Patricia Fara: recommendation

Transcript context

…What should undergraduate science students know about the history of science? Oh, I would like to make history of science compulsory for all science students. One thing that they learn — they obviously learn about debates of the past. A lot of the ethical considerations involved in previous debates are still very, very relevant now, so that’s very useful for them. Another reason for them to learn history of science is that if they’re scientists, they’re taught how to carry out calculations and how to advance from a certain base of knowledge and to produce new knowledge. What historians of science do is argue and interpret and find ways of expressing their own points of view. We teach science students how to write essays, how to present their own position. That’s the skill that everybody is going to need. If you’re writing a grant application, you need to be able to present your ideas clearly. The other reason for why I think every science student should learn history of science is that the students I teach absolutely love it because they have an opportunity to argue and to express their own ideas and think for themselves. It’s something that students really, really enjoy as well as learning a lot from. How valuable is Thomas Kuhn for understanding the history of science?…

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