The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

the course schedule (click the one that's right for you!) --

MONDAY/WEDNESDAY SESSION

TUESDAY/THURSDAY SESSION

BLOG POSTINGS:

An OVERVIEW of ALL of the semester's blog postings

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

The final essay (explained here)

   (dates of our recent readings are posted with the essay prompt)

_________________________________________________

PAST DUE ASSIGNMENTS: 

The Galileo essay is posted here. 

The Peer Review 

The Revision Assignment

The assignment has various components:  READ ABOUT THEM HERE. 

Diderot Essay (due March 13th)

 Writing on Science, Evolution and Creationism is explained here

THE BLOGGING ASSIGNMENTS:

OVERVIEW OF ALL of the semester's blog postings

assignment on the Condemnations of 1277

assignment on the Merton (and Max Weber) presentation

A final blog posting (due April 19th)

A posting for the week of March 30th

The presentation assignment:  

An explanation of what this assignment entails

WHAT IS THIS COURSE ABOUT?

 With consideration of contemporary debate as well as historical episodes reaching through the centuries, this course will address the complex and nuanced interrelation of science and religion. The class does not attempt a comprehensive overview; through select readings on a succession of topics, the course intends to challenge students' thinking about the scientific and religious prisms through which most of us understand the world and our place within it.

If you commit yourself to this course you will

• gain greater respect for the drive behind both scientific and religious pursuit;
   
• gain appreciation of science, in historical perspective, as a new mode of understanding;
   
• recognize that religious thinking can fuel human inquiry in unexpected ways;
   
• realize the contradictory nature of your own thinking;
   
• develop greater appreciation for scholarly assessment and scholarly dispute. 

The kind of work called for by course assignments serves broader ends: 

•  texts by a range of authors will advance your skills of critical analysis and interpretation;
   
• Essays and other writing will advance your ability to articulate your ideas;
   
•  Internet postings and other online communications will exercise your facility with evolving technologies and new means and techniques of rhetorical expression.

    This course also enhances your capacity and skills in most of the areas articulated on this posting of liberal arts goals.  Take a look at these goals, and consider which ones can help a highly trained musician entering a fast changing and fiercely competitive world. 
 

WHAT BOOKS TO BUY?

Much of the reading will be from packets that will be available from the Faculty Secretary.  These  are available for $10.  (This will cover subsequent materials that will be distributed after Spring Break).

Three assigned texts are (or soon will be) available in the Peabody bookstore.  You must have these texts in class on days when we will be working with them.  The texts are listed in the order that we will work with them:

• Bertolt Brecht, Galileo 
   
• Denis Diderot, D'Alembert's Dream
   
• The National Academy of Sciences, Science, Evolution, and Creationism
   

(If you purchase all of these required texts unused, you will spend less that $50 for the semester as a whole.)

You might also be interested in this text--

• OPTIONAL:  Gary B. Ferngren, ed., Science and Religion:  A Historical Introduction
   

HOW ARE GRADES DETERMINED?

    The semester's grading is explained here.

PEABODY WANTS YOU TO KNOW THIS

If you are a student with a disability or believe you might have a disability that requires accommodations, please contact Dr. Paul Mathews in the Office of Academic Affairs at the Peabody Conservatory at 410-659-8100, extension 4405 or at mathews@jhu.edu to discuss reasonable and appropriate accommodations.