Examination #1,
Take-Home Essay Questions
Due Date: Friday, 26 September, by 9:00 a.m. (in class)

Answer two of the following three questions. Everyone must complete question #1, but you get to choose between questions #2 and #3. Each answer must be 3 pages (ca. 750 words), typed, and double-spaced, with standard-sized fonts and standard margins (1 inch on top, bottom, and sides). Your answers should also be concise, clearly written, well organized (with a proper introduction, body, and conclusion), and they should include a mixture of insightful critical analysis and relevant specific examples from the reading, lectures, videos, discussions, and student presentations. You may use brief quotes to illustrate your points, but you should be sure to cite the author and page number in parentheses immediately following the quotes (e.g, Darwin 105). Each or your paragraphs should be tightly focused, well-developed, and have a topic sentence (the main point or argument to be pursued in the paragraph). And of course, your writing should be as error free as possible: all words should be correctly spelled, all constructions grammatically correct, and all punctuation appropriately used. Be sure to leave enough time to revise your writing and proofread your answers carefully! Your grade will be based on content and presentation.

When your done with your answers, type up a cover sheet with your name, the course number, and the date, and staple all the pages together in the upper left-hand corner. Then bring it by my office at 415 Major Williams. If I'm not in (not very likely), then slip it under the door. I really look forward to reading your responses!
 

1. In a classic book published in 1896, longtime Cornell University President Andrew D. White proclaimed that a "warfare between science and theology" had been raging since the Middle Ages. Based on all the material we've covered in class thus far, assess the validity of White's thesis.

2. Though scholars have long questioned whether science is truly objective, most people continue to believe that scientists provide an accurate, universal, and value-free description of the natural world. Based on your reading and our discussions of the first four chapters of Stephen Jay Gould's Mismeasure of Man, evaluate science's claim to objectivity.

3. Describe the profound changes in cosmology, physics, and worldviews associated with the Scientific Revolution. How did an educated person living in 1500 "see" the natural world? What about someone living two centuries later? What consequences did this shift have for Western science and culture?