A Course in the Social History of Science

Abstract

Since 1972, the Science Studies Unit at Edinburgh University has offered a 'half-course' in the social history of science to undergraduates in the Science Faculty. The Unit is dedicated to interdisciplinary research and teaching in the sociology, philosophy, social history, and contemporary political aspects of science, and this course is one of four taught by the Unit staff (the course bibliography of the 'philosophical' component was published in Social Studies of Science, Vol. 5 [1975], 507-17). While the present course has evolved considerably since its inception, attempting to keep pace with the rapidly expanding secondary literature in this area, its basic structure has been relatively stable since 1974. It is hoped that publication of -the course bibliography will be useful to teachers planning similar offerings. This course is intended to occupy between one-sixth and onequarter of the student's time for two terms (or roughly twenty weeks). No prior knowledge is assumed. Every student prepares eight short (about 750 words) tutorial essays during the course: these are discussed in fortnightly tutorials. The course is assessed by a combination of an examination at the end of the course and performance in tutorial essays. Each lecture in this syllabus is introduced by a brief discussion of the key issues presented by the readings. Several queries are listed at the end to indicate the sorts of questions students should be able to deal with after reading and lecture. The lecture portion of thecourse has two major aims: (i) to introduce students to the chang-