Dr. Don Salisbury Dr. Hank Gibson Dr. Dan Nuckols

Office Hours: T 3:00-3:50, Office Hours: MTTh 4:00-5:00 Office Hours: MWF 11::00-11:50

W 11:00-11:50, Th 2:00-2:50, (other times by appointment) TTh 1:35-2:30 (other

F 10:00-10:50 (other times by time by appointment)

appointment)

Office: Moody Sci. 107 Office: Moody Sci, 220 Office: Hopkins 119

Phone: Ext. 2480 Phone: Ext.. 2344 Phone: Ext. 2529

dsalisbury@austincollege.edu hgibson@austincollege.edu dnuckols@austincollege.edu

METAPHORS AND SCIENTIFIC

WORLD VIEWS

HERITAGE OF WESTERN CULTURE 201 – SPRING 2006

The Theme of this course is the changing and often conflicting metaphor we use to understand phenomena in the physical and social sciences. The most comprehensive metaphors are called world views; they establish a framework in which one can interrelate the widest range of human experience. Metaphors are drawn from human experience and they are used to interpret newly discovered phenomena. Since they are arguments by analogy, they are necessarily inadequate. If pushed too far are they can lead to misunderstanding or outright error. However, they do appear to constitute the best tool we have available both to consolidate our individual understanding and to communicate this understanding to others. They have frequently over the ages suggested new lines of inquiry, some of which were errant. Perhaps more frequently they have suggested new useful ways of interpreting observations and new fruitful experiments. It is important to realize that since our common understanding of physical and social phenomena has changed over the ages, the message of the metaphor itself is continually being altered.

We shall start with competing ancient Greek world views that characterized as organic versus magical, Aristotelian versus Platonic. The former attained dominance through the Middle Ages, while the latter gained ascendancy in the Renaissance. Some elements of both were incorporated into a mechanical view championed by Galileo, and later by Newton. The Neo-Platonic view rejoined heaven and earth, presenting a similar task to Renaissance artists who sought to emphasize the union by projecting the viewer into paintings, and to the medical doctor William Harvey who modeled the human body after the cosmos. Similar channelings of cosmic vitality motivate the failed search for phlogiston. The argument has been made that belief in divine law promoted by the Protestant Reformation might have been the stimulus that led Newton to discover the first comprehensive physical laws. A new metaphor emerged of the material mechanistic clockwork subject to changeless law, but bereft of transcendental content. Though this model has evolved over the centuries, it still influences both friend and foe of the sciences today. It formed the basis of Boyle’s attempt to explain everything on the basis of simple rearrangement of material parts, and it became an organizing principle of Smith’s interaction of economic entities.

Yet, metaphors are only analogies, and no metaphor can accurately and exhaustively explain something that it is not. Thus, world views are frequently revived in altered form. Law, harmony, and progress are ancient ideas. The interplay amongst them reappeared in eighteenth and nineteenth century social and economic models. Unresolved tensions amongst competing world views found expression in the physical sciences in the past century in Einstein’s idea of an evolving specetime arena for human existence, and a fundamental quantum indeterminacy underlying physical phenomena. This offered a fresh perspective on mechanism and being, suggesting to many in philosophy and the physical and social sciences models for self-organization and emergence of new unexpected phenomena.

Lectures will be held from 1:30 to 2:50 MWF in Moody Science 127. Small Discussion classes will be held in MS 127, MS 302, or the basement in the Hopkins building. All reading assignments should be completed for the class for which they are assigned. The student is expected to bring to class the readings for that day. Unless otherwise specified, the student is required to read the entire text of listed material. At times, films may be shown.

TEXTS:

Albert Camus The Fall

Heinrich Kleist The Marquise of O

Thomas Mann Death in Venice

Scott Gordon The History and Philosophy of Social Science

Sigmund Freud Civilization and Its Discontents

Thomas Kuhn The Copernican Revolution

Peter Barry Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and

Cultural Theory

Michio Kaku Einstein’s Cosmos: How Albert Einstein’s Vision

Transformed our Understanding of Space Time

Drake/Galileo Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo

OTHER OUTSIDE READING: The student will be expected to electronically access some outside readings—such outside material will be placed on electronic reserve at the beginning of the semester, while others as the semester progresses. Some web-site articles may be used. Moreover, as the course evolves, the student may be given hard-copies of other readings—material that the professor unexpectedly uncovers and feels appropriate for the course.

EXAMS and GRADING POLICY: The exams will include questions of varying format: short answer, identification, and brief discussion. Thus, the focus of the exams will be directed toward a student’s ability to understand the material rather than memorizing information. In an effort to prepare the student for course exams and discussion periods, the faculty will provide, through the use of class handouts, some topics to be considered both within their lectures and assigned readings, along with some leading questions.

Grades will be dependent upon Participation (19%) and Exam Grades (81%). Participation will be based upon class attendance and active involvement in class discussions. There will be three scheduled exams during the normal semester. In addition, there will be an optional Cumulative Final Exam administered during final exam week. Every student must take all three semester exams, but also has the option of taking the Cumulative Final Exam for purposes of replacing a prior exam score, or for taking the place of an exam that the student missed. This assumes the student has missed an exam for an excused reason; a reason ruled to be legitimate by the instructors. If the professors rule that the student has missed an exam for a legitimate reason, then the missed exam will count as the dropped score and the student will be permitted to take the Comprehensive Final in order to replace the zero. However, if the student misses an exam for an unexcused reason, an automatic grade of zero will be recorded for one of the three recorded exams, with no opportunity to take the Comprehensive Final Exam to replace the zero. Barring a missed exam without an excused reason, this leaves the student with three scored exams, weighted 27% each. The student should note there are NO Make-Up Exams administered in this course for ANY REASON! In summary:

Class Participation: 19%

Three Recorded Exam Scores @ 27% each: 81%

100%

The dates for the exams are on the course syllabus. The grades will be computed by averaging your three highest test grades with your Participation grade.

Use of the 1:30-2:30 Class Period: When viewing the “Topics & Reading Assignments” portion of the syllabus, the student will notice that two-thirds of the classes will be lectures (with some discussion/Q&A). All lectures will be held in Moody Science 127. However, the remaining one-third of the classes will consist of small group discussions. There will be three small-groups, each with its own instructor and classroom. These smaller class sessions will allow more time for quality discussions and review, plus give the student an opportunity to ask clarifying questions over previously covered material. Moreover, the smaller classes will enable the student to sometimes better exhibit their understanding of course material, generating an enhanced opportunity to score well on the Participation grade, which, again, is weighted 19%.

ATTENDANCE: Regular attendance is expected at lectures, discussions, and any video airing. If you miss class, or know you are going to miss a future class, do not offer the instructors an explanation or excuse; we trust you have a good reason. However, if you plan to be away from class for an extended period (more than three consecutive classes), please inform us well in advance.

1-4 Missed Classes: No Penalty

5^th Missed Class: Final Grade will be reduced by 10%

6^th Missed Class: Final Grade will be reduced by 20%

7^th Missed Class: Final Grade will be reduced by 30%

Note: Repeating, the first four classes are “free,” in the sense there is no grade reduction. “Spend” your “free” absences how you see fit, e.g., school field trips, school team trips, job interviews, funerals, recovering from an illness, etc. These absences are NOT IN ADDITION to any days missed due to the above events, or any other events, school sanctioned or otherwise. For example, if you miss four classes for health reasons or school sanctioned trips, or for any other reason, you cannot then take more in-class hours to travel, hypothetically, with the Model UN group, school sports team, illness, etc., and not expect to pay the consequences. Take care of your “free absences” and they will take care of you!”

TAPE RECORDINGS OF LECTURES: Tape recordings of lectures will not be provided, nor is the student permitted to tape lectures.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY: This course will be run on the basis of the Austin College Academic Integrity Policies. Group studying is accepted and even encouraged. But all students are required to do their own work on papers and tests. By being enrolled in this course, each student agrees to abide by the Academic Integrity principles found in the most recent version of ENVIRONMENT or in other official college publications. All sources in the preparation of papers must be appropriately acknowledged. (See attached for Academic Integrity General Definitions, Procedures, Penalties, and Faculty Responsibility.)

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: Austin College seeks to provide reasonable accommodations for all individuals with disabilities. Austin College will comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws, regulations and guidelines, specifically Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), with respect to providing appropriate academic adjustments to afford equal educational opportunity. It is the responsibility of the student to register with and provide verification of academic accommodation needs to the Director of Academic Skills Center as soon as possible. This verification/documentation must be handed to the student’s professors. The student also must contact the faculty member in a timely manner (at least one week before exam date) for reasonable academic accommodations. For further information regarding learning disability issues or to register for assistance, please contact the office at 903-813-2454 or visit the Academic Skills Center.

CLASS ETIQUETTE & CONDUCT :

A. Do not bring Cell Phones or tape recorders to class.

B. Come to class on time.

C. Do not leave the classroom during lectures/discussions.

D. Complete reading assignments before their discussion.

E. Respect the rights of others by refraining from talking

(unless recognized by the instructors) while class is in session, or reading extemporaneous material, e.g., newspapers, magazines, mail, and other course material.

F. Bring textbooks, syllabus, and readings to class at

all times.

G. Inform instructors before bringing visitors to class.

H. Do not eat during class session. However, beverages are permitted

I. Refrain from asking any questions already addressed in the syllabus, e.g., “when are your office hours,” or “how many absences do you have me down for”(…they are YOUR absences and we expect YOU to keep up with them).

J. Sit near the classroom door and be as quiet as possible, if necessary to leave class early.

TOPICS & READING ASSIGNMENTS

Jan. 30 Monday

Introductory Presentations… A Physicist, Chemist, and Economist briefly discuss their role, discipline, and practice as it pertains to the course.

Topic: Aristotle & Plato’ s Worldview: Forms, Causality, Regularity, and Movement Dan Nuckols

Brian S. Baigrie Scientific Revolutions Chap. I

To “know” was by means of “causes”. But it is “forms” that explains, is even cause of, those particular things at the phenomenal level, and exist independently. “…Aristotle’s dominant conception of science—the understanding of the way in which Nature, which resembles a master in having ends at which it aims, imposes its will on matter, which sometimes resists those ends, and, like the slave, can achieve nothing except under the direction of a superior will.”

Feb. 1 Wednesday

Topic: Naked-eye Astronomy and the Ptolemaic World System

Don Salisbury

Thomas Kuhn, "The Ancient Two-Sphere Universe" and "The Problem of

the Planets," The Copernican Revolution, pp. 1-76

The Earth-centered Ptolemaic world system admirably explains the observed daily motion of the sun and stars, and the longer-term motion of the sun and planets relative to the stars. Terrestrial and celestial realms are subject to different laws.

Feb. 3 Friday

Discussion

Feb. 6 Mon.

Topic: Renaissance Philosophy, Theology, Art, and Mathematics and its Relevance to the Emergence of Modern Science Don Salisbury

Thomas Kuhn, "The two-sphere universe in Aristotelean thought" and

"Recasting the tradition: Aristotle to the Copernicans," The Copernican Revolution, pp. 77-132

Early Renaissance humanism led to a fusion of pagan Aristotelianism and Christian theology. But coupled with the interests and activities of a rising European merchant class the rediscoveries and reinterpretations of ancient knowledge led to artisanal, artistic, engineering, mathematical, and philosophical challenges to the dominant world system.

Feb. 8 Wed.

Topic: The Copernican World System and Galileo’s Evidence

Don Salisbury

Thomas Kuhn, "Copernicus' innovation," in The Copernican Revolution,

pp. 133-170 and

Galileo Galilei and Stilman Drake, "Introduction: First Part" and "The

Starry Messenger" in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo, pp. 1-58

The sun-centered Copernican world system is esthetically appealing, but before Galileo’s telescopic observations and mechanical discoveries lacked supporting experimental and theoretical evidence.

Feb. 10 Fri.

Discussion

Feb. 13 Mon..

Topic: Galileo and the Church Don Salisbury

Galileo Galilei and Stilman Drake, "Introduction: Third Part" and "Letter

to the Grand Duchess Christina" in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo, pp. 145-216

Galileo was brought before the Roman Inquisition for defending the claim that the earth moved. But the issues at stake were much more complex, as was the political, social, and scientific context in which this charge was made.

Feb. 15 Wed.

Topic: The Merton Thesis: the Sociology of Science in 17th Century England Hank Gibson

G. Basalla, The Rise of Modern Science: Internal or External Facotrs,

“Introduction,” pp vii-xiv.

A.B. Arons & A.M. Bork, Science and Ideas, “Puritanism, Pietism, and

Science,” by Robert K. Merton

R. Hooykaas, Religion and the Rise of Modern Science, Chapter V, "Science and the Reformation," pp 98-114.

Strongly believing that external factors have affected the rise of modern science, Robert Merton considers the sociology of science within 17th century England and includes religion (namely, Puritanism) within his analysis.

Feb. 17 Fri.

Discussion

Feb. 20 Mon.

Topic: Blood, Art, and Anatomy Hank Gibson

Brian S. Baigrie, Scientific Revolutions: Primary Texts in the History of Science, Chapter 9, "The Sun of the Microcosm,"

by William Harvey

Hugh Kearney, Science and Change: 1500-1700, "The World as Organism," pp77-88.

Herbert Butterfield, The Origins of Modern Science, Revised Edition, Chapter 3, "The Study of the Heart Down to

William Harvey"

William Harvey made a very decisive contribution to the Scientific Revolution by his discovery of blood circulation. In his work we see developments in anatomy and in the art of 15th century Italy come together in one of the most important discoveries in the history of medicine.

Feb. 22 Wed.

Topic: Phlogiston: How Can A Wrong Theory Be Useful?

Hank Gibson

H.M. Leicester and H. S. Klickstein, A Source Book in Chemistry 1400-1900, a. "Zymotechnia fundamentalis...;" "Zufallige

Gedanken and nutzliche Bedencken...;" "Fundamenta

chymiae..." by Georg E. Stahl

b. "Memoir on Combustion in General," Memoirs de l'Academie des Sciences 1777, 592-600, by Antoine L. Lavoisier

(http:web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/papers.html#combustion)

Herbert Butterfield, The Origins of Modern Science, Revised Edition, Chapter 11, "The Postponed Scientific Revolution

in Chemistry"

Most of us smile knowingly when we hear the term phlogiston because we know it was overthrown by Lavoisier and his understanding of gases and elements. A deeper look suggests that the phlogiston theory may have facilitated the development of modern chemistry.

Feb. 24 Fri.

Discussion

Feb. 27 Mon.

Exam I

March 1 Wed.

Topic: Newton’s Laws,Gravity, and the Clockwork Universe

Don Salisbury

James Gleick, Isaac Newton, “First Principles, pp. 114-125, and

“Every Body Perseveres”, pp. 125-140

Newton presupposes a fixed spatial and temporal physical arena subject to immutable laws of mechanics and gravitation. It seems that with the initial conditions given the universe will evolve in a manner that can be precisely predicted—just like a mechanical clock.

March 3 Fri.

Topic: Mechanical Chemistry: Robert Boyle Hank Gibson

Herbert Butterfield, The Origins of Modern Science, Chapter 6, “The

Non-Mechanical Sciences,” pp 138-150

Hugh Kearney, Science and Change, 1500-1700, “Robert Boyle and

English Mechanism”, pp 171-178

Robert Boyle was the most important figure in transforming chemistry from a purely organic science to one that was mechanistic in outlook. An avid experimentalist, he made use of an air pump to show that air had weight and made use of the concept of “particles in motion” in formulating Boyle’s law, a quantitative relationship between volume and pressure

March 6 Mon.

Discussion

March 8 Wed.

Topic: The Scottish Enlightenment…David Hume & Adam Smith…Birth of the Social Sciences Dan Nuckols

Scott Gordon The History and Philosophy of Social Science (Chapter Seven…”The Scottish Enlightenment of the Eighteenth Century”)

The main source of inspiration for the eighteenth-century thinker was the accomplishments of the natural sciences. The Newtonian system was especially admired as a model of what scholars should aspire to achieve.

March 10 Fri.

Topic: The Argument for Capitalism: Adam Smith’s Argument for Decentralization in the Economy Dan Nuckols

E. Ray Canterbery The Making of Economics (Chapter Three, “The

Nature of Science and the Economics Paradigm” and Chapter Four, “Adam Smith and the Market Economy”)

Concentrates on key aspects of Adam Smith paradigm; with emphasis on how his economic framework emulates Newtonian mechanics, supposedly resulting in order and harmony.

March 13 Mon.

Discussion

March 15 Wed.

Topic: The Idea of Progress, Harmony, and

Perfection in the Social Order Dan Nuckols

Scott Gordon The History and Philosophy of Social

Science. Chaps. 8 & 10

The idea that the world is a harmonious order, with strong progressive currents, despite the manifest appearances of conflict, muddle, and formless happenstance, has a long history, going back to the great Greek thinkers of the classical era. The 17^th and 18^th centuries see debate over whether this “progress” and “harmony” was “pre-established” via a “great chain of being”, or instead non-static, in the sense that progress and harmony “evolve”—the western intellect enters in evolutionist era.

March 17 Fri. Noon

Spring Break

March 27 Mon.

Topic: The “Crisis” of Uncertainty Dan Nuckols

Heinrich Von Kleist The Marquise of O

“The Love Affair with Wilhelmine”

(Kleist’s letter to Wilhelmine)

A look at one man’s inability to believe in the idealistic humanism of his day, and who sees human nature as irrational, ambiguous and baffling….the loss of faith, together with his vulnerability and disequilibrium.

March 29 Wed.

Discussion

March 31 Fri.

Exam II

April 3 Mon.

Topic: Reductionism and Emergence Hank Gibson

Reductionism versus Emergence: Definitions and History

The Dactyl Foundation, Oct. 2005 <http://www.dactyl.org/thought/motivations.htm>

Ian Barbour, Religion and Science: Historical and Contemporary Issues "A Hierarchy of Levels," pp 230-235.

Three forms of reductionism will be discussed, the first of which is methodological reductionism as a normal research strategy. The second is epistemological reductionism in which theories at one level can be derived from a different level. The third involves ontological reductionism as a view of reality, suggesting that the true nature of some complex entity is "nothing but" the sum of its parts. Conversely, an emergent concept such as ecosystem describes a higher level of organization not reducible to lower-level concepts.

April 5 Wed.

Topic: Biology, Social Sciences, and Social Policy…The

Reduction of Sociology to Biology Dan Nuckols

Scott Gordon The History and Philosophy of Social

Science. Chap. 16

Early social scientists, one of which being Adam Smith, conceived of themselves as examining social phenomena in the spirit of “natural philosophy”, as exemplified in the fields of astronomy, physics, biology, and chemistry. Later social scientists, like Herbert Spencer and Emile Durkheim, felt both theoretical and empirical biology profoundly influenced the social sciences. Today, much has been held over and expanded, with implications for how biology affects social policy.

April 7 Fri.

Discussion

April 10 Mon.

Topic: Einstein’s Dynamic Spacetime Don Salisbury

Michio Kaku, ‘Special Relativity and the Miracle Year” and

“Warped Spacetime” in Einstein’s Cosmos: How Albert Einstein’s Vision Transformed our Understanding of Space and Time, pp. 59-112

The relativity principle was recognized first by Galileo, but it was called into question toward the end of the nineteenth century. Einstein’s special relativity resurrected the principle by demonstrating that space and time did not have the properties assumed by Isaac Newton. The rate of passage to time depends on the observer, as does the length of objects. Yet that was not the full story. Einstein’s general theory of relativity shows that spacetime geometry itself is evolving in time.

April 12 Wed.

Topic: The Big Bang and Evidence for Physical and Biological

Evolution Don Salisbury

Michio Kaku, “The Big Bang and Balck Holes”, pp. 131-144 and

“Einstein’s Prophetic Legacy”, pp. 201-233 in Einstein’s Cosmos: How Albert Einstein’s Vision Transformed Our Understanding of Space and Time.

Today we have abundant evidence from a variety of sources that our universe is expanding, and roughly fifteen billion years ago all matter in the universe was so tightly packed together that the huge resulting temperatures rendered even atomic and molecular structures unstable. Present theory is now able to fill in many details of the evolution of the cosmos from the hot Big Bang through the physical evolution of stars and planets and culminating roughly two billion years ago in the emergence on earth of biological organisms.

April 14 Fri.

Discussion

April 17 Mon.

Topic: What Isn’t This Thing Called Science:

Benzene as a Case Study Hank Gibson

A. F. Chalmers, What is this thing called Science?, Introduction –

B.Chapter 3, pp ix-40.

Jerome Berson, Chemical Discovery and the Logicians’ Program,

“Refutation by Internal Contradiction. Kekule’s ‘Hypothesis of Embarrassment’ and the Theory of Benzene”, pp 47-67

A. F. Chalmers raises and answers many questions about the distinctiveness of scientific knowledge as opposed to other kinds of knowledge. After discussing the “facts of experience,’ the nature of observation, and the significance of experiment, he considers the topic of falsification as proposed by Karl Popper. Berson provides a nice case study that calls into serious question some of the fundamental precepts of Popper’s falsification theory.

April 19 Wed.

Topic: Artificial Intelligence: Human Intelligence

Hank Gibson

Alan Turing, Computing Machinery and Intelligence, Journal of

the Mind Association, vol. LIX, no. 236, pp. 433-60, 1950.

Selected reading from the American Association of Artificial

Intelligence, October, 2005 <http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/newstopics/philosophy.html>

Since its conceptual beginning in antiquity and modern development since the Turing Test in 1950, the study of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has raised fundamental questions about consciousness, the mind-brain relationship, and what it means to be human. With AI we are faced with the ultimate metaphor: machine as man. These and other issues will be addressed within this presentation.

April 21 Fri.

Discussion

April 24 Mon.

Topic: Science and Religion Don Salisbury

“Einstein on Religion and Science”, online at http: //www.sacred-

Texts.com/aor/Einstein/einsci.htm

Ian Barbour, “God and Nature” in Religion and Science: Historical

and Contemporary Issues, pp. 305-332

Is there a fundamental conflict between science and religion? There are probably as many variations of responses to this question as there are scientists and theologians. We will look at the reasoned opinions of several respected experts in both.

April 26 Wed.

Topic: Imposed Harmony Dan Nuckols

Thomas Mann Death In Venice

Sigmund Freud Civilization and Its Discontents

Modern society’s imposed curbs and prohibitions, nurtured by science’s quest for “explanation”, have man renouncing his instincts and appetites in order for “civilization” to exist; consequences ensue.

April 29 Fri.

Topic: Imposed Harmony (cont.), Plus, The Modernist & Post-

Modern Movement Dan Nuckols

Albert Camus The Fall

Peter Barry Beginning Theory: An Introduction to

Literary and Cultural Theory. Chaps. 2, 3, & 4

A look at how literary figures and artists of the 20^th century (mostly) battle against the strictures, techniques, and “objectivity” supplied by the natural sciences. An argument that some types of “knowing” are impressionistic and subjective, leading to a need to study how we see/understand rather than what we see; a new liking for fragmented forms, discontinuous narrative and random-seeing collages of disparate materials.

May 1 Mon

Discussion

May 3 Wed.

Exam III

May 5 Fri.

Panel Discussion

May 8 Mon.

Review

May 10

Final Exam 12:00-2:00 Wed.