When Science Goes Wrong

Catalog description

This course will survey the applications of scientific naturalism to the human realm in nineteen-century Europe and America, with a focus on the development of hereditarianism across the social and psychological discourses of the Victorian era (1838-1901). The course will introduce you to the history of what we today call the pseudo-sciences (such as phrenology, Social Darwinism, and eugenics) and explore how naturalistic explanations of crime and degeneracy were articulated and disseminated in the service of racist policies and imperial/colonial agendas. Drawing on primary and secondary sources, you will learn how to evaluate these long-discredited knowledges of the past seriously on their own terms and develop a critical understanding of their epistemic, cultural, and socio-political contexts. Prerequisite: Perspectives on Humanities or any HIST-SHU course OR any HUMN-SHU course OR any PHIL-SHU course OR any LIT-SHU Fulfillment: Core STS; Humanities Advanced course.