science
sort by: Relevancy | Title try advanced search for more options
-
Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature (PHIL 181) In this concluding lecture, Professor Gendler charts four paths through the course. The first path traces how the course's three main goals were realized: the goals of introducing students to the discipline of Philosophy though a number of central texts; of considering certain central questions raised by those philosophical texts in light of alternative approaches from related di...more
-
Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature (PHIL 181) In this concluding lecture, Professor Gendler charts four paths through the course. The first path traces how the course's three main goals were realized: the goals of introducing students to the discipline of Philosophy though a number of central texts; of considering certain central questions raised by those philosophical texts in light of alternative approaches from related discip...more
-
Environmental Politics and Law (EVST 255) This lecture continues the previous class's discussion of tobacco law. In this class, Professor Wargo highlights the unique issues of freedom of choice and freedom of speech that tobacco regulation create, as tobacco regulation restricts individual choice and corporate freedom of speech via advertising restrictions. Tobacco law also illustrates the difficulties of managing environmental hazards ...more
-
Professor Diamond's review of the lymphatic system continues with the lymphatic vessels and lymph. Professor Diamond compares lymphatic vessels to the cardiovascular system and notes the differences in structure. Next, Professor Diamond defines lymph (tissue fluid) and its composition and function. The movement of lymph is also discussed, and again, this is compared to the movement of blood through the body. The absorption of fat by the ve...more
-
Environmental Politics and Law (EVST 255) The lecture charts the evolution of pesticide regulation in the United States. The evolution of the management and regulation of pesticides reflects changes in scientific understanding of pesticides as well as changes in human values. As technology allowed for testing of pesticides at smaller and smaller concentrations, restrictions on pesticide use grew. The government's growing understanding o...more
-
Marxism is the second Enlightenment tradition upon which the course will focus. Contrary to popular belief, Marx did not hate capitalism but derived from economic analysis that it would self-destruct and lead to socialism. It is also a myth that Marx did not care about freedom; he was only egalitarian in the sense that he wanted everyone to have freedom. Ergo, Professor Shapiro asserts that Marx's dialectical materialism is as committed to...more
-
Edmund Burke was an English politician who wrote his Reflections on the Revolution in France to express his disdain for the destructive havoc wrought by the French Revolution. As a traditionalist-conservative, he thinks about social change in a cautious and incremental way and characterizes the social contract as binding on those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are yet to be born. Studying the anti-Enlightenment differs f...more
-
John Stuart Mill's synthesis rights and utility follows naturally in the vein of neoclassical utilitarianism, and it attempts to compensate for many of the shortcomings of Bentham's classical utilitarianism. In the end, it turns out to be a doctrine that does not look very similar to Bentham's at all. An important component of Mill's doctrine is his harm principle, which states that the only purpose for which one can interfere with the lib...more
-
The debate between contagionists and anticontagionists over the transmission of infectious diseases played a major role in nineteenth-century medical discourse. On the one side were those who believed that diseases could be spread by infected material, perhaps including people and inanimate objects, and on the other those who subscribed to the more venerable miasmatic theory. Although the contagionist view would be substantially vindicated...more
-
Professor McBride outlines the course with its goals and requirements, including the required laboratory course. To the course's prime question "How do you know" he proposes two unacceptable answers (divine and human authority), and two acceptable answers (experiment and logic). He illustrates the fruitfulness of experiment and logic using the rise of science in the seventeenth century. London's Royal Society and the "crucial" experiment o...more
-
Although the harm principle as introduced in the last lecture seems straightforward at first glance, today Professor Shapiro discusses its ambiguities. If it "must be calculated to produce evil to someone else," who will be doing the calculations? Second, what does "calculated" mean? Does committing harm imply mens rea, or should strict liability be observed? The class discusses such issues as prostitution, free trade, same-sex marriage, s...more
-
Professor Donald Kagan explains why people should study the ancient Greeks. He argues that the Greeks are worthy of our study not only because of their vast achievements and contributions to Western civilization (such as in the fields of science, law, and politics) but also because they offer a unique perspective on humanity. To the Greeks, man was both simultaneously capable of the greatest achievements and the worst crimes; he was both g...more
