Physics 361: Science and Culture

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Physics 361 Science and Culture

• What is this course about anyways?

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Questions I

• How does culture affect scientific discovery?
• How does scientific discovery affect culture?
• How are these connected? and what are the
  limitations to this kind of feedback?
• Why should society even support science?

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Questions II

• Why should society support science?
• What is the economic price of knowledge
  acquisition? If its too high what do we do?
• How can cultural change be measured and
  explained?
• What is the Truth and who is its gatekeeper?
• What happens when the Truth is unacceptable to
  the masses?

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Questions III

• What is the connection between Science and
  Religion?
• Is science a system of belief?
• Is religion a science?
• What does it mean when we claim to find order in
  nature?
• Is nature really ordered or are we forcing it to
  appear that way so that we can explain it ?

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Sub Texts

• Issues that will permeate throughout the course
  but may not be addressed explicitly
• Cooperation versus Competition as the means to
  achieve the ideal state/government
• Why do we so easily treat nature as a consumable?
• Is there a difference between humans and animals?

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More Sub Texts

• Why do we require certainty in order to make
  decisions?
• Whats wrong with a purely empirical approach?
• Has anything really changed for 10,000 years in
  terms of human behavior and human/institutional
  structures?
• Has science ever impacted the way in which
  society functions?