HIST 3630 Fall 2011
Take-Home Midterm Exam

Due Date: This test is due in class October 31.

Topic Areas: This test covers the following lectures.

• Technology and Change in the Stone Ages
• The Urban Revolution
• Non-Western Traditions
• Uniqueness of Classical Greece
• Roman Achievement and the Late Medieval Mind
• The Renaissance
• What is a scientific revolution, anyway?
• Scientific Revolution I
• Scientific Revolution II
• Scientific Revolution III
• The Enlightenment

Readings: This test covers the following readings.

• Gies, Joseph. Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages (Harper Perennial, 1995)
• Herodotus: "Why The Nile Floods in Summer"
• Copernicus: Dedication from The Revolution of Heavenly Bodies, 1543
• Galileo Galilei: Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany, 1615
• Roger Bacon: On Experimental Science, 1268

Structure: This is a take-home essay exam. You will chose one of the essays listed below and will produce a 3-5 page essay (700-1100 words). In doing an essay, there are certain things you should remember. A good essay will first of all answer the question. Make sure you do address all parts of the question. A good essay is both specific and general: specific in its examples, general in its use of major themes. Finally, a good essay has a definite structure: an introduction, a body with an organization and argument, and a conclusion. So, in doing your essay, you should:

1. State you main ideas clearly.
2. Give your essay structure. I'd suggest preparing an outline as you study.
3. Give specific examples to back up your main ideas.

Essay Questions:

1. Discuss the relationship between science and technology on the one hand, and the needs and nature of government (or the relative lack of it). Give concrete examples from at least two regions (for example, China and Rome) or the same region in different time periods (for example, Europe under the Romans and Europe in the Renaissance).
2. Discuss the relationship between ideas about nature and its study and ideas about religion. Give concrete examples from at least two regions (for example, China and Rome) or the same region in different time periods (for example, Europe under the Romans and Europe in the Renaissance).
3. Examining the entire period and various cultures we have studied, from the Neolithic Age to the Newtonian Age, identify two changes in thinking about nature and technology that you regard to be of particular importance. Discuss what those changes were, what brought them about, and what their impact was.
4. Consider Kuhn and Popper's different models of scientific change. Which one of them do you believe best fits what we have studied so far about developments in science and/or the study of nature? Or, do you believe neither of them does? Give concrete examples backing up your argument.