Course Overview
This course will investigate the relations between science and culture as it has developed in the modern world, from the time of Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, early in the nineteenth century, to the present day. Among the historical topics we will investigate will be the rise of modern science, skeptical rationalism, and empiricism since the Enlightenment, and their conflict with the faith-based knowledge and inquiry that had dominated in Europe in preceding centuries; the perceived conflict between scientific reason and feelings in the Romantic period; the attack on scientific rationalism and “social engineering” from Modernist culture in the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century; and the modern and contemporary opposition to aspects of science education on the part of certain sections of the religious community.
Our more contemporary concerns will include issues of science literacy and where people get their information about science, the nature of science as a process, the nature and importance of evidence in science, the public perception of science, and the ways science and culture clash in modern society. In our day, how does science “fit” in the larger social and political culture? Is it possible for science and culture to be compatible in today’s world?
Course Objectives
This course will seek to familiarize students with the history of the relations between science and culture in the last two centuries.
Students will learn more about the methods and procedures of science, and the way science has been perceived and misperceived in the modern world.
We will consider the contributions of science to the ways we have come to see the world, and the ways social and cultural forces have shaped the ways we see science. In particular, we will learn how important works of literature have dealt with and represented science and conflicts and controversies involving science, how important writers have seen the potential both for good and for evil in scientific advancements and discoveries.
Students will engage in projects that will develop their skills of writing, reading, analysis, and interpretation of social and cultural observation and investigation.
In each unit of this course, students must read all of each assigned work. This means all of each book, except for “A White Heron” where only the title story must be read. If your edition of Brave New World also contains Brave New World Revisited, you are only required to read Brave New World.
Key to Success
Most of the readings in this course are works of imaginative literature. Many are considered to be among the greatest writings of the last two centuries. As works of literature, they are both instances or examples of important and influential cultural responses to science, and accounts of the culture—science relationship. But since they are works of the imagination rather than non–fiction texts, their meanings — in particular their relevance to the themes and concerns of the course—are not necessarily obvious.
These matters have been addressed and clarified and explained in each unit on this website, especially in the material you will find when you click on the titles of the readings in the “Reading Assignment” section of each unit, and in the guiding questions. Thus in order to be successful in this course, it is imperative that you read ALL the material in each unit on the course Web site.
Additional Instructions
Please check the associated course section in Desire2Learn at http://learn.ou.edu/ regularly for messages and specific instructions from your faculty member. The instructor for this course may have additional course content, instructions for writing assignments, alternate due dates, or substitute assignments.
