Part III Managers: Anna Alexandrova (Michaelmas & Lent Terms), Richard Staley (Easter Term)
MPhil Managers: Jacob Stegenga, Mary Brazelton
Part III and MPhil Lectures 2017–18
The Department's MPhil and Part III students must attend these lectures, which are held on Wednesdays at 3pm. They are not open to anyone else.
The purpose of the lectures is to introduce research topics, methods and approaches adopted by the Department's teaching officers. Normally the lecture will last for 45 minutes with another 45 minutes left for questions and answers, although the precise format may depend on the session. Following (or in some cases preceding) each session the lecturer will canvass interest and announce the schedule for a small group seminar that explores the topics of the corresponding lecture in more depth. All MPhil and Part III students should attend each lecture, but they can choose which subsequent seminars to follow. Each student must follow at least one seminar in Michaelmas and one in Lent.
Lectures and seminars are held in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science unless otherwise indicated.
Michaelmas Term
Week 1 (11 October)
Anna Alexandrova: The relation between history of science and philosophy of science
- Chang, Hasok, 'Beyond Case-Studies: History as Philosophy', in Seymour Mauskopf and Tad Schmaltz (eds), Integrating History and Philosophy of Science (Dordrecht: Springer, 2011), pp. 109–124
Follow-up seminar: Tuesday 17 October, 3pm
Week 2 (18 October)
Mary Brazelton: Sinicizing the history of science and medicine
- Lei, Sean Hsiang-lin, Neither Donkey nor Horse: Medicine in the Struggle over China's Modernity (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2014), pp. 69–96, 193–221
Week 3 (25 October)
Matt Farr: The direction of causation
- Price, Huw, and Brad Weslake, 'The Time-Asymmetry of Causation', in Helen Beebee, Christopher Hitchcock and Peter Menzies (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Causation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 414–443
Follow-up seminar: Friday 27 October, 3pm
Week 4 (1 November)
Nick Hopwood: Icons of knowledge
- Hopwood, Nick, Haeckel's Embryos: Images, Evolution, and Fraud (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015), pp. viii–7, 201–216, 296–301 and notes
Follow-up seminar: Friday 3 November, 3pm
Week 5 (8 November)
Simon Schaffer and Richard Staley (with others): Materiality and scientific instruments
- Schaffer, Simon, 'Easily Cracked: Scientific Instruments in States of Disrepair', Isis 102 (2011), 706–717
Note special location: Whipple Museum
Week 6 (15 November)
Stephen John: Is, can or should science be 'value-free'?
- Douglas, Heather, 'Inductive Risk and Values in Science', Philosophy of Science 67 (2000), 559–579
Week 7: Tuesday 21 November at 11am (note change of day and time)
Richard Staley and Simon Schaffer (with others): Climate science and modelling
- Chakrabarty, Dipesh, 'The Climate of History: Four Theses', Critical Inquiry 35 (2009), 197–222
Note special location: Scott Polar Museum
Week 8 (29 November)
Jacob Stegenga: Medical nihilism
- Stegenga, Jacob, Medical Nihilism, Introduction and §11.4, 11.5, 11.6, and Appendix 1 and 5 (see Moodle for manuscript)
Lent Term
Week 1 (24 January)
Lauren Kassell: Medical records and the history of medicine
- Kassell, Lauren, 'Casebooks in Early Modern England: Astrology, Medicine and Written Records', Bulletin of the History of Medicine 88 (2014), 595–625
Follow-up seminar: Friday 26 January, 2pm
Week 2 (31 January)
Jim Secord: Knowledge in transit
- Secord, Jim, 'Knowledge in Transit', Isis 95 (2004), 654–672
Week 3 (7 February)
Liba Taub and Dániel Margócsy: What is a scientific instrument?
- Warner, Deborah Jean, 'What is a Scientific Instrument, When Did It Become One, and Why?', British Journal for the History of Science 23 (1990), 83–93
Note special location: Whipple Museum
Follow-up seminar: Tuesday 20 February, 3pm
Week 4 (14 February)
Agnes Bolinska: Scientific representation
- Suárez, Mauricio, 'An Inferential Conception of Scientific Representation', Philosophy of Science 71 (2004), 767–779
Week 5 (21 February)
Joseph Martin: Contingency, counterfactuals and causation
- Hacking, Ian, 'How Inevitable Are the Results of Successful Science?', Philosophy of Science 67, supplement (2000), S58–S71