The Scientific World

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

The aim of this course is to introduce and explore two rival conceptions of the world --- each of which claims, as its source of legitimacy, unprecedented progress achieved throughout the recent history of modern science. The first conception, coming out of fundamental physics research, is often extolled for its elegant simplicity, and enjoys considerable popular acclaim: our entire universe, including all of space and time around us, has evolved over the past 13.8 billion years --- approximately uniformly expanding ever since initial conditions were set by the ‘Big Bang' (a topic that is, itself, a central focus of ongoing fundamental physics research). Meanwhile, the second conception is an ecological one: the world is a mess of unfettered complexity, but a mess that we try to shape into a patchwork reality in order to better navigate. Although garnering less popular acclaim, it is this ecological conception, and not the fundamental conception, that is closely allied with science-based approaches to public policy --- e.g. in response to anthropogenic climate change, or biosecurity in an era of pandemic --- and is therefore no less relevant to society. At the end of the course, we will ask and answer an outstanding question: how can it be that we embrace each of these conceptions of the world, simultaneously, as consequences of the role we entrust to modern science in society?