise different people write about history of science and be able to
value the sources for what they are
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Practically: presentation or essay plus a short test (10 multiple-choice
questions; 6 correct answers required to pass the course)
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Grade is based on the quality of the essay or presentation
Varieties of the field of history of science
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Internalist history of science (birth of a theory, first solution,...)
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Externalist history of science (the topic not so important)
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Informed by diplomatic, political, cultural, … history,
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Social history of science / computing / mathematics
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Two specific examples:
– History of mathematics (a subset of mathematics, or history?)
– History of computing (a subset of history of technology)
What is history of science?
First, what is science?
•
Science is systematic knowledge: observation, reporting, measuring,
objective, etc., not jut any knowledge
•
In Czech: věda – also for the humanities
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In English: science implies natural science
•
Classification of sciences - current:
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Life Sciences: Biology, Zoology, Botany
•
Exact Sciences: Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics
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Earth Sciences: Geography, Geology
Great change: (early) modern science
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René Descartes (1596 – 1650): „Cogito, ergo sum.“
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Appreciation of mathematics – the conclusions are irreversibly true
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Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626): Instauratio Magna
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Johannes Kepler : astrology vs. Astronomy
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Tycho Brahe: binoculars, lenses
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Blaise Pascal, Wilhelm Schickard: first calculating machines (early 17th
century)
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Jacob Bernoulli (late 17th
century: using a different kind of logic – probability,
not causality; correspondents: Christiaan Huygens and G. W. Leibniz
Writing on history of science
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Authors of books and articles on history of science:
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Scientist themselves (motivation: learn something about their predecessors)
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Boom: 19th
century, hand in hand with emancipation of science
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George Sarton and the founding of HSS
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History of separate disciplines
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Issues crossing the boundaries of the disciplines
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Classics: Thomas Kuhn, Karl Popper, Paul Feyerabend, …
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Novel approaches: Andrew Pickering, David Bloor, Hasok Chang, ...
Branches of science histories
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History of medicine and history of pharmacy: separate fields, taught at faculties
of medicine and pharmaceutical faculties
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Interest in old methods, old medicines, etc.
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Christiannus of Prachatitz (15th
century)
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History of chemistry – includes history of alchemy
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History of astronomy – includes astrology
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http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/vanWyhe_Complete_Photographs_of_Darwin.html
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https://margaretschotte.com/
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https://morelthomas.com/
Possible topics for essays / presentations
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Personality – may also be a part of a biography or an aspect of their life (e.g. the
image of Albert Einstein in physics textbooks)
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Dangers of choosing a well-known personality:
– Your essay may end up looking like a museum flyer
– Too much information to be digested for the essay
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Topic in Science (reception of relativity theory, Darwin's theory, …)
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History of science and secondary school classes of history: What is in the
textbooks? Do students need to know any science to understand history?
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Review of a film, book or drama related to history of science
Grade: what your essay should (not) be like
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Choose a topic close to your interest; does not have to be limited to 19th
and
20th
century
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Write an essay outline and present it to your fellow students in a colloquium
– Colloquium dates: to be determined,
●
The essay must be written in understandable English, but the level of English is
not a part of your grade
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Your grade will be composed of:
– Quality of your question
– Choice of your sources
– Structure of your essay
Sources
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jstor.org – database of journal articles
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Dějiny věd a techniky
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Isis
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Osiris
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Printed encyclopedias
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Internet sources: check the authors and also use your own reasoning
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DO NOT use wikipedia only
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DO NOT copy from poor bachelor or diploma theses (look at the grades!)
Jacob Bernoulli (1654-1705)
● brother of Johann Bernoulli
● his son Nicolas became a painter
● held a chair in Basel
● most famous for Ars Conjectandi
(only published posthumously)
Bernoullis, famous 1st
generation
Johann Bernoulli (1667 – 1748)
● held the chair after his brother
Jacob
● Father of Nicolas Bernoulli
G. W. Leibniz and Ch. Huygens
Why Ars coniectandi?
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Why reasoning? To arrive to conclusions
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What can be deduced logically?
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What is a matter of chance?
– dice and card games, and nothing else
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Conclusions from the game of dice and cards – games of chance
– Observation, rather than deduction
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Applications of the theory to other kinds of reasoning:
– Solving „murders“
Why is this work important for the society?
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New kind of reasoning
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On the basis of observation, we can make conclusions
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Scientific name: Law of Large Numbers
– Our conclusions do not hold for small numbers of observations, the number of
observations needs to be large, otherwise we cannot make the conclusion in this way
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Statistics: double meaning, both the calculations and the numbers collected
– derived from the word „state“
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Mathematical statistics, use of statistics in physics, predictions, models, ...
– and no reasoning about causality is needed..