"When people ponder this question, they are often led to seek answers outside the sciences themselves. This interdisciplinary minor is planned to help students address historical and philosophical questions about science. In the history of science, we ask: How did we come to hold the beliefs we do about the natural world? How were the great scientists of the past led to the discoveries for which they are remembered? Why did people in the past have very different ideas on issues like the motions of the heavens or the nature of the human body? It is a puzzling reality of world history that the human understanding of nature, society, and the mind has varied greatly with place and time. This intriguing variety also raises philosophical questions: What separates science from pseudoscience or religion? How can we decide whether scientific knowledge will have good or bad consequences for humanity? Can science ever reach the ultimate truth about the universe?"