NATURAL SCIENCES TRIPOS Part II CLASSICAL TRIPOS Part II Friday 3 June 2011 9.00 to 12.00 Examination Halls, New Museums Site HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE (1) Classical Traditions in the Sciences Before you begin read these instructions carefully: Students taking History and Philosophy of Science or Classics should answer four questions: answer one question chosen from Section A and three questions chosen from Section B. Begin each answer on a separate sheet. Write legibly and on only one side of the paper. Answers must be tied up in separate bundles, marked 1, 2, 3, etc. according to the number of the question. Attach a completed coversheet to each bundle and complete a master coversheet listing all questions attempted. It is essential that you write your examination number and not your name on the coversheet and on each bundle. You may not start to read the questions printed on the subsequent pages of this question paper until instructed that you may do so by the invigilator
Paper 1: Classical Traditions in the Sciences SECTION A 1. What makes a 'classical tradition' in the sciences? 2. To what extent was the history of the sciences in the pre-modern period linked to the spread of literacy? 3. How important was the creation of new knowledge to scholars and natural philosophers in the periods before 1600 AD? SECTION B 4. EITHER (a) Why did the Assyrian king need scholars at court? OR (b) How successfully did cuneiform scholarship adapt to the end of indigenous rule in Babyonia? 5. Anaximander (6th century CE) has been credited with having produced 'the first specimen of a new genre, the treatise Peri Physeos, "On the Nature of Things".' Discuss the significance of this new genre. 6. EITHER (a) 'The puzzle is not why the ancient Chinese did not invent the axiomatic-deductive method of proof, so much as why certain Greeks did.' Discuss. OR (b) Is there any neutral way to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the cosmologies in Aristotle's On the Heavens and in Huainanzi? 7. 'Astronomy can be understood to be the oldest of the sciences, because of its reliance on instruments.' Discuss. 8. 'Arabic science had become autonomous by the eleventh century CE.' Discuss. 9. 'Arabic science is a conduit through which Greek scientific ideas became known to Latin Europe.' Evaluate this statement. 10. How and why were classical traditions useful to Renaissance natural philosophers? 11. How should we write the history of natural philosophy? 12. Why did it take so long for the toxic properties of mercury to be taken seriously? END OF PAPER
NATURAL SCIENCES TRIPOS Part II Wednesday 1 June 2011 1.30 to 4.30 Examination Halls, New Museums Site HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE (2) Natural Philosophies: Renaissance to Enlightenment Before you begin read these instructions carefully: You should answer four questions: answer one question chosen from Section A and three questions chosen from Section B. Begin each answer on a separate sheet. Write legibly and on only one side of