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Abstract
This course explores the role of time and temporality in science and literature, c.1800 to the present. We will study how time has been used to shape ideas and assumptions in science and society across Western Europe and North America during modernity to assess how understanding the temporal features of Western culture can transform our understandings of science and society both past and present.
Objective
This course equips students with the skills to assess how time has shaped social, economic, political, and scientific developments since 1800. Students will be able to compare and contrast competing models of time in scientific and literary forms, identify key exchanges in thinking about time across genres, and explain how time informed distinct theories or approaches in science and literature.
Content
Time is a major feature of life, existence, and the universe, but its workings are often unnoticed in everyday life. It is all too easy to assume that time, like space, is a mere dimension in which events unfold or a helpful framework for us to measure change. Yet the means of reckoning time, its perception, and its influence on individuals and societies have changed throughout the course of history. Across different periods and in different contexts, people have sought to conceptualize time for a variety of reasons, from proposing a metaphysics of the world to dividing the day into ‘hours’ that facilitate the coordination of trade and communication across the globe, to understanding the tempo of daily life. As early as the 4th century AD, St Augustine ruminated on the relationship between past, present, and future in the context of a declining Western Roman Empire. A millennium and a half later, in a world shaken by the seemingly unstoppable acceleration of modernity, the philosopher Henri Bergson sought to understand how humans became conscious of ‘duration’ while Albert Einstein and Henri Poincaré attempted to resolve the relativity of time measurement. To this day, individuals around the world struggle to manage the time pressures exerted in daily life. This course explores the role of time and temporality in science and literature from the 18th century to the present. We will study how ideas about time have been developed, applied, and challenged across scientific and aesthetic domains during the period of ‘modernity’ or Neuzeit in Western Europe and North America. In the process, we will explore how time has been used to shape ideas and assumptions in science and society, and how evaluating the temporal dimension of ‘Western’ culture can transform our understanding of science and society – both past and present. In the first half of the semester, we will consider the history of time, how change and continuity have been conceptualised, the birth of modern chronology, the ‘Horological Revolution’, and ideas of ‘progress’ and ‘development’ in 19th-century science and literature. Subsequent classes will explore key aspects of temporality through the lens of specific scientific and aesthetic developments. These include the rise of modern physics, sociology, psychology, futurology, science fiction, accelerationism, modernism, postmodernism, and time during and after coronavirus. Weekly themes will be explored through a close reading of key texts drawn from the history of science, literature, critical theory, and history, allowing for a wide-ranging discussion.
General Information
- Language
- English
- Levels
- DS , DR , MSC
Examination
- Type
- graded semester performance
Registration & Places
- Max Places
- 40
Course Components
| Type | Title | Time & Place | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| seminar |
Time in Science and Literature
Does not take place this semester.
|
No time listed | 2 h weekly |
Offered In
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Science in Perspective (In “Science in Perspective”-courses students learn to reflect on ETH’s STEM subjects from the perspective of humanities, political and social sciences. Only the courses listed below will be recognized as "Science in Perspective" courses.)
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Type A: Enhancement of Reflection Competence (SiP courses are recommended for bachelor students after their first-year examination and for all master- or doctoral students. All SiP courses are listed in Type A. Courses listed under Type B are only recommendations for enrollment for specific departments.)
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Doctorate Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (More Information at: )