Class Notes


August 28: Ancient and Medieval concepts of Plurality

September 2: The Copernican Principle, Part I

September 4: The Copernican Principle, Part II

September 9: Extraterrestrials and eighteenth century astronomy

September 11: Extraterrestrials and the Enlightenment


Discussion 1: The Early history of Copernicanism


September 18: The early nineteenth century

September 23: William Whewell and the denial of plurality

September 25: Pluralism defended: the late nineteenth century

September 30: Alfred Russel Wallace


Discussion 2: The nineteenth century


October 2: The rise and fall of the canals on Mars

October 14: Mars meets the Space Age, and the Viking landers, 1976

October 16: Martian meteorites in the Antarctic, 1996

October 21: The Search Continues, 1997-2004; Falsifiablity and verifiability


Discussion 3: Mars

 


October 23: Panspermia; the Oparin-Haldane Hypothesis

October 30: The Biologists speak

November 4: Thinking about improbabilities

November 11: Scaffolding, Chance or Design?


Discussion 4: The Origin of Life


November 13: The SETI Program—optimists and pessimists

November 20: The Fermi Paradox, part 1

November 25: The Fermi Paradox, part 2

December 2: The Fermi Paradox, part 3

December 4: Is the principle of plenitude defensible?