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Department of Science and Technology Studies

Cornell University Cornell University Cornell University Science and Technology Studies

Peter Dear


Moog

Moog

car-engine

Car Engine

Nuclear-Protest

Nuclear Protest

nuclear-power-station

Nuclear Power Station

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Viewing Eclipse Circa 1930

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Peter Dear

Professor
Science & Technology Studies and History

email: prdPeter Dear3@cornell.edu
phone: 607-255-6752
fax: 607-255-0469
330 Rockefeller Hall or
435 McGraw Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853 USA
Office Hours, Spring 2012: M 2:00 - 4:00, 435 McGraw Hall

Education:

  • Ph.D., History of Science, Princeton University
  • M.A., Natural Sciences Tripos, University of Cambridge
  • B.A., Natural Sciences Tripos, University of Cambridge

Graduate Fields:

  • Science & Technology Studies
  • History

Awards and Distinctions:

  • Elected corresponding member of the International Academy of the History of Science (December 2005).

  • Helen and Miles Watson Davis Prize, from History of Science Society, for Revolutionizing the Sciences (2002).


 

Research Interests

Professor Peter Dear's research focus is on the history of European science in the seventeenth century.  He teaches more broadly in the history of science, however, and in the fairly new field of science and technology studies. 

Professor Dear's main undergraduate survey lecture courses are HIST 1941/STS 1941/BSOC 1941 (fall) and HIST 1942/STS 1942/BSOC 1942 (spring), both of which cover the "History of Science in Europe."  The fall course focuses on medieval and early modern Europe up to about 1700, while the spring course begins in the early 18th century, moving from Newton to the early 20th century.  Professor Dear also teaches undergraduate seminars on history of science, as well as graduate seminars, such as "Historiographical Approaches to Science."

Recent Courses Taught

  • Spring 2012 - (BSOC/STS 1942) The History of Science in Europe
    TR: 11:40-12:55, 4 Credits
  • Spring 2011 - (BSOC/STS 1942) The History of Science in Europe
    TR: 11:40-12:55, 4 Credits
  • Fall 2010 - (STS 1941) The History of Science in Europe: From the Ancient Legacy to Issac Newton
    TR: 11:40-12:55, 4 Credits
  • Fall 2010 - (STS 4122) Darwin and the Making of Histories
    W: 12:20-2:15, 4 Credits
  • Spring 2010 - (BSOC/STS 4921) The History of Reason
    M: 12:20-2:15, 4 Credits

 Selected Publications

  • The Intelligibility of Nature: How Science Makes Sense of the World.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

  • "The History of Science and the History of the Sciences: Sarton, Isis, and the Two Cultures.  Isis. 100:89-93, 2009.

  • "A Philosophical Duchess: Understanding Margaret Cavendish and the Royal Society."  Science, Literature, and Rhetoric in Early Modern England.  2007.

  • "Towards a Genealogy of Modern Science."  The Mindful Hand: Inquiry and Invention from the Late Renaissance to Early Industrialisation.  431-441.  2007.

  • "The Meanings of Experience."  Early Modern Science.  106-131.  2006.

  • "Circular Argument: Descartes Vortices and Their Crafting as Explanations of Gravity."  The Science of Nature in the Seventeenth Century: Patterns of Change in Early Modern Natural Philosophy.  81-97.  2005.

  • "What is the History of Science the History of?  Early Modern Roots of the Ideology of Modern Science."  Isis.  96:390-406.  2005.

  • "Space, Revolution, and Science."  Geography and Revolution.  27-42.  2005.

  • "Mysteries of State, Mysteries of Nature: Authority, Knowledge, and Expertise in the Seventeenth Century."  States of Knowledge: The Co-Production of Science and Social Order.  206-224.  2004.

  • "Mathematics and Morality on the Cusp of Modernity."  Revue d'histoire des mathematiques.  7:277-293.  2001.