Overview

This unit examines the relationship between scientific ideas and society. Science will be investigated historically as a cultural phenomenon, as a sub-culture within the broader culture of society, interacting with and influencing the development of societies and their politics.

Teaching periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Understand the difference between documentary historical evidence (primary sources), and works of theoretical explanation or interpretation (secondary sources)
  • Draw upon primary and secondary sources to understand ideas underlying social, political and intellectual movements studied, and their implications for the periods studied
  • Understand and correctly use appropriate terms for the eras, movements, ideologies and philosophies studied
  • Describe important ways in which evolutionary theorising in either the environmental, social, psychological, health or life sciences has transformed conceptions of nature and humanity
  • Understand implications of ideas and theories studied for 21st century conceptions of nature, humanity, society, health, and the future
  • Research and write, a clear, scholarly, well-structured, well-argued, correctly referenced, historical essay, and be able to reflectively explain and evaluate the process of inquiry undertaken
  • Plan and deliver a spoken presentation on a History of Ideas topic to initiate and guide class discussion by means of thought-provoking questions

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
Face to Face Contact (Phasing out)
Lecture
1.00 12 weeks 12
Face to Face Contact (Phasing out)
Tutorial
2.00 12 weeks 24
Specified Learning Activities (Phasing out)
Various
10.00 6 weeks 60
Unspecified Learning Activities (Phasing out)
Independent Learning
4.50 12 weeks 54
TOTAL150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
EssayIndividual 45% 1,2,3,4,5,6 
JournalIndividual 35% 1,2,3,4,5,6 
Tutorial PresentationIndividual 20% 1,2,3,4,5,7 

Content

  • Historical emergence, development and interrelation of scientific ideas of nature, evolution, humanity, health, and ecological interdependence
  • The rise of modern science and its permeation of modern culture
  • Contemporary world-views as products of those developments
  • How culture and societies have been transformed by ideologies of progress
  • How current socio-political debates concerning environment, ecological change, and health, are part of an historical trajectory which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th centuries

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.