Knowledge and Criticism

Full course description

Knowledge and Criticism examines the role of science in modern western culture in its relation to non-western cultures. Advanced science and technology are often understood as the hallmarks of all that makes us modern. How has this situation arisen? On what choices and assumptions is modern science based? Knowledge and Criticism answers these questions by going back to the founders of what we consider modern science (like Descartes and Newton), to the Enlightenment ideals of knowledge and progress (like those expressed in the French Encyclopédie), and to the reaction against all this during the Romantic era (with thinkers like Goethe and Humboldt). Students will also investigate the present: what do scientists do today, and how does their work fit into our culture and society? This course builds on your knowledge of Greek and medieval philosophy acquired in ACU1000 Apollo and Dionysus. It prepares the ground for the great modernisation themes in ACU1002 Disenchantment and Ideology. Its focus is also related to ACU2015 Technological Society.