Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge

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Department of History and Philosophy of Science
TypeDepartment
Parent institution
 University of Cambridge
Postgraduates c. 70 [1]
Location
Cambridge
,
Cambridgeshire
,
England
Website hps.cam.ac.uk/

The Department of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS), of the University of Cambridge is the largest department of history and philosophy of science in the United Kingdom. [2] A majority of its submissions received maximum ratings of 4* and 3* in the 2014 REF (Research Excellence Framework). [3] [4] Located in the historic buildings of the Old Physical Chemistry Laboratories on Free School Lane, Cambridge, the department teaches undergraduate courses towards the Cambridge Tripos and graduate courses including a taught Masters and PhD supervision in the field of HPS. The department shares its premises with the Whipple Museum and Whipple Library which provide important resources for its teaching and research. [5]

Contents

Academic staff

The Department of HPS at Cambridge employs fifteen full-time teaching staff, approximately thirty research staff, numerous supervisors and research associates from departments and colleges across the University of Cambridge, in addition to external supervisors and examiners. A long-standing head of department was the noted Professor Peter Lipton, who served until his unexpected death in 2007. He was followed as head of department by the late Professor John Forrester, an international authority in the History of Mind, and a leading figure on Sigmund Freud and the history of psychoanalysis. Professor Jim Secord became head of the department in 2013 and was succeeded in 2016 by Professor Liba Taub. The current head is Professor Tim Lewens. Other departmental teaching staff include Professor Hasok Chang, Professor Lauren Kassell, Professor Nick Hopwood [6] and Professor Simon Schaffer.

Degree courses

The department offers a nine-month MPhil course in history, philosophy and sociology of science, medicine and technology. It also supervises graduate students for the Cambridge PhD in HPS and provides advisors in the related fields of research in history, philosophy and social science. Together with the Departments of Sociology and Social Anthropology, it also sponsors a nine-month MPhil in health, medicine and society. [7]

Undergraduate teaching and supervision is provided for students who have completed their first year at Cambridge. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the Cambridge Tripos system, undergraduates from a wide range of fields may study HPS, although entry is predominantly through the Natural Sciences Tripos. The resources of the Whipple Museum provide for first-hand study of scientific instruments which often provide topics for student dissertations.

History and philosophy of medicine

The department is an active centre for the history of medicine and for philosophy of biomedical science and medical ethics. It played a major role in the Wellcome Trust funded Generation to Reproduction project at Cambridge, led by Professor Nick Hopwood, and hosted seminars and day conferences in this field. [8] [9] Another major Wellcome-funded project has made available a remarkable corpus of English medical casebooks from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. [10] [11]

Related Research Articles

The history of science and technology (HST) is a field of history that examines the development of the understanding of the natural world (science) and humans' ability to manipulate it (technology) at different points in time. This academic discipline also examines the cultural, economic, and political context and impacts of scientific practices; it likewise may study the consequences of new technologies on existing scientific fields.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tripos</span> Bachelors exam or course at Cambridge

A Tripos is an academic examination that originated at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. They include any of several examinations required to qualify an undergraduate student for a bachelor's degree or the courses taken by a student to prepare for these. Undergraduate students studying mathematics, for instance, ultimately take the Mathematical Tripos, and students of English literature take the English Tripos.

The Natural Sciences Tripos (NST) is the framework within which most of the science at the University of Cambridge is taught. The tripos includes a wide range of Natural Sciences from physics, astronomy, and geoscience, to chemistry and biology, which are taught alongside the history and philosophy of science. The tripos covers several courses which form the University of Cambridge system of Tripos. It is known for its broad range of study in the first year, in which students cannot study just one discipline, but instead must choose three courses in different areas of the natural sciences and one in mathematics. As is traditional at Cambridge, the degree awarded after Part II is a Bachelor of Arts (BA). A Master of Natural Sciences degree (MSci) is available to those who take the optional Part III. It was started in the 19th century.

A Master of Philosophy is a postgraduate degree. The name of the degree is most often abbreviated MPhil. MPhil are awarded to postgraduate students after completing at least two years of original research, normally in the form of a thesis or dissertation. In many fields, the completion of a MPhil is typically required for employment as experts, or researcher. MPhil may also serve as a provisional enrolment for a PhD programme.

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The University of Cambridge was the birthplace of the 'Analytic' School of Philosophy in the early 20th century. The department is located in the Raised Faculty Building on the Sidgwick Site and is part of the Cambridge School of Arts and Humanities. The Faculty achieved the best possible results from The Times 2004 and the QAA Subject Review 2001 (24/24). In the UK as of 2020, it is ranked second by the Guardian, second by the Philosophical Gourmet Report, and fifth by the QS World University Rankings.

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The University of Cambridge's Department of Engineering is the largest department at the university. The main site is situated at Trumpington Street, to the south of the city centre of Cambridge. The department is currently headed by Professor Colm Durkan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faculty of Human, Social, and Political Science, University of Cambridge</span> University faculty in England

The Faculty of Human, Social, and Political Science at the University of Cambridge was created in 2011 out of a merger of the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology and the Faculty of Politics, Psychology, Sociology and International Studies. According to the Cambridge HSPS website: graduates pursue careers in "research, the Civil Service, journalism, management consultancy, museums, conservation and heritage management, national and international NGOs and development agencies, the Law, teaching, publishing, health management, and public relations."

The Centre for History and Philosophy of Science is a research centre devoted to the historical and philosophical study of science, technology and medicine, based in the School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science, at the University of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. The Centre – previously known as the Division of History and Philosophy of Science, which was founded in 1956 – is one of the oldest units of its kind in the world. Throughout its history, the Centre has been home to many of the leading historians and philosophers of science who have deepened our understanding of scientific activity and how it shapes and is shaped by wider society.

The School of Biological Sciences is a research-led academic community at the University of East Anglia. It works with partners in industry on a range of activities, including translating research discoveries into products, making knowledge and research expertise available through consultancies, contract research and provision of analytical services, as well as partnering industry in training both undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Tim Lewens is a professor in the history and philosophy of biology, medicine, and bioethics at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. Lewens is a Fellow of Clare College, where he serves as Director of Studies in Philosophy and he is a member of the academic staff and lecturer in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS).

Nicholas Jardine FBA is a British mathematician, philosopher of science and its history, historian of astronomy and natural history, and amateur mycologist. He is Emeritus Professor at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) at the University of Cambridge.

Alfred Rupert Hall was a prominent British historian of science, known as editor of a collection of Isaac Newton's unpublished scientific papers (1962), and Newton's correspondence, in 1977.

The Department of Social Policy and Intervention is an interdisciplinary centre for research and teaching in social policy and the systematic evaluation of social intervention based in the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford. It dates back to Barnett House, a social reform initiative founded in 1914 by a reform movement clergyman, Samuel Barnett, becoming a department of Oxford in 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge</span> University department in England

The Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge is the department at the University of Cambridge responsible for research and instruction in political science, international relations and public policy. It is part of the Faculty of Human, Social, and Political Science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge</span> Constituent department of the University of Cambridge

The Faculty of Classics is one of the constituent departments of the University of Cambridge. It teaches the Classical Tripos. The Faculty is divided into five caucuses ; literature, ancient philosophy, ancient history, Classical art and archaeology, linguistics, and interdisciplinary studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faculty of History, University of Cambridge</span> Department of the University of Cambridge

The Faculty of History is one of the constituent departments of the University of Cambridge.

The Department of Genetics is a department of the University of Cambridge that conducts research and teaching in genetics.

James (Jim) Andrew Secord is an American-born historian of science. He was a professor of history and philosophy of science within the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, and a fellow of Christ's College. He was also the director of the project to publish the complete Correspondence of Charles Darwin. Secord is especially well known for Victorian Sensation, his award-winning study of the reception of the anonymous Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, a pioneering evolutionary book first published in 1844. In 2020 he was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy.

Lauren Kassell is Professor of History of Science and Medicine at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Since September 2021, she is on leave from Cambridge to serve as the Professor in History of Science at the European University Institute (Florence). She completed a doctorate at the University of Oxford in 1997. She is known for her work on the history of astrology and medicine in early modern England.

References

  1. ↑ Thompson, David (12 July 2016). "About the Department". Department of History and Philosophy of Science. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  2. ↑ Ian Hutchinson, Monopolizing Knowledge (Belmont MA, 2011), p. 73.
  3. ↑ "Results & submissions : REF 2014 : View submission".
  4. ↑ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-peter-lipton-razorsharp-cambridge-university-philosopher-of-science-769140.html
  5. ↑ 'About the Department' Archived 3 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine HPS Cambridge. Retrieved 5 September 2010.
  6. ↑ "Nick Hopwood | People | HPS".
  7. ↑ "New MPhil in Health, Medicine and Society, University of Cambridge | H-Sci-Med-Tech | H-Net".
  8. ↑ "Wellcome History 42".
  9. ↑ N. Hopwood, R. Flemming and L. Kassell (eds), Reproduction: Antiquity to the Present Day(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 2018.
  10. ↑ "Casebooks". casebooks.lib.cam.ac.uk.
  11. ↑ Katz, Leslie. "'Rapier in his privy parts': Notorious astrologer doctors' 17th-century case notes a wild read". CNET.

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