How does revolutionary science happen? Why do some scientific texts have staying power? Do scientific concepts follow particular trajectories through social sciences, the arts, and popular culture? We will address such questions in this interdisciplinary course for students interested in the peculiar dynamics of scientific cognition, theoretical elaboration and system-building, and strengths and limits of representation. Our focus will be the emergence and exportation of three classic texts: Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things, Galileo’s Dialogue concerning the Two Chief World Systems,and Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.
