Major

Undergraduate students in the Program in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology do their coursework either in the Department of History, through its interdisciplinary major in History, Science and Medicine, or in the Department of Philosophy, through its major in History and Philosophy of Science.


The interdisciplinary structure of requirements also allows students to do coursework in other departments that house the humanistic and social study of science, such as Anthropology, Classics, English, Political Science and in scientific disciplines.

Undergraduate Major in Science, Technology, Environment and Medicine within the History Department

Faculty Coordinator: Paula Findlen

The Science, Technology, Environment and Medicine major is a collaboration of the Department of History with the Program in the History and Philosophy of Science. The major is designed for students interested in both sciences and humanities, and in the interactions between the two. It is also especially useful for students contemplating medical school, since it allows them to study the history of medicine, biology, and allied sciences in conjunction with fulfilling the pre-med science requirements. The requirements for the major are listed within the History section of the bulletin under the subsection: Science, Technology, Environment and Medicine. (The student's advisor must approve his/her choice of courses for each cluster).

Undergraduate Major in History and Philosophy of Science within the Philosophy Department

Faculty Coordinator: Michael Friedman

History & Philosophy of Science

Bulletin information about the major supercedes this information, consult Stanford Bulletin, Philosophy section

Undergraduates may major in Philosophy with a degree field in History and Philosophy of Science under the Department of Philosophy. Each participating student is assigned an adviser who approves the course of study. A total of 61 units are required for the sub-major, to be taken according to requirements 1 through 5 below. Substitutions for the listed courses are allowed only by written consent of the under-graduate adviser for History and Philosophy of Science. Students are encouraged to consider doing honors work with an emphasis on the history and philosophy of science. Interested students should see the description of the honors thesis in Philosophy and consult their advisers for further information.

Three science courses (for example, biology, chemistry, physics) for 12 units.
The following Philosophy (PHIL) core courses must be completed with a letter grade by the end of the junior year:
  1. one from 49, 150, 151, 154
  2. 60 or 61
  3. 80
Three history of science courses.
Three philosophy of science courses, of which one must be PHIL 164.
Three additional courses related to the major, in philosophy or history, to be agreed on by the adviser.
At least six courses in the major must be completed at Stanford with a letter grade.

Units for Tutorial, Directed Reading, or The Dualist (196, 197, 198) may not be counted in the requirement. No more than 10 units completed with grades of "satisfactory" and/or "credit" may be counted in the requirement.

Transfer units must be approved in writing by the Director of Undergraduate Study at the time of declaring a major. Transfer courses are strictly limited when used to satisfy major requirements.

Courses offered in the area of History and Philosophy of Science

See the official Stanford Bulletin for the latest course updates

Introductory Courses

Title
Instructor
Quarter
Day, Time, Location

HPS 61
Philosophy and the Scientific Revolution (PHIL 61)
Galileo's defense of the Copernican world-system that initiated the scientific revolution of the 17th century, led to conflict between science and religion, and influenced the development of modern philosophy. Readings focus on Galileo and Descartes.

2024 - 2025
Winter

HPS 60
Introduction to Philosophy of Science (PHIL 60)
This course introduces students to tools for the philosophical analysis of science. We will cover issues in observation, experiment, and reasoning, questions about the aims of science, scientific change, and the relations between science and values.

Hussain, N. (PI)
Wang, Z. (TA)

2024 - 2025
Autumn

Tuesday Thursday
1:30 PM
2:50 PM
200-305

PHIL 60
Introduction to Philosophy of Science (HPS 60)
This course introduces students to tools for the philosophical analysis of science. We will cover issues in observation, experiment, and reasoning, questions about the aims of science, scientific change, and the relations between science and values.

Hussain, N. (PI)
Wang, Z. (TA)

2024 - 2025
Autumn

Tuesday Thursday
1:30 PM
2:50 PM
200-305

Science in History

This sequence is designed to introduce students to the history of Science from antiquity to the 20th century. Students are advised to take most or all of this sequence as a core foundation.

Title
Instructor
Quarter
Day, Time, Location

CLASSICS 47
Ancient Knowledge, New Frontiers: How the Greek Legacy Became Islamic Science (COMPLIT 107A, HUMCORE 121)
What is the relation between magic and science? Is religion compatible with the scientific method? Are there patterns in the stars? What is a metaphor? This course will read key moments in Greek and Islamic science and philosophy and investigate the philosophy of language, mathematical diagrams, manuscripts, the madrasa, free will, predestination, and semantic logic. We will read selections from Ibn Taymiya, Ibn Haytham, Omar Khayyam, Baha al-Din al-Amili, and others.

2024 - 2025
Spring

COMPLIT 107A
Ancient Knowledge, New Frontiers: How the Greek Legacy Became Islamic Science (CLASSICS 47, HUMCORE 121)
What is the relation between magic and science? Is religion compatible with the scientific method? Are there patterns in the stars? What is a metaphor? This course will read key moments in Greek and Islamic science and philosophy and investigate the philosophy of language, mathematical diagrams, manuscripts, the madrasa, free will, predestination, and semantic logic. We will read selections from Ibn Taymiya, Ibn Haytham, Omar Khayyam, Baha al-Din al-Amili, and others.

2024 - 2025
Spring

HUMCORE 121
Ancient Knowledge, New Frontiers: How the Greek Legacy Became Islamic Science (CLASSICS 47, COMPLIT 107A)
What is the relation between magic and science? Is religion compatible with the scientific method? Are there patterns in the stars? What is a metaphor? This course will read key moments in Greek and Islamic science and philosophy and investigate the philosophy of language, mathematical diagrams, manuscripts, the madrasa, free will, predestination, and semantic logic. We will read selections from Ibn Taymiya, Ibn Haytham, Omar Khayyam, Baha al-Din al-Amili, and others.

2024 - 2025
Spring

HISTORY 40A
The Scientific Revolution
(Same as History 140A. 40A is 3 units; 140A is 5 units.) What do people know and how do they know it? What counts as scientific knowledge? In the 16th and 17th centuries, understanding the nature of knowledge engaged the attention of individuals and institutions including Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, the early Royal Society, and less well-known contemporaries. New meanings of observing, collecting, experimenting, and philosophizing, and political, religious, and cultural ramifications in early modern Europe.

Riskin, J. (PI)

2024 - 2025
Winter

Tuesday Thursday
1:30 PM
2:50 PM

HISTORY 140A
The Scientific Revolution
(History 140A is 5 units; History 40A is 3 units.) What do people know and how do they know it? What counts as scientific knowledge? In the 16th and 17th centuries, understanding the nature of knowledge engaged the attention of individuals and institutions including Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, the early Royal Society, and less well-known contemporaries. New meanings of observing, collecting, experimenting, and philosophizing, and political, religious, and cultural ramifications in early modern Europe.

Riskin, J. (PI)

2024 - 2025
Winter

Tuesday Thursday
1:30 PM
2:50 PM

Medicine in History

This sequence is designed to introduce students to the history of medicine from antiquity to the 20th century.

Title
Instructor
Quarter
Day, Time, Location

HISTORY 40S
The Mind's Not-So-New Science: Thinking About Thinking in the Modern World
What is a mind? Who has one? How can you know? This course investigates how psychologists, philosophers, anthropologists, statisticians, test-makers, medical practitioners, linguists, economists, and others wrestled with these questions from the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries all across the globe. Through analyses of treatises, letters, newspapers, tests, illustrations, diagrams, instruments, and videos, we follow how theorists of the mind, thinking, rationality, madness, and more were attuned to one another and to the societal developments around them.

2024 - 2025

HISTORY 243G
Tobacco and Health in World History: How Big Nic created the template for global science denial (HISTORY 343G)
Cigarettes are the world's leading cause of death--but how did we come into this world, where 6 trillion cigarettes are smoked every year? Here we explore the political, cultural, and technological origins of the cigarette and cigarette epidemic, using the tobacco industry's 80 million pages of secret documents. Topics include the history of cigarette advertising and cigarette design, the role of the tobacco industry in fomenting climate change denial, and questions raised by the testimony of experts in court.

Proctor, R. (PI)

2024 - 2025
Autumn

Monday
1:30 PM
4:20 PM
200-219

HISTORY 243C
People, Plants, and Medicine: Atlantic World Amerindian, African, and European Science (CSRE 243C, CSRE 443C, FEMGEN 443C, HISTORY 343C, HISTORY 443C)
Explores the global circulation of plants, peoples, disease, medicines, technologies, and knowledge. Considers primarily Africans, Amerindians, and Europeans in the eighteenth-century Atlantic World and focuses on their exchanges in the Caribbean, in particular within the French and British empires. We also take examples from other knowledge traditions, where relevant. Readings treat science and medicine in relation to voyaging, the natural history of plants, environmental exchange, racism, and slavery in colonial contexts.

Schiebinger, L. (PI)

2024 - 2025
Spring

Monday
1:30 PM
4:20 PM

HISTORY 343C
People, Plants, and Medicine: Atlantic World Amerindian, African, and European Science (CSRE 243C, CSRE 443C, FEMGEN 443C, HISTORY 243C, HISTORY 443C)
Explores the global circulation of plants, peoples, disease, medicines, technologies, and knowledge. Considers primarily Africans, Amerindians, and Europeans in the eighteenth-century Atlantic World and focuses on their exchanges in the Caribbean, in particular within the French and British empires. We also take examples from other knowledge traditions, where relevant. Readings treat science and medicine in relation to voyaging, the natural history of plants, environmental exchange, racism, and slavery in colonial contexts.

Schiebinger, L. (PI)

2024 - 2025
Spring

Monday
1:30 PM
4:20 PM

Philosophical Perspectives on Science, Medicine, and Technology

This sequence is designed to introduce students to the philosophy of science. Students are advised to take HPS 60 Introduction to Philosophy of Science above as a starting point, and combine a number of the electives listed below in conjunction with courses in the other concentrations that address their specific interests.

Title
Instructor
Quarter
Day, Time, Location

PHIL 125
Kant's First Critique (PHIL 225)
(Graduate students register for 225.) The founding work of Kant's critical philosophy emphasizing his contributions to metaphysics and epistemology. His attempts to limit metaphysics to the objects of experience. Prerequisite: course dealing with systematic issues in metaphysics or epistemology, or with the history of modern philosophy.

De Pierris, G. (PI)

2024 - 2025
Winter

Tuesday
12:00 PM
2:50 PM

PHIL 165
Philosophy of Physics: Philosophical Issues in Quantum Mechanics (PHIL 265)
Graduate students register for 265.PREREQUISITES: previous course in philosophy of science or natural science or CS or engineering. Topic for 2023-2024: Philosophical Issues in Quantum Mechanics.

Ryckman, T. (PI)

2024 - 2025
Winter

Tuesday Thursday
10:30 AM
11:50 AM

PHIL 225
Kant's First Critique (PHIL 125)
(Graduate students register for 225.) The founding work of Kant's critical philosophy emphasizing his contributions to metaphysics and epistemology. His attempts to limit metaphysics to the objects of experience. Prerequisite: course dealing with systematic issues in metaphysics or epistemology, or with the history of modern philosophy.

De Pierris, G. (PI)

2024 - 2025
Winter

Tuesday
12:00 PM
2:50 PM

PHIL 265
Philosophy of Physics: Philosophical Issues in Quantum Mechanics (PHIL 165)
Graduate students register for 265.PREREQUISITES: previous course in philosophy of science or natural science or CS or engineering. Topic for 2023-2024: Philosophical Issues in Quantum Mechanics.

Ryckman, T. (PI)

2024 - 2025
Winter

Tuesday Thursday
10:30 AM
11:50 AM

PHIL 365
Seminar in Philosophy of Physics
2 unit option for PhD students only.

Ryckman, T. (PI)

2024 - 2025
Winter

Tuesday
3:00 PM
5:50 PM

PHYSICS 293
Literature of Physics
Study of the literature of any special topic. Preparation, presentation of reports. If taken under the supervision of a faculty member outside the department, approval of the Physics chair required. Prerequisites: 25 units of college physics, consent of instructor.

Burchat, P. (PI)

2024 - 2025
Winter

PHYSICS 293
Literature of Physics
Study of the literature of any special topic. Preparation, presentation of reports. If taken under the supervision of a faculty member outside the department, approval of the Physics chair required. Prerequisites: 25 units of college physics, consent of instructor.

Burchat, P. (PI)

2024 - 2025
Spring

Advanced Course Sequences

Contemporary Perspectives on Science, Medicine and Technology

The following courses focus on contemporary cultural and social science approaches to science, technology, and medicine.

Title
Instructor
Quarter
Day, Time, Location

HPS 299
Graduate Individual Work
May be repeated for credit.

2024 - 2025
Spring

HPS 299
Graduate Individual Work
May be repeated for credit.

2024 - 2025
Winter

HISTORY 200D
Doing the History of Science and Technology
The history of science has often been at the crux of key debates in the larger field of history, including debates over objectivity and bias, relativism and the problem of "present-ism." This course explores key questions, methods and debates in the history of science and examines how historians of science have addressed these organizing problems of the historical discipline. This course forms part of the "Doing History" series: rigorous undergraduate colloquia that introduce the practice of history within a particular field or thematic area.

Mullaney, T. (PI)

2024 - 2025
Autumn

Thursday
9:00 AM
11:50 AM
200-124

HISTORY 304
Approaches to History
For first-year History and Classics Ph.D. students. This course explores ideas and debates that have animated historical discourse and shaped historiographical practice over the past half-century or so. The works we will be discussing raise fundamental questions about how historians imagine the past as they try to write about it, how they constitute it as a domain of study, how they can claim to know it, and how (and why) they argue about it.

Wigen, K. (PI)

2024 - 2025
Autumn

Monday
4:30 PM
7:20 PM
200-217

HPS 199
Directed Reading
May be repeated for credit.

Netz, R. (PI)

2024 - 2025
Autumn

HPS 199
Directed Reading
May be repeated for credit.

Netz, R. (PI)

2024 - 2025
Winter

HPS 199
Directed Reading
May be repeated for credit.

Netz, R. (PI)

2024 - 2025
Spring

For Undergraduate Admissions applications, please visit the Stanford undergraduate admissions page.

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