HSTS 412: The Scientific Revolution Spring 2005
June 4, 2005

Final Examination [due Friday, June 10, end of day, via email (file attachment), sent to doelr@geo.oregonstate.edu, or under my office doors or mailboxes before noon on this day] [History office: 306 Milam; Geo office: 104 Wilkinson; or under the door at 302C Milam or 134 Wilkinson]

In addressing the following, please draw both from your course texts, from lecture notes, and from the films we viewed in class. Remember that helpful additional resources appear on our course website.

PART I. Short Essay Question (roughly 3 pp. double-spaced pages, or 750 words). Answer one (either 1, 2, or 3). Please indicate which question you have answered.


1. Trace the significant changes in concepts and practices in at least two of the following fields from the 1500s to the start of the 18th century: astronomy, medicine, chemistry, and natural history.

2. The Scientific Revolution often has been told as a story of a profound and fundamental conceptual revolution. Nearly fifty years ago the British historian Herbert Butterfield argued that the Scientific Revolution "outshines everything since the rise of Christianity and reduces the Renaissance and Reformation to the rank of mere episodes..." In what ways do our current interpretations of science in the 16th and 17th centuries support Butterfield's interpretation, and in what ways do they challenge and undermine it?

3. What was the relationship between natural philosophy and its practical applications during the Scientific Revolution? Broadly trace these relationships in astronomy and medicine (added benefit if you address other fields of natural philosophy as well).

Part II. Full Essay questions (roughly 4 pp. double-spaced, or 1000 words). Answer one (either A, B or C). Please indicate which question you have answered.


A. Carefully describe and compare the scientific styles of four of the following: Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Paracelsus, Vesalius, Kepler, Galileo, Boyle, Hooke, and Newton.

B. Describe and analyze the scientific achievements of Isaac Newton and what we now call the ‘Newtonian Revolution.' In what ways does Newton's work represent a culmination of investigations in astronomy and physics during the 16th and 17th centuries? How does understanding Newton's fascination with alchemical studies affect our perception of the Scientific Revolution?

C. Describe and analyze how the pursuit of natural knowledge affected society and culture during the Scientific Revolution, as well as how culture and society fundamentally shaped and influenced the practice of natural philosophy (science).



Final Examinations due Friday, June 10, end of day, via email (file attachment), sent to doelr@geo.oregonstate.edu ]. Paper copies delivered to the Dept of History or Geosciences before noon are fine... if later than noon, send them as attachments.

Please submit your papers as soon as you've finished them... there's no reason to wait until the deadline. I will welcome them from this moment forward to 10 June.