Write a paper of about 3pp. (or 900 words) in which you discuss some aspect of a view of the nature of science prior to 1600 (that you have encountered in your reading for the course) and compare it with your own view of science.
When I speak of a "view of science," I don't mean a commitment to a specific scientific theory (e.g., a view about the correctness of Eudoxus's account of retrograde motion) but rather some view of the nature of scientific knowledge or scientific inquiry. Still, the line between these two things is not a sharp one. For example, some views of the nature of the universe may be presupposed by a conception of what science is rather than being seen as a product of scientific inquiry, and such views would count as aspects of a view of science in the sense I have in mind.
I suggest that you approach this topic in the following way:
The latter discussion can take a variety of forms. You might consider just how far apart the two views are or discuss the respects in which they are distant and the respects in which they are close. You might imagine the way someone holding the other view of science would react to your view. Or you might ask whether there is an essential historical order of the two views or if older view you contrast with your own might come to be widely held at some point in the future.
If there is another topic you would prefer to write on, check with me. I am interested in having you discuss something you've read so far and also formulate your own views, but the topic I've described is not the only way of doing that.
As in the case of the weekly assignments, I will be happy to accept these on paper but I encourage you to submit them electronically. You can send them as attachments to e-mail messages (my address is helmang@wabash.edu) or use the Blackboard drop box for the course.