HPS 1702 Junior/Senior Seminar for HPS Majors HPS 1703 Writing Workshop for HPS Majors
Spring term 2005
This page is accessible via www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/1702_jnrsnr_seminar and also through courseweb.pitt.edu
HPS 1702 Junior/Senior Seminar for HPS Majors. This seminar is intended to be a "capstone" experience for majors in history and philosophy of science. So far, each of you have taken an array of courses that specialize in one of other aspect of HPS. The purpose of this seminar is to give you direct experience of how someone with a background in HPS synthesizes their history of science and their philosophy of science. The only way to learn this is by doing it. There will be philosophical and historical parts in the seminar. The philosophical part will be a survey of the literature in induction and confirmation. That survey will occupy a major part of the time we spend meeting on Tuesday mornings. The historical part will arise through your researching of some episode in history of science that both interests you and promises to interact in an interesting way with the philosophical material. You will also present your results to the seminar, since learning how to present material is an essential skill for scholars in HPS.
HPS 1703 Writing Workshop for HPS Majors. The goal of this workshop is to develop expertise in writing scholarly work within the discipline of history and philosophy of science. The exercises that comprise the workshop are integrated into the assignments of the Junior/Senior seminar. They are largely practical in character; writing is best learned and improved by doing. The emphases will be on writing simply and clearly; on proper incorporation of historical materials; on cogent formulation and presentation of philosophical theses and arguments; and on conforming your writing the sorts of style sheets commonly used in the HPS literature.
What you will be doing
It is expected that you will attend the seminar each week, having done the assigned preparatory reading beforehand. There will be a smaller assignments, based on the readings, to be done in advance of seminar coverage of the reading. Your major assignment will be a project that combines analysis of some episode in the history of science with issues in philosophy of science covered in the seminar. The outcome of the project will be a term paper and a seminar presentation on your project. The project will be broken down into a series of smaller assignments. The exercises for the writing workshop will be carried out in the context of these smaller assignments.
Grading
HPS 1702
HPS 1703
Major project
A. Short historical paper
10%
10%
B. Longer historical case study
20%
20%
C. Short philosophical paper
10%
10%
D.-E. Term paper
30%
60%
F. Seminar Presentation
10%
Short assignments
20%
Courseweb
I will use courseweb, especially as a means of distributing grading information. Courseweb can be accessed via http://courseweb.pitt.edu
Policy on Late Assignments
Late submissions of the short assignments on the preparatory readings are not accepted; the two lowest grades are discarded to allow you accommodate unavoidable absences, such as illness. Late submission of other assignments is strongly discouraged. If an extension is sought, it should only be for a few days. The need for the extension should be explained in writing and a date nominated in writing for the time of submission.
Survival
The materials and activities in this seminar are cumulative; almost everything will build on something earlier in term. So my best advice is to keep on top of the material from the start. Once you fall behind, catching up can be hard. The shorter assignments are intended to help you get into the reading, so take them seriously. I'm happy to meet with you outside of regular seminar times. The easiest way to arrange a meeting is to talk to me immediately before or after the seminar or to email me.
Special Needs
If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and Disability Resources and Services, 216 William Pitt Union, 412-648-7890 or 412-383-7355 (TTY) as early as possible in the term. For more information, see http://www.drs.pitt.edu/
Academic Integrity
It is expected that both students and the instructor will conform to the University of Pittsburgh's
Academic Integrity Code. Please familiarize yourself with the code.