Hum/H/HPS 18
Introduction to the History of Science
9 units (3-0-6)
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second, third terms
Major topics include the following: What are the origins of modern Western science, when did it emerge as distinct from philosophy and other cultural and intellectual productions, and what are its distinguishing features? When and how did observation, experiment, quantification, and precision enter the practice of science? What were some of the major turning points in the history of science? What is the changing role of science and technology? Using primary and secondary sources, students will take up significant topics in the history of science, from ancient Greek science to the 20th-century revolution in physics, biology, and technology. Hum/H/HPS 10 may be taken for credit toward the additional 36-unit HSS requirement by HPS majors and minors who have already fulfilled their freshman humanities requirement and counts as a history course in satisfying the freshman humanities breadth requirement.
Instructor:
Feingold
HPS 98
Reading in History and Philosophy of Science
9 units (1-0-8)
Prerequisites: instructor's permission.
An individual program of directed reading in history and philosophy of science, in areas not covered by regular courses.
Instructor:
Staff
HPS 102 ab
Senior Research Seminar
12 units (2-0-10)
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Offered in any two consecutive terms, by arrangement with HPS faculty
Under the guidance of an HPS faculty member, students will research and write a focused research paper of 15,000 words (approximately 50 pages). Work in the first term will comprise intensive reading in the relevant literature and/or archival or other primary source research. In the second term, students will draft and revise their paper. Open to seniors in the HPS option and to others by special permission of an HPS faculty member.
Instructor:
Staff
HPS 103
Public Lecture Series
1 unit
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first, second, third terms
Student attend four lectures, featuring speakers from outside Caltech, on topics in the history and philosophy of science. Students may choose from a variety of regularly scheduled HPS lectures, including HPS seminars, Harris lectures, and Munro seminars (history or philosophy of science only). Graded on attendance. Not available for credit toward the humanities-social science requirement. Graded pass/fail. Not offered 2018-19.
Instructor:
Visiting lecturers
HPS/Pl/CS 110
Causation and Explanation
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
An examination of theories of causation and explanation in philosophy and neighboring disciplines. Topics discussed may include probabilistic and counterfactual treatments of causation, the role of statistical evidence and experimentation in causal inference, and the deductive-nomological model of explanation. The treatment of these topics by important figures from the history of philosophy such as Aristotle, Descartes, and Hume may also be considered.
Instructor:
Eberhardt
HPS/Pl 120
Introduction to Philosophy of Science
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
An introduction to fundamental philosophical problems concerning the nature of science. Topics may include the character of scientific explanation, criteria for the conformation and falsification of scientific theories, the relationship between theory and observation, philosophical accounts of the concept of "law of nature," causation, chance, realism about unobservable entities, the objectivity of science, and issues having to do with the ways in which scientific knowledge changes over time.
Instructor:
Babic
HPS/Pl 122
Probability, Evidence, and Belief
9 units (3-0-6)
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second term
Philosophical and conceptual issues arising from the study of probability theory and how it relates to rationality and belief. Topics discussed may include the foundations and interpretations of probability, arguments for and against the view that we ought to have personal degrees of belief, rational change in beliefs over time, and the relationship between probability and traditional epistemological topics like evidence, justification, and knowledge.
Instructor:
Babic
HPS/Pl 123
Introduction to the Philosophy of Physics
9 units (3-0-6)
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first term
Prerequisites: Ph 1abc or instructor's permission.
This course will examine the philosophical foundations of the physical theories covered in the freshman physics sequence: classical mechanics, electromagnetism, and special relativity. Topics may include: the goals of physics; what laws of nature are; the unification of physical theories; symmetries; determinism; locality; the reality of fields; the arrow of time.
Instructor:
Sebens
HPS/Pl 124
Philosophy of Space and Time
9 units (3-0-6)
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first term
This course will focus on questions about the nature of space and time, particularly as they arise in connection with physical theory. Topics may include the nature and existence of space, time, and motion; the relationship between geometry and physical space (or space-time); entropy and the direction of time; the nature of simultaneity; and the possibility of time travel.
Instructor:
Hitchcock
HPS/Pl 125
Philosophical Issues in Quantum Physics
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
Prerequisites: Ph 2b or Ph 12b.
This course will focus on philosophical and foundational questions raised by quantum physics. Questions may include: Is quantum mechanics a local theory? Is the theory deterministic or indeterministic? What is the role of measurement and observation? Does the wave function always obey the Schroedinger equation? Does the wave function give a complete description of the state of a system? Are there parallel universes? How are we to understand quantum probabilities?
Instructor:
Sebens
HPS/Pl 128
Philosophy of Mathematics
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
An examination of conceptual issues that arise in mathematics. The sorts of issues addressed may include the following: Are mathematical objects such as numbers in some sense real? How do we obtain knowledge of the mathematical world? Are proofs the only legitimate source of mathematical knowledge? What is the relationship between mathematics and the world? How is it possible to apply abstract theory to the world? Views of major historical figures such as Plato, Hume, Kant, and Mill, as well as of contemporary writers are examined. The course will also examine philosophical issues that arise in particular areas of mathematics such as probability theory and geometry. Not offered 2018-19.
Instructor:
Hitchcock
HPS/Pl 130
Philosophy and Biology
9 units (3-0-6)
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second term
A selection of philosophical issues arising in the biological sciences. Topics will vary by term. Not offered 2018-19.
HPS/Pl 134
Current Issues in Philosophical Psychology
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
An in-depth examination of one or more issues at the intersection of contemporary philosophy and the brain and behavioral sciences. Topics may include the development of a theory of mind and self-representation, theories of representation and neural coding, the nature of rationality, the nature and causes of psychopathology, learning and innateness, the modularity of mind. Not offered 2018-19.
HPS/Pl 135
Moral Philosophy and the Brain
9 units (3-0-6)
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first term
This course will examine the impact of recent advances in neuroscience on moral philosophy. Topics to be addressed include: the evolution of morality and a naturalistic perspective on ethics; the role of brain imaging in adjudicating between deontological vs. consequentialist perspectives on moral decision-making and judgment; the relation between virtue theory and habit systems in the brain; brain imaging of altruism and its implications for egoism, empathy, and moral motivation; moral agency and free will; the neuroscience of distributive justice; the debate regarding the normative significance of neuroscience for moral philosophy. Not offered 2018-19.
HPS/Pl 136
Happiness and the Good Life
9 units (3-0-6)
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first term
This course will critically examine the emerging science of happiness and positive psychology, its philosophical assumptions, methodology, and its role in framing social policy and practice. Topics to be addressed include: the relation between happiness as subjective well-being or life satisfaction and philosophical visions of the good life; the relation between happiness and virtue; the causes of happiness and the role of life experience; happiness and economic notions of human welfare, attempts to measure happiness, and the prospect for an economics of happiness; happiness as a brain state and whether brain science can illuminate the nature of happiness; mental illness and psychiatry in light of positive psychology.
Instructor:
Quartz
HPS/Pl 137
Minds, Brains, and Selves
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
This course will critically examine the impact of recent advances in psychology, economics, artificial intelligence, and neuroscience on philosophical questions about the nature of the self and self-identity. Topics to be addressed include: the nature of self-awareness; the role of the self in decision-making, reasoning, and planning; the possibility, and accuracy of, self-knowledge; whether the self is unitary, multiple, fragmented, or illusory; self-related emotions; the narrative structure of the self; and how selves are instantiated in neural tissue and whether selves could be instantiated in non-biological substrates (technological singularity). Not offered 2018-19.
HPS/Pl 138
Human Nature and Society
9 units (3-0-6)
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second term
This course will investigate how assumptions about human nature shape political philosophy, social institutions, and social policy. The course will begin with a historical perspective, examining the work of such political philosophers as Plato, Locke, Rousseau, and Marx, along with such psychologists as Freud and Skinner. Against this historical perspective, it will then turn to examine contemporary views on human nature from cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary psychology and explore their potential implications for political philosophy and social policy. Among topics to be discussed will be the nature of human sociality and cooperation; economic systems and assumptions regarding production and consumption; and propaganda, marketing, and manipulation.
Instructor:
Quartz
HPS/H 160
Einstein and His Generation: The History of Modern Physical Sciences
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
An exploration of the most significant scientific developments in the physical sciences, structured around the life and work of Albert Einstein (1879-1955), with particular emphasis on the new theories of radiation, the structure of matter, relativity, and quantum mechanics. While using original Einstein manuscripts, notebooks, scientific papers, and personal correspondence, we shall also study how experimental and theoretical work in the sciences was carried out; scientific education and career patterns; personal, political, cultural, and sociological dimensions of science.
Instructor:
Kormos-Buchwald
HPS/H 162
Social Studies of Science
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
A comparative, multidisciplinary course that examines the practice of science in a variety of locales, using methods from the history, sociology, and anthropology of scientific knowledge. Topics covered include the high-energy particle laboratory as compared with a biological one; Western as compared to non-Western scientific reasoning; the use of visualization techniques in science from their inception to virtual reality; gender in science; and other topics.
Instructor:
Feingold
HPS/Pl 165
Selected Topics in Philosophy of Science
9 units (3-0-6)
Instructors:
Staff, visiting lecturers
HPS/H 166
Historical Perspectives on the Relations between Science and Religion
9 units (3-0-6)
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second term
The course develops a framework for understanding the changing relations between science and religion in Western culture since antiquity. Focus will be on the ways in which the conceptual, personal, and social boundaries between the two domains have been reshaped over the centuries. Questions to be addressed include the extent to which a particular religious doctrine was more or less amenable to scientific work in a given period, how scientific activity carved an autonomous domain, and the roles played by scientific activity in the overall process of secularization.
Instructor:
Feingold
HPS/H 167
Experimenting with History/Historic Experiment
9 units (3-0-6)
Prerequisites: Ph 1 abc, and Ph 2 abc (may be taken concurrently).
This course uses a combination of lectures with hands-on laboratory work to bring out the methods, techniques, and knowledge that were involved in building and conducting historical experiments. We will connect our laboratory work with the debates and claims made by the original discoverers, asking such questions as how experimental facts have been connected to theories, how anomalies arise and are handled, and what sorts of conditions make historically for good data. Typical experiments might include investigations of refraction, laws of electric force, interference of polarized light, electromagnetic induction, or resonating circuits and electric waves. We will reconstruct instrumentation and experimental apparatus based on a close reading of original sources. Not offered 2018-19.
HPS/H 168
History of Electromagnetism and Heat Science
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
Prerequisites: Ph 1 abc, and Ph 2 abc (may be taken concurrently).
This course covers the development of electromagnetism and thermal science from its beginnings in the early 18th century through the early 20th century. Topics covered include electrostatics, magnetostatics, electrodynamics, Maxwell's field theory, the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics as well as related experimental discoveries.
Instructor:
Buchwald
HPS/H 169
Selected Topics in the History of Science and Technology
9 units (3-0-6)
Instructors:
Staff, visiting lecturers
HPS/H 170
History of Light from Antiquity to the 20th Century
9 units (3-0-6)
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second, third terms
Prerequisites: Ph 1 abc, and Ph 2 abc (may be taken concurrently).
A study of the experimental, mathematical, and theoretical developments concerning light, from the time of Ptolemy in the 2nd century A.D. to the production of electromagnetic optics in the 20th century. Not offered 2018-19.
Instructors:
Buchwald, J
HPS/H 171
History of Mechanics from Galileo through Euler
9 units (3-0-6)
Prerequisites: Ph 1 abc, and Ph 2 abc (may be taken concurrently).
This course covers developments in mechanics, as well as related aspects of mathematics and models of nature, from just before the time of Galileo through the middle of the 18th century, which saw the creation of fluid and rotational dynamics in the hands of Euler and others. Not offered 2018-19.
HPS/H 172
History of Mathematics: A Global View with Close-ups
9 units (3-0-6)
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offered by announcement
The course will provide students with a brief yet adequate survey of the history of mathematics, characterizing the main developments and placing these in their chronological, cultural, and scientific contexts. A more detailed study of a few themes, such as Archimedes' approach to infinite processes, the changing meanings of "analysis" in mathematics, Descartes' analytic geometry, and the axiomatization of geometry c. 1900; students' input in the choice of these themes will be welcomed. Not offered 2018-19.
HPS/H 175
Matter, Motion, and Force: Physical Astronomy from Ptolemy to Newton
9 units (3-0-6)
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second term
The course will examine how elements of knowledge that evolved against significantly different cultural and religious backgrounds motivated the great scientific revolution of the 17th century. Not offered 2018-19.
Pl/HPS 183
Bioethics
9 units (3-0-6)
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second term
A survey of issues in bioethics. Topics may include: abortion and reproductive rights; euthanasia; cloning; genetic modification of organisms (including humans); moral status of chimeras; stem-cell research; organ transplantation, distribution and sale; cure vs. enhancement; use of human subjects in research; the concept of informed consent; research on non-human animals. Not offered 2018-19.
Instructor:
Cowie
H/HPS 185
Angels and Monsters: Cosmology, Anthropology, and the Ends of the World
9 units (3-0-6)
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first term
This course explores late medieval European understandings of the origins, structure, and workings of the cosmos in the realms of theology, physics, astronomy, astrology, magic, and medicine. Attention is given to the position of humans as cultural creatures at the intersection of nature and spirit; as well as to the place of Christian Europeans in relation to non-Christians and other categories of outsiders within and beyond Europe. We will examine the knowledge system that anticipated racializing theories in the West. Not offered 2018-19.
Instructor:
Wey-Gomez
H/HPS 186
From Plato to Pluto: Maps, Exploration and Culture from Antiquity to the Present
9 units (3-0-6)
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third term
This course covers a broad range of topics in the history of maps and exploration from Antiquity to the present. These topics range from the earliest visualizations of earth and space in the Classical world to contemporary techniques in interplanetary navigation. By way of maps, students will explore various ways in which different cultures have conceptualized and navigated earth and space. While maps emulate the world as perceived by the human eye, they, in fact, comprise a set of observations and perceptions of the relationship between bodies in space and time. Thus, students will study maps, and the exploration they enable, as windows to the cultures that have produced them, not only as scientific and technical artifacts to measure and navigate our world.
Instructors:
Wey-Gomez, Ceva
HPS/Pl 188
The Evolution of Cognition
9 units (3-0-6)
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second term
By many measures, Homo sapiens is the most cognitively sophisticated animal on the planet. Not only does it live in a huge variety of habitats, and not only has it transformed its environment in unprecedented ways, but it is also responsible for such cultural artifacts as language, science, religion, and art. These are achievements that other species, however successful they may be in other respects, have not accomplished. This course investigates the cognitive, behavioral, and environmental bases for humans' surprising cultural dominance of our planet. Possible topics include the evolution of language, the evolution of morality, the evolution of religion, the evolution of cooperation, and the advent of technology, math, science, and the Internet. Contact the instructor to find out what the topic in any given term is. Not offered 2018-19.
Instructor:
Cowie
Published Date:
July 28, 2022