The History of Science: 1700-1900

Not that this lecture series was bad, but I was greatly disappointed. Gregory starts the series by noting that any survey of the history of science is going to have to be selective. That is certainly true, and so, to my mind, what is central is the instructor's judgment. I think Gregory's selection showed poor judgment. His presenting is as good as it ever is, but there are serious lacunae in the topics selected. For one thing, physics is not well represented by any stretch of the imagination. I completed this course just before taking a physics-oriented history and philosophy of science course at the University, and Gregory's lack of substantial content in periods of 1700-1900 is particularly manifest in the contrasting thereof. In my opinion, the third set of twelve lectures is very weak, both in the material discussed per topic and topics chosen. Gregory is primarily an historian of biology, so I afford for him some minor consolation reprieve; but that doesn't excuse him in toto. Being trained in history and philosophy of physics, I hope I would be able to give a more competent and substantial selection of history of biology topics than he afforded physics and astronomy.One of the frustrating things for me was, having already been through his great lecture series on evolution, that he rehashes so much of that material. I am not sure what the underlying idea is on the part of the Teaching Company for allowing as 12-lecture stretch of overlap between two series. Don't get me wrong, it is not as though Frederick's lectures from the evolution series have been taken out and jammed into this one, but the overlap in content is remarkable. I think the second set of 12 lectures in this series could have been better spent than they were. I must admit that I am unaware of whether this series came out before the evolution series, which would mitigate my agitation a bit.I did give the series 4 stars (i.e. 3.5 stars, but I round up), so it is obviously not all bad. Among the most valuable aspects of this series is the treatment of Naturphilosophie, which Gregory did an outstanding job with. Additionally, the first 12 (really 2-12) lectures are wonderful and insightful. I found incredible value in these lectures. Of course, despite overlaps in biological material with his other lecture series and the content issues in physics, there were gems laced throughout lectures 13-36. In general, if your time is at a premium, I recommend going through lectures 2-12. If you have done Gregory's amazing series on evolution, either skip the second set of twelve or view/listen to them very selectively. I am inclined to tell everyone to skip the last 12 lectures except those topics which are most interesting. This can be done because there isn't any real continuity in this sort of lecture series, except for the attempt to preserve some amount of chronology, which is of no matter.Decent series, some might think it a good series, but definitely not great.

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