The TSR Community Awards 2025 are now live >>

History of Science Degree??

I am really interested in studying history of science, particularly the UCL course - but am unsure what other unis offer this as an undergrad? On UCAS pretty much nothing other than UCL and Leeds comes up. I study all essay subjects, so taking another science is out of the question, but I am really interested in the history of it, this is the only degree that really sparked my interest, but I am a bit stuck as to what to do next.

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Cambridge offers it via natural sciences (it may be possible to swap into HPS from other tripos courses there after the first two years e.g. history or philosophy, perhaps). At other unis you may be more looking at history courses that have specific offerings in the history of science as well - I think Oxford have some options in this area.

I think LSE used to have some history of science options to pair with the course in Logic, Philosophy and Scientific Method but I think they've stopped offering these :frown:

Perhaps apply for the history of science courses with other history courses that have some options in that area, and then if you don't get into the specific courses you're interested in you can decide if you would be happy with a "general" history course with history of science options or not.

It's more common as a specialisation at postgrad level for people from various historical related backgrounds, hence I believe there are fewer undergrad courses in it as I understand.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 2

sfp04

If you’re interested in studying aspects of the sciences from a humanities background, philosophy could be another option worth considering — philosophy of science is an important subfield of the discipline which most universities will tend to offer multiple courses in (general philosophy of science as well as philosophy of individual sciences e.g. physics, biology, cognitive science). Furthermore, early modern philosophy is probably the central area of the history of philosophy, which, again, any good philosophy course will offer plenty of options in — that was a period when the boundaries between philosophy and the natural sciences we recognise today didn’t really exist, and consequently philosophers like Descartes and Leibniz are also very important figures in the history of maths and science.

That said, you would have to study other general areas of philosophy (some of which e.g. moral philosophy don’t relate much to the sciences, although others such as logic and epistemology and metaphysics do and indeed provide vital background to the more applied issues the philosophy of science considers), so if the idea of philosophy as a whole doesn’t really appeal to you, disregard what I’ve said.