History Science Discussion - co-op 10

[EricaS]

First, the assignment that is posted is what we would "normally" cover for these two weeks. Doing it will be good for you and keep you on track with the flow of the whole history. I will be glad to look at anything you want to turn in, but IT IS NOT REQUIRED FROM ME. IF your mother requires it, then I totally support that and will delight in looking at it. It is the same assignment the pre-rhetoric will be doing. They are only doing presentations and there are only 5 of them, so they will have time for more discussion.

For our class, I am hoping for a conversation that will take most if not all of the time we have. You will have an opportunity to talk about the scientist or group of scientists you were assigned. Please present basic biographical information and as you read, carefully consider what from the following questions and ideas you can include.

Whose (if any) works did they study? Did they work with anyone? Who used their work after them?
What ideas did they advance? Inventions? How long were their ideas held?
What was their relationship to the Christian Church (or any other church)? the State?
What would be the bias of the sources you are using?

Note: Natural philosophy is a term that was used historically for inquiries into nature and its workings. You may run into that. Also, most of the people I selected worked with concepts that come under the umbrella of "physics" today - particularly the construction of the heavens and the earth's relationship to the stars, sun and planets. One reason for that is because that is "my" field, but more pertinently, it was a lot of what modern science developed around and where many of the supposed conflicts with the church happened. Medicine is the other large area that goes back to ancient times. It makes for interesting reading if you have time - and the stomach! - for it. Another reason to concentrate on physics ... no blood and guts!

Here is the list - close to the order in which we will address them. You will have about 3 minutes for a formal presentation of your person/group, then we will ask questions and attempt to place them in the larger picture of what is going on. For some, 3 minutes will be impossible short for the amount of information available on your person, for others, it might seem impossibly long. Do the best you can. No worries. We will work the discussion around what we have.

Aristotle/Anaximander/Archimedes - Keaghn (include Aristotle's view of the universe/stars if possible)
Pythagoras/Euclid - Mrs. Searl
Ptolemy - Mariah (if that is ok - looking especially for his view of the universe and stars)
The Merton Calculators - Jessica
The Apogee of Medieval Science - Emma
New Horizons - Katrina (unless I got those backwards)
Copernicus - Claire
Tycho Brahe - Anne
Kepler - Charlie
Galileo - Willow
Blaise Pascal - Michael
Newton (Isaac) - Johnathan

These are not all people we are addressing, but these sites have a lot of other people as well, so might be useful.

Francis Bacon:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/histor ... bacon.html
Tycho Brahe:
http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/brahe.html
Evangelista Torricelli:
http://www.famousscientists.org/evangelista-torricelli/

If you have trouble finding information, please let me know.

The overarching thesis of our discussion will be affirming or denying these two statements:

Christianized Europe was not hostile to scientific learning, on the contrary, it was the womb that gave birth to the scientific enterprise.

The relationship between faith and science can best be described as an alliance.

Looking forward to it!

[PAdams]

Thank you, Erica and Amber! This sounds very interesting and like a worthwhile topic to explore. ~ Peggy