everything.study
CC.S10

Current Events Seminar

1-0-2 units · Undergraduate

Weekly discussion of the news, with emphasis on framing contemporary issues in a broader historical and philosophical context. Preference to students in Concourse.

Fall 2011 · History and Philosophy of Mechanics: Newton's Principia Mathematica

This course focuses on an in-depth reading of _Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis_ by Isaac Newton, as well as several related commentaries and historical philosophical texts.

Readings

  • [Densmore] = Densmore, Dana. Newton’s Principia: The Central Argument, Translation, Notes, and Expanded Proofs. 3rd ed. Green Lion Press, 2003. ISBN: 9781888009231.
    Required
  • SES #: 1 · TOPICS: The problem of motion in Greek Antiquity: Zeno and Aristotle · READINGS: Aristotle’s Physics . ↗
    Reading assignment
  • Galileo’s Discourses Concerning Two New Sciences (1638).
    Required
  • Galilei, Galileo. Galileo: Two New Sciences . Translated by Stillman Drake. University of Wisconsin Press, 1974. ISBN: 9780299064044:
    Required
  • -–. Third Day, On Local Motion . [Preview with Google Books ] ↗
    Required
  • -–. On Equable Motion . [Preview with Google books ] ↗
    Required
  • -–. On Naturally Accelerated Motion through Proposition II. [Preview with Google Books ] ↗
    Required
  • Philosophical Reading:
    Required
  • “Aristotle on Place, Time, Void, and Projectile Motion.” In Aristotle’s Physics . ↗
    Required
  • What is the relation between Newton’s verbal statement of Law 2 and the equation now known as Newton’s Second Law of Motion?
    Required
  • Archimedes and Euclid’s Elements.
    Required
  • Buridan, John. “The Medieval Theory of Impetus.” In Questions on the Eight Books of [Aristotle’s] Physics (1509).
    Required
  • Galilei, Galileo. Discourses Concerning Two New Sciences (1634).
    Required
  • SES #: 11 · TOPICS: Book I Section 2—Newton’s Propositions on Centripetal Forces · READINGS: [Densmore] Reading: Proposition 1 and Corollaries 1–6, pp. 123–41
    Reading assignment
  • Descartes, René. Principia Philosophiae , Part II (1644). [Preview with Google Books ] ↗
    Required
  • A more recent edition of the text: Descartes, René. Principia Philosophiae (1677) . Kessinger Publishing, 2010. ISBN: 9781166267605.
    Required
  • SES #: 14 · TOPICS: Newton’s Propositions (cont.) · READINGS: [Densmore] Proposition 6 and Corollaries 1 and 5, pp. 178–88
    Reading assignment
  • A more recent edition of the text: Ariew, Roger, ed. Modern Philosophy: An Anthology of Primary Sources . Edited by Eric Watkins. Hackett Publishing Company, 2009. ISBN: 9780872209794.
    Required
  • Apollonius’ On Conic Sections:
    Required
  • Huygens, Christian. “Huygens on the Hypothetico-Deductive Method.” In Treatise on Light (1687) . [Preview with Google Books ] ↗
    Required
  • A more recent edition of the text: Huygens, Christian. Treatise on Light . Tredition, 2011. ISBN: 9783842476653.
    Required
  • Apollonius’ On Conic Sections :
    Required
  • Newton on absolute space and time: Isaac Newton, Scholium (to the Definitions, Principia , Book 1) on Space and Time (1687).
    Required
  • Is it mathematically or merely physically impossible to “describe two mutually tangent orbits with the same centripetal force and the same velocity”?
    Required
  • Are the “Phenomena” observations, or conclusions based on observations? In the first edition of the Principia , Newton called them “Hypotheses.”
    Required
  • Descartes, René. “Descartes v. Newton on the Rules of Philosophy.” In Rules for the Direction of the Mind (composed ca. 1628).
    Required
  • A more recent edition of the text: Descartes, René. Rules for the Direction of the Mind . Bobbs-Merrill Co, 2000. ISBN: 9780672603341.
    Required
  • Has Newton proved that the planets revolve around the sun?
    Required
  • “Newton v. Leibniz on Space and Time.” In the Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence (1716).
    Required
  • A more recent edition of the text: Alexander, H. G., ed. The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence: Together with Extracts from Newton’s Principia and Opticks . Manchester University Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780719006692.
    Required
  • What does Newton mean, in the Scholium, when he says “the cause of the centripetal force by which the moon is confined to its orbit is obligated to extend to all planets, by Rules 1, 2 and 4”?
    Required
  • SES #: 32 · TOPICS: Flashback to Proposition II.24 · READINGS: [Densmore] Proposition II.24 and Corollaries 1, 6 and 7, pp. 387–402
    Reading assignment
  • Berkeley, George. “Berkeley’s Philosophical Critique of the Calculus.” In The Analyst (1754). [Preview with Google Books ] ↗
    Required
  • A more recent edition of the text: Berkeley, George. The Analyst A Discourse Addressed To An Infidel Mathematician. Kessinger Publishing, 2010. ISBN: 9781161456448.
    Required
  • Kant, Immanuel. “Kant’s Newtonian Philosophy of Nature.” In Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786).
    Required
  • A more recent edition of the text: Kant, Immanuel. Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science. Bobbs-Merrill Co, 1970. ISBN: 9780672513800.
    Required
  • SES #: 37 · TOPICS: Book III Propositions (cont.) · READINGS: [Densmore] Proposition III.8 and Corollaries 1 and 2, pp. 460–77
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 38 · TOPICS: Book III Propositions (cont.) · READINGS: [Densmore] Proposition III.13, pp. 477–85 · DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Does Newton’s celestial mechanics (elliptical orbits sweeping out areas proportional to the times) depend on assuming the truth of “Kepler’s Laws”?
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 39 · TOPICS: Conclusion of the Course: Newton’s General Scholium · READINGS: [Densmore] The General Scholium, pp. 485–9
    Reading assignment
Spring 2007 · Prohibition and Permission

Explore where the prohibitions and permissions that occur in every day life come from, why they exist, and what gives them force. For example: food—you are only willing and able to eat a subset of the world's edible substances. Marriage—some marriages are prohibited by law or by custom. This course addresses questions of prohibition and permission using psychological sources and literary works from ancient to modern. Texts include works by Shakespeare, Melville, Mary Rowlandson, and Anita Desai. Students give group and individual oral presentations.

Readings

Prerequisites & course information

Prereq: Permission of instructor U (Fall, IAP, Spring) 1-0-2 units Can be repeated for credit.

Sources
Catalogue variants