Re: OxBoink, anybody?

Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote
On Sep 1, 4:22 pm, Paul Wolff <bounc...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
LFS <la...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote>Mike Lyle wrote:
An interesting interlocutor (a philosopher-historian of science and
formidable punster) is coming over from Aus on the way to speak in the
US, and he'll be seeking conviviality in Oxford 11-16 October. Will
anybody be free for a boink of some kind?
...

Ooh, yes. Not 11th or 15th, though.

Sounds like a good egg. History and Philosophy of Science was a Special
Subject that I should have offered alongside Chemistry but didn't, on
account of not going to any of the lectures, mainly.
...

You "should have offered" it means you should have taken ("sat"?) an
optional exam in it?

Short answer: Yes.

Expanded answer: it was the terminology of the time.

The Examination Statutes of 1961 say, of the Honour School of Natural
Science:

1. (a) The examination shall include--

(1) Physics. (6) Geology.
(2) Chemistry. (7) Engineering Science.
(3) Animal Physiology. (8) Biochemistry.
(4) Zoology. (9) Metallurgy.
(5) Botany.

...

No candidate shall be required to offer more than one of these
subjects.

...

6. A candidate may, in addition to one or more of the above-mentioned
subjects, offer himself for examination in one or more of the following
Supplementary Subjects:

... (8) History and Philosophy of Science.


So yes, I meant I should have followed the course and taken the extra
paper(s), in that sense of 'should' that means 'had I been wiser and
more studious and less interested in having a good time'. Mind you, the
half of the syllabus that actually dealt with history and philosophy
only covered the period 1200 to 1800 AD (after which history and
philosophy presumably came to an end). The other half, which covered
scientific methods and explanation and proof and language, was undated
in the statutes (but would naturally have depended on the lecturers'
whims).
--
Paul
.

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