Intelligent Design? Science and Religion before Darwin * DRAFT SYLLABUS * Mondays, 3:30-6:15 pm Alexander Wragge-Morley Image of a flea from Robert Hooke s Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies (1665), one of the first books to depict microscopic animals and objects.
About the Seminar: Today the claim that god designed everything in the universe has given way to the theory of evolution the scientific demonstration that biological organisms gradually change over millions of years through natural selection. Before the middle of the 18 th century, however, claims about God s role as an intelligent designer were part of the scientific and religious mainstream. In this course we will examine the role of ideas and practices relating to design in the emergence of modern science, as well as their decline in the 18 th century long before Darwin s work on evolutionary theory. We will have the opportunity to engage with a wide range of fascinating materials, including scientific and religious texts, works of art, scientific illustrations, architectural drawings, and chemical experiments. Assessment: Attendance and Participation 10% Please note that although you need to attend classes, the assessment for this component will be based primarily on how well you participate in our weekly seminar discussions. To get the most out of this course, it is crucial that you come to class prepared to discuss your thoughts and those of your colleagues about each week s reading. Book Review (2 pages) 10 % Research Essay No. 1 (8-10 pages) 40% Research Essay No. 2 (8-10 pages) 40% Texts: This course draws on books and articles written by modern historians, along with original sources, images and objects from the 16 th -18 th centuries. The original sources are marked with an asterisk (*) in the syllabus. All the texts will be made available online for you to read. If you wish to buy any books related to the course, I would suggest the following two, which you will encounter several times: Lorraine Daston and Katharine Park, Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150-1750 (New York: Zone Books, 2001). Steven Shapin, The Scientific Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).
Introduction: September 14: How to think about the History of Science Part I: God and Nature in Renaissance Europe September 21: Nature and its Meanings in Renaissance Europe Allen Debus, Man and Nature in the Renaissance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), pp. 1-100. William B. Ashworth Jr., Emblematic Natural History of the Renaissance, in Cultures of Natural History, edited by N. Jardine, J.A. Secord, and E.C. Spary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 17-37. September 28: Nature at Play Lorraine Daston and Katharine Park, Ch. 5 Monsters: A Case Study in their Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150-1750 (New York: Zone Books, 2001), pp. 173-214. Paula Findlen, Jokes of Nature and Jokes of Knowledge: The Playfulness of Scientific Discourse in Early Modern Europe, Renaissance Quarterly 43:2 (1990), pp. 292-331. October 5: Wonders and Curiosities Paula Findlen, Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy (Berkeley; London: University of California Press, 1994), Introduction, pp. 1-16, and Ch. 2, pp. 48-96. Lorraine Daston and Katharine Park, Ch. 7 Wonders of Art, Wonders of Nature in their Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150-1750 (New York: Zone Books, 2001), pp. 255-301. October 19: The Great Chain of Being Arthur O. Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), 1936), Lectures II (pp. 24-66) and IV (pp. 99-143). *John Locke, An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, edited by Peter H. Nidditch (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975), Bk 3, Ch. VI, 12 (pp. 446-447).
Part II: Mechanism and Divine Design in the 17 th Century October 26: A New Cosmos and a New Physics Steven Shapin, The Scientific Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), pp. 15-46. Margaret J. Osler, Reconfiguring the World: Nature, God and Human Understanding from the Middle Ages to Early Modern Europe (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010), pp. 30-93. *Galileo Galilei, Extract from the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems in Science in Europe, 1500-1800: A Primary Sources Reader (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002), pp. 77-81. November 2: Machine Nature Steven Shapin, The Scientific Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), pp. 46-64. Margaret G. Cook, Divine Artifice and Natural Mechanism: Robert Boyle's Mechanical Philosophy of Nature, Osiris 16, Science in Theistic Contexts: Cognitive Dimensions (2001), pp. 133-150. *Robert Boyle, Some considerations touching the usefulnesse of experimental naturall philosophy propos'd in familiar discourses to a friend, by way of invitation to the study of it (London, 1663), pp. 71-74. November 9: Physico-Theology God s Wisdom and the Design of Nature Steven Shapin, The Scientific Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), pp. 142-161. J. H. Brooke, Wise men nowadays think otherwise : John Ray, natural theology and the meanings of anthropocentrism, Notes and Records of the Royal Society 54:2 (2000), pp. 199-213. *John Ray, The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation (London, 1691), pp. 169-185 (description of the eye). November 16: Design and Beauty Alexander Wragge-Morley, A strange and surprising debate: mountains, original sin and science in seventeenth-century England, Endeavour, 33(2) (2009), pp. 76-80.
John T. Harwood, Rhetoric and Graphics in Micrographia in Robert Hooke: New Studies, edited by Michael Hunter and Simon Schaffer (The Boydell Press: Woodbridge, 1989), pp. 119 147. *Extract (5 pages) and images from Robert Hooke, Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies (London, 1665). *John Ray, Three Physico-Theological Discourses (London, 1693), pp. 35-45 (discussion of the uses and beauty of mountains). Part III: Questions, Challenges and Problems November 23: Miracles and the Order of Nature Peter Dear, Miracles, Experiments, and the Ordinary Course of Nature, Isis 81:4 (1990), pp. 663-683. Peter Harrison, Newtonian Science, Miracles, and the Laws of Nature, Journal of the History of Ideas 56:4 (1995), pp. 531-553. *John Ray, Three Physico-Theological Discourses (London, 1693), pp. 186-194 (discussion of the earthquake in Jamaica, 1692). Alexander Wragge-Morley, Robert Boyle s Experimental Proof of the Possibility of the Resurrection (Blog post with video recreation of Boyle s original experiment, January 3 rd 2015). Available here: https://alexwraggemorley.wordpress.com/2015/01/03/robert-boylesexperimental-proof-of-the-possibility-of-the-resurrection/ November 30: Fossils and The Dark Abyss of Time Paolo Rossi, The Dark Abyss of Time (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), pp. 1-75. * John Ray, Three Physico-Theological Discourses (London, 1693), pp. 127-143 (Discussion of formed stones.) *Robert Hooke, A Discourse of Earthquakes in his Posthumous Works (London, 1705), pp. 435-436. December 7: Vital Spirits Simon Schaffer, Godly Men and Mechanical Philosophers: Souls and Spirits in Restoration Natural Philosophy, Science in Context 1:1 (1987), pp. 53-85. Brian Garrett, Vitalism and Teleology in the Natural Philosophy of Nehemiah Grew (1641-1712), The British Journal for the History of Science 36:1 (2003), pp. 63-81.
December 14: Reasoning by Analogy Jonathan Loesberg, Kant, Hume, Darwin, and Design: Why Intelligent Design wasn t Science Before Darwin and Still isn t, The Philosophical Forum 38:2 (2007), pp. 95-123. Isabel Rivers, Galen's Muscles : Wilkins, Hume, and the educational use of the argument from design, Historical Journal 36:3 (1993). *David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, ed. Dorothy Coleman, Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 101-102.