| Unit name | History of Science |
|---|---|
| Unit code | PHILM0007 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Tho |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of Philosophy |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit introduces the field of the history of science by exploring contemporary methodological problems against the backdrop of classical mechanics and the role played by a key conceptual term “inertia”. In the early modern period, the use of the terms “conatus”, “nisus”, “impetus”, and “vis insitia” were widespread and equivocal. They were, at the same time, claimed by various thinkers in a semantically precise and narrow ways. At the beginning of the modern period, the notion of “conatus” [striving] became increasingly associated with its conceptual opposite, “natural inertia”, a tendency towards rest. Through this and a series of other historical shifts, early modern thinkers developed the concept of inertia by associating the notion of a motion, matter, force, or property persisting in its state through time and space. Whether we understand this concept as perdurance or endurance, unity or synthesis, the problem of inertia cuts through fields across experimentation, natural philosophy, epistemology, and metaphysics.
What is highlighted here is obviously how the early modern period provided new concepts for the understanding of identity through change in different domains. With the waning of Scholastic substance concepts, physical notions of identity through motion required different metaphysical grounds. Across a series of connected issues, we shall examine classical accounts of this concept in this seminar.
On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1-hour lecture + 1-hour seminar each week + essay tutorials
One essay of 5,000-6,000 words (excluding notes and bibliography)
Kuhn, T., Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
