James R. Barker Assoc. Professor of Contemporary Civilization
Chair, Contemporary Civilization
history of early modern science, technology, philosophy
The Matter of Calculation: Calculating Machines, Innovation, and Thinking about Thinking from Pascal to Babbage
Love, Inclination and Inertia: The Common Good in Early Modern Natural and Political Philosophy
The Good Life in the Scientific Revolution: Descartes, Pascal, Leibniz and the Cultivation of Virtue (University of Chicago Press, 2006)
“Three Errors about Indifference: Pascal on the Vacuum, Sociability and Moral Freedom,” Romance Quarterly 50(2003):99-120.
“Writing and Sentiment: Blaise Pascal, the Vacuum and the Pensées,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 32(2001):139-181.
Courses
Spring 2012
The Scientific Revolution in Western Europe, 1500-1750
Fall 2011
Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West
Summer 2011
History of Computing from (Blaise) Pascal to the Internet
Fall 2010
Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West
Methods in History of Science (with Marwa Elshakry)
Spring 2011
Foucault for Historians (with Samuel Moyn)
Lecture
The Scientific Revolution in Western Europe, 1500-1750
The European Renaissance, 1400-1600: an introduction
Seminar
Civilizing Processes, 1500-1750
Subjects and Objects of Renaissance Knowledge
Science Across Cultures (with Joel Kaye and George Saliba)
Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West
Graduate
Introduction to Historical Interpretation and Methods
Topics in Early Modern European Cultural and Intellectual History: Institutions of Knowledge and Belief
Wednesday, 3-5
Address
514 Fayerweather Hall
MC2513
New York, NY 10027
Leibniz, 7.1677 transport mechanism for calculating machine