History and Philosophy of Science Minor Concentration (B.A.) (18 credits)
Offered by: Philosophy (Faculty of Arts)
Degree: Bachelor of Arts; Bachelor of Arts and Science
Program credit weight: 18
Program Description
History and Philosophy of Science at McGill is an interdisciplinary program that aims to provide students with an understanding of science through the study of both its historical development and of some of the fundamental philosophical principles upon which it rests. For more information about the program and events, please visit http://www.mcgill.ca/hpsc.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Complementary Courses (18 credits)
18 credits with a maximum of 9 credits at the 200 level selected as follows:
Philosophy of Science
6-12 credits of courses focused on the Philosophy of Science with no more than 6 credits at the 200 level chosen from the following:
Communication Studies (COMS)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMS 210 | Introduction to Communication Studies. | 3 |
Introduction to Communication Studies. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The social and cultural implications of media. Surveys theory and case studies relevant key issues such as the ownership, structure and governance of media industries; the significance of emergent media technologies; and the roles of media as cultural forms and practices. | ||
History and Philosophy of Science (HPSC)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| HPSC 300 | Independent Studies: History and Philosophy of Science. | 3 |
Independent Studies: History and Philosophy of Science. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Offered by special arrangement between students in Arts or Science and a professor in either a Science or a Social Science Department. The purpose is to enable a student to undertake for credit the study of a special topic in the History or the Philosophy of Science. | ||
| HPSC 500 | Interdisciplinary Seminar: History & Philosophy of Science. | 3 |
Interdisciplinary Seminar: History Philosophy of Science. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. At least one topic will be chosen from each of the four major areas: the mathematical, the physical, the biological, the social sciences. | ||
Philosophy (PHIL)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| PHIL 210 | Introduction to Deductive Logic 1. | 3 |
Introduction to Deductive Logic 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025 An introduction to propositional and predicate logic; formalization of arguments, truth tables, systems of deduction, elementary metaresults, and related topics. | ||
| PHIL 221 | Introduction to History and Philosophy of Science 2. | 3 |
Introduction to History and Philosophy of Science 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of the development of modern science since the Eighteenth Century. | ||
| PHIL 306 | Philosophy of Mind. | 3 |
Philosophy of Mind. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of major positions of the mind-body problem, focusing on such questions as: Do we have minds and bodies? Can minds affect bodies? Is mind identical to body? If so, in what sense "identical"? Can physical bodies be conscious. | ||
| PHIL 310 | Intermediate Logic. | 3 |
Intermediate Logic. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A second course in Logic. NB. The course will be technical in nature, and some mathematical aptitude is essential. The emphasis is on the expressive properties of standard logical systems, including implications for the philosophy of mathematics. We will study the Completeness of First-Order Logic, then the 'limitative' theorems of Tarski and Gödel. | ||
| PHIL 311 | Philosophy of Mathematics. | 3 |
Philosophy of Mathematics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course provides an historically informed introduction to philosophy of mathematics. It gives the student an overview of prominent issues and arguments, to enable her to follow and discuss contemporary research in philosophy of mathematics. | ||
| PHIL 341 | Philosophy of Science 1. | 3 |
Philosophy of Science 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A discussion of philosophical problems as they arise in the context of scientific practice and enquiry. Such issues as the philosophical presuppositions of the physical and social sciences, the nature of scientific method and its epistemological implications will be addressed. | ||
| PHIL 350 | History and Philosophy of Ancient Science. | 3 |
History and Philosophy of Ancient Science. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Topics in ancient pure mathematics (geometry and number theory), "mixed mathematics" (astronomy, music theory, optics, mechanics), and/or natural science (including medicine), studied with a view to philosophical issues raised by the content of ancient science and/or by the logic of scientific argument. | ||
| PHIL 411 | Topics in Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics. | 3 |
Topics in Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A course focusing on some philosophical issue (e.g., the nature of numbers or the relation of truth to provability) as it arises in the study of mathematics and logic. | ||
| PHIL 441 | Philosophy of Science 2. | 3 |
Philosophy of Science 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An analysis of some key philosophical ideas in science and technology, e.g. problem, explanation, forecast, testability and truth. | ||
| PHIL 453 | Ancient Metaphysics and Natural Philosophy. | 3 |
Ancient Metaphysics and Natural Philosophy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of central themes of ancient metaphysics and/or natural philosophy as treated by two or more contrasting philosophers or philosophical traditions - probably including Plato and/or Aristotle, and possibly including some Hellenistic or post-Hellenistic schools. | ||
History of Science
6-12 credits of courses focused on the History of Science with no more than 6 credits at the 200 level chosen from the following:
Anthropology (ANTH)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ANTH 359 | History of Archaeological Theory. | 3 |
History of Archaeological Theory. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A systematic investigation of the theories that have guided the interpretation of prehistoric archaeological data since the Middle Ages; the relationship between these theories and theoretical developments in the other social sciences. | ||
Biology (BIOL)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| BIOL 210 | Perspectives of Science. | 3 |
Perspectives of Science. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course is an introduction to the thinking, language and practices of scientists. Its objective is to bridge the gap between science and the humanities, and in particular to allow students enrolled in the Minor Concentration in Science for Arts to pursue their interests in specific scientific disciplines. | ||
History (HIST)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| HIST 249 | Health and the Healer in Western History. | 3 |
Health and the Healer in Western History. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The natural history of health and disease and the development of the healing arts, from antiquity to the beginning of modern times. The rise of "western" medicine. Health and healing as gradually evolving aspects of society and culture. | ||
| HIST 319 | The Scientific Revolution. | 3 |
The Scientific Revolution. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The intellectual and cultural history of science and technology, in Europe and in the wider world, from the time of Leonardo to the time of Newton (c. 1500-c.1700). | ||
| HIST 335 | Science and Medicine in Canada. | 3 |
Science and Medicine in Canada. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The social and intellectual history of science and medicine in Canada, from early exploration, through the rise of learned societies, universities and professional organizations, to World War II. | ||
| HIST 350 | Science and the Enlightenment. | 3 |
Science and the Enlightenment. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Explores the relationship between the natural sciences and the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. Examination of works in post-Newtonian science as well as their broader cultural meaning, the history of material practices, the origins of social science, and the role of geography and international context beyond Western Europe. | ||
| HIST 356 | Medicine in the Medieval West. | 3 |
Medicine in the Medieval West. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The history of ideas about the human body, disease and therapeutics and the diverse practices of medicine in western Europe in the Middle Ages (ca. AD 300-1500), with particular attention to their social, intellectual, cultural and religious context. | ||
| HIST 410 | Topics in History of Science. | 3 |
Topics in History of Science. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Specific theme in the history of science, such as scientific instruments, experimental practices, uses of the body, knowledge and museums, scientific institutions, or science and empire. | ||
| HIST 452 | Topics in Pre-Modern Medicine. | 3 |
Topics in Pre-Modern Medicine. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The history of the evolution of ideas about the human body, disease and therapeutics and the diverse practices of medicine prior to the advent of modern clinical and laboratory medicine in the 19th c., with particular attention to social, political, cultural and religious context. | ||
| HIST 457 | Topics in Medical History. | 3 |
Topics in Medical History. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course explores different topics in medical history. Topics to be explored include the role of medicine from ancient to modern times. | ||
| HIST 558 | Modern Medicine: Seminar. | 3 |
Modern Medicine: Seminar. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The emergence of scientific medicine, medical professionalization, the development of public health and the process of medical specialization since 1700. | ||
| HIST 559 | Modern Medicine: Research. | 3 |
Modern Medicine: Research. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Supervised design, research, writing, and discussion of a major research paper on a theme in the history of modern medicine since 1700. | ||
| HIST 567D1 | Seminar: Medieval Medicine. | 3 |
Seminar: Medieval Medicine. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Models of the body, disease and medical intervention current in western Europe between 400 and 1500 AD will be examined through analysis of primary sources in translation, and modern historical scholarship. | ||
| HIST 567D2 | Seminar: Medieval Medicine. | 3 |
Seminar: Medieval Medicine. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Models of the body, disease and medical intervention current in western Europe between 400 and 1500 AD will be examined through analysis of primary sources in translation, and modern historical scholarship. The sequel to this course is HIST 496. | ||
History and Philosophy of Science (HPSC)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| HPSC 300 | Independent Studies: History and Philosophy of Science. | 3 |
Independent Studies: History and Philosophy of Science. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Offered by special arrangement between students in Arts or Science and a professor in either a Science or a Social Science Department. The purpose is to enable a student to undertake for credit the study of a special topic in the History or the Philosophy of Science. | ||
| HPSC 500 | Interdisciplinary Seminar: History & Philosophy of Science. | 3 |
Interdisciplinary Seminar: History Philosophy of Science. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. At least one topic will be chosen from each of the four major areas: the mathematical, the physical, the biological, the social sciences. | ||
Islamic Studies (ISLA)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ISLA 345 | 3 | |
Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. | ||
Mathematics (MATH)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MATH 338 | History and Philosophy of Mathematics. | 3 |
History and Philosophy of Mathematics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Indian and Arab contributions to mathematics are studied together with some modern developments they give rise to, for example, the problem of trisecting the angle. European mathematics from the Renaissance to the 18th century is discussed, culminating in the discovery of the infinitesimal and integral calculus by Newton and Leibnitz. Demonstration of how mathematics was done in past centuries, and involves the practice of mathematics, including detailed calculations, arguments based on geometric reasoning, and proofs. | ||
Psychology (PSYC)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| PSYC 403 | Modern Psychology in Historical Perspective. | 3 |
Modern Psychology in Historical Perspective. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of the scientific and ideological influences on psychology from its philosophical beginnings through the period of the schools to its modern situation. | ||