SCIN395

This course promotes a critical understanding of the nature and generation of scientific knowledge today, by looking at how scientific knowledge has been acquired over the course of human history. 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 0f 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) over the past Z000 years. This course is required for the Integrated Science Studies major.