Why study HPS at Cambridge?
The Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge is the largest university department of its kind in the UK. It has an outstanding international reputation for its teaching and research.
At the heart of the Department is the Whipple Museum, a world-class collection of scientific instruments, the gift of RS Whipple to the University in 1944. The Whipple Library, founded on Whipple's collection of rare scientific books, has extensive holdings in all areas of the history, philosophy and sociology of science, technology and medicine. It functions as the departmental library and provides the basis for research and teaching at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
Located in the centre of Cambridge, the Department has close links with other university departments, including History, Philosophy, Politics, Sociology and Clinical Medicine. The Department is also building teaching and research links with the Needham Research Institute, the leading Western centre for the history of science, technology and medicine in East Asia.
Our students go on to pursue a wide range of careers, from academic work in universities and museums to science journalism and consultancy.
Teaching and research
There are outstanding teaching and research facilities, with a specialist staff in a wide range of subject areas across the history and philosophy of the sciences and medicine.
The Department has a long and distinguished tradition in history of medicine and is a major centre of teaching and research in the field. Expertise in medical history covers an exceptionally wide range, from antiquity to the present, from the medieval universities to the postwar laboratory sciences, from anatomy to psychoanalysis. Students have the opportunity both to focus on history of medicine, and to take advantage of intellectual exchange with colleagues in related areas.
The journals Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, British Journal for the History of Science and Psychoanalysis and History are edited from the Department.
Key research areas
- History of medicine (Lauren Kassell, Nick Hopwood)
- History of the physical sciences (Nick Jardine, Simon Schaffer, Liba Taub)
- History of the life and earth sciences (Jim Secord)
- History of natural history (Nick Jardine)
- History of instruments (Liba Taub)
- History of science and the media (Jim Secord)
- History of mathematics (Eleanor Robson)
- History and philosophy of the human sciences (John Forrester)
- Historiography of the sciences (Nick Jardine)
- Philosophy of science (Hasok Chang, Tim Lewens)
- Philosophy of biology (Tim Lewens)
- Philosophy of physics (Hasok Chang, Jeremy Butterfield)
- Philosophy of mind (John Forrester)
- Bioethics (Tim Lewens)
- Sociology of science (Simon Schaffer)
Lectures, seminars and reading groups
A lively programme of research seminars and reading groups ensures the Department is a hive of intellectual activity throughout the academic year. At the weekly departmental seminar, papers are given by invited speakers from across the field of history and philosophy of science and history of medicine. In addition, there are regular specialist research seminars and reading groups on history of medicine, history of natural history, history of chemistry, philosophy of biology, philosophy of physics, science and literature, and Kant. There are also regular workshops to discuss work in progress.
Graduate students are entitled to attend undergraduate lectures in any department of the University.
Languages and special skills
The University Language Centre offers a range of courses in modern languages at beginning and intermediate levels; Latin and Greek courses are offered by the Faculty of Classics. Several departments offer palaeography courses. (It may be necessary to sign up early for some of these courses.) The Department has language tuition groups, including the Latin Therapy Group, which concentrates on medieval and early modern texts.
Library resources
Cambridge has excellent library resources in history and philosophy of science. The Department's own Whipple Library is the largest specialist library in the history and philosophy of science and medicine in the UK. Cambridge University Library and the college libraries also have many valuable resources. Students specialising in philosophy of science have access to all the facilities of the Faculty of Philosophy.
The University Library (UL) is entitled to a copy of every book published in Britain and Ireland. It contains about 6 million volumes, including many early printed books, and over 127,000 manuscripts and 860,000 microfilms. These include the manuscripts of Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, James Clerk Maxwell, Lord Kelvin, George Stokes, JJ Thomson, William Bateson and JD Bernal. The UL also preserves the papers of several of the major scientific institutions of the University. Many other archives are held on microfilm, and College libraries and other collections hold papers of such scientists as William Herschel, John Herschel, Joseph Larmor, Ernest Rutherford, Frederick Gowland Hopkins, James Chadwick and John Cockroft. Several University museums are also important resources for studies in the field, including the Sedgwick Museum of Geology and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Whipple Museum
The Department is unique in having teaching programmes connected to a world-renowned collection of scientific instruments, models and books. The Whipple Museum of the History of Science was founded as a University Museum in 1944. The collection covers all branches of science and its applications from physics to phrenology and from magnetism to microscopy. Scientific instruments, models, prints and related objects are displayed in the main gallery and three side galleries.
Students are actively encouraged to work with objects in the Whipple Museum's extensive collection. In particular, graduate students are encouraged to produce case studies to display their current research or areas of interest.
Other facilities
The Department has two study rooms exclusively for the use of its graduate students. PhD students can apply to have a desk reserved for their sole use. There is a small annual charge for using these facilities.
On the top floor of the Department is the students' coffee room, a lively and atmospheric place in which to meet other students and perhaps the occasional member of staff. Facilities include comfortable chairs, computer terminals and a kitchen area. In fine weather, students can make use of the Department's courtyard garden.
Facts and figures
- Head of Department: Professor John Forrester
- Director of Graduate Studies: Professor Simon Schaffer
- MPhil Manager: Professor Hasok Chang
- Secretary of the Degree Committee: Tamara Hug
- Graduate Admissions Secretary: David Thompson
- Permanent academic staff: 11
- Affiliated lecturers: 11
- Affiliated research scholars: 70
- Visiting scholars: 20
- Postdoctoral researchers: 25
- PhD students: 45
- MPhil students: 20
- Final year undergraduates: 48