“Introduction to the History of Science”
Course description
This graduate seminar is compulsory for the students of the first year of 乙組 and is also advised to all those students who plan to work on topics related to history of science.
The course is offered in English.
The course will include the following activities:
(A) Reading:
The students will read two monographs:
- An introduction to the historiography of science, by Helge Kragh (1987) (can be found in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, call number Q125 K855 1987), and
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by T. Kuhn;
Also they will read chapters or papers on history of science in order to analyze their language, structure, scope, argumentation, methods of citation, etc., in order to familiarize themselves with the style and standards of scholarly publications in the field.
Normally, the amount of pages to read in one week will not exceed 40. The students will have to write their assignments and send them to instructor by email. The assignments will be discussed in the class.
(B) Writing
The students will prepare a research paper on the topic in history of science they select themselves. The final goal of this activity is to teach students express their ideas in clear and concise form and to provide correct arguments. The students will have a mid-term defense of the topic of the paper, and a final presentation (oral defense) of their paper at the end of the semester. The written term paper is supposed to be submitted one or two weeks after the oral defense.
(C) Evaluation: All the above-listed activities will be evaluated according to the following scheme:
Activity Weight
Reading Assignments 20
Paper analysis 10
Class participation/Discussions 10
Topic defense 10
Topic presentation 25
Term paper 25
Total 100
(D) Time and place:
The course will be taught on Fridays, from 14:10 to 17:00 (F6F7F8), in A.Volkov’s office (Education Hall 教育館, room 201).