SCIN295

This course promotes a critical understanding of the nature and generation of scientific knowledge, by looking at how scientific knowledge has been acquired over the course of human history, and comparing historical scientific approaches with how scientific knowledge is generated in the 21st century. We will begin by examining how and why the pre-Socratic philosophers in the Mediterranean started to look at the workings of the world by invoking naturalistic explanations (rather than ascribing phenomena to the gods). As we proceed through human history we will explore how the writings of Plato and Aristotle influenced subsequent generations of natural philosophers and how they sought to explain natural phenomena. We will also explore the tensions and synergies between science and other aspects of society (including religion, politics, and sociology, and pseudo-science) over the past 2500 years.

Science, Nursing and Health