HSTC 3001
The Scientific Revolution
This course examines the history and historiography of the Scientific Revolution (1500–1800). Beginning with the late Medieval developments that prepared the ground for the Scientific Revolution, this course examines the revolutions in astronomy, medicine, physics, natural history and the earth sciences through the innovative work of such natural philosophers as Copernicus, Vesalius, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes and Boyle up to the achievement of Isaac Newton’s Principia mathematica (1687) and Opticks (1704). The course then evaluates the immediate spread and legacies of Newtonianism and considers more broadly developments in astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology and the emerging life sciences along with their impact on culture and society in the Enlightenment.