Distinguished Professor Returns to CBS to Teach Course on Scientific Revolution

The scientific revolution is one of the most interesting and challenging periods in the history of science for students to learn, and nobody teaches it better than emeritus professor at ASU Michael White.

White returned from his 2014 retirement to the Center for Biology and Society for the Spring 2015 semester to teach a course on the scientific revolution.

White’s graduate course, titled “Epistemology & the Scientific Revolution,” recounts how the scientific revolution happened in the seventeenth century and how it changed peoples’ views about the world.

The scientific revolution, which occurred between 1543-1687 in Europe, and included Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, accomplished the new understanding of the solar system and a new system and theory of physics and mathematics.

A student in the class, Donald Irwin, said that the course provided a chance to learn philosophy and history from a professor with “great experience and insight” about such an important moment in history.

White taught at ASU for 40 years, including over a dozen courses on scientific revolution. He taught courses in departments ranging from Philosophy, to History of Science, to Law and is affiliated with the American Philosophical Association and other organizations.

This course exemplifies of how the Center for Biology and Societystrives to provide ASU graduate students with the best possible training in the history and philosophy of science.

White published more than sixty articles in addition to six books on the history of philosophy and law, including most recently the second edition of Political Philosophy: A Historical Introduction.

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