This module introduces students to the history and philosophy of science with two specific aims: 1) to provide a historical perspective on the history of human thought and the changing paradigms of scientific reason from ancient to modern times; and 2) to provide conceptual tools to better understand and also address contemporary theological challenges.

Key questions that the module addresses are:

1. If there is no such thing as certain knowledge in science, then why rely on reason at all when we have revelation, which gives us certain knowledge?
2. How can theology progress in the context of a scientific worldview that relies on methodological naturalism?
3. How does tradition maintain its integrity when the fundamental intuitions about the nature of reality that have guided our reason in the past may no longer hold true?

This module utilizes a series of lectures and readings by Dr. Hakob Barseghyan, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, for an online course on scientific worldviews. We highly recommend you explore the full course of lectures here, but they are not required for this curriculum.

We invite students and professors to review the texts we used for the original, in person, course, in addition to the learning materials we propose for each online class section. Many, like Sophie’s World referenced above in the video, are not open-access. Click here to view an excerpt from a project essay with a list of texts used as supplementary reading in the original course, but that do not appear on this site.

Thumbnail: A Mother’s Love. Photo Credit: Lυвαιв, 2010. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.