Back to course documents.

(a) You are required to submit the warm up exercise and then your choice of THREE only of the short papers described below.
(b) Optional additional assignment: you can, if you wish, submit one additional short paper. The paper grade will be determined from the four best papers submitted, including the warm up exercise.
(c) The short papers are intended to be short--maximum 1000 words--but rich in content. In counting the words, footnotes are included, but not the list of references.
(d) The papers are due one week after the last paper of the relevant section has been read in class. (Deadlines listed below.)
(e) Remember also our policies on late submission. (Don't.)
(f) Send the paper to both of us in email (jdnorton@pitt.edu, mrd98@pitt.edu) in an editable file, that is, not a pdf. Microsoft "doc, docx" files and rtf = "rich text format" are the most flexible and generated by most word processors.

1. Warm up Exercise (MUST DO), due January 19, before the seminar (1000 word maximum)

The overall conception of writing in history and philosophy of science is that it integrates productively work in history of science and in philosophy of science. There are many ways that this can be done. This warm up exercise and those that follow ask you to explore the ways that this integration is achieved by finding and analyzing examples in the literature.

Find any paper that employs both history of science and philosophy of science in the HPS tradition (and is not already in the schedule of readings). Briefly summarize the content of the paper and provide an assessment of its use of history and philosophy of science. Possible factors to consider in the assessment:
(a) Is the work good history of science?
(b) Is the work good philosophy of science?
(c) (Most important) How is the history and the philosophy of science integrated?

The word limit for this and subsequent papers is short. It is so in order to encourage tight, precise writing. We want you to come to the point quickly and concisely. This is not the place for rambling discussion. You have 1000 words. Use them well.

2., 3., 4. Choice of THREE. (1000 word maximum)

Below is a list of the topics covered in this seminar. Choose any three with at least one from each of the categories "Science in General" and "Individual Sciences."

Find any paper on your chosen topic that employs both history of science and philosophy of science in the HPS tradition (and is not already in the schedule of readings). Briefly summarize the content of the paper and provide an assessment of its use of history and philosophy of science. Possible factors to consider in the assessment:
(a) Is the work good history of science?
(b) Is the work good philosophy of science?
(c) (Most important) How is the history and the philosophy of science integrated?

Here is the list of topics and deadlines for submissions of the papers.