Course Description
Are species real? Is there a single objective tree of life? Is biodiversity intrinsically valuable? What are the units of natural selection? Is biology an autonomous science or is it reducible to chemistry and physics? What are functions? Is there such a thing as evolutionary progress or is the structure of life on earth purely contingent? If so, could there yet be “natural laws” within biology? How much can evolutionary theory inform us about ourselves and our societies? Is race a biological reality or a social construct? Is there such a thing as “human nature” or are we blank slates to be inscribed by culture? Questions like these continue to divide philosophers and biologists alike — we shall engage them primarily through current philosophical and biological research. The course will primarily function as a seminar, with student presentations setting the tone and directing the discussion, though lecture will sometimes intrude.
Schedule of Topics & Readings (sketch based on previous years)
Biology, Meet Philosophy; Philosophy, Meet Biology
In our first (substantive) meeting, we will begin to consider the role that philosophical reflection can take in the context of biology. What is it to do philosophy? What can philosophers offer biologists? How can biologists start to think philosophically? On the other side of this coin, philosophers might wonder how biology (or any of the sciences) should influence their thinking. We’ll start trying to answer these questions by applying a historical perspective to biology. When did it start? What is its subject matter, its assumptions, its methods, its main questions — and how have these changed over time?
Conceptual Issues for the Modern Synthesis
Our second meeting will continue tracing the evolution of biology into the “Modern Synthesis” (of evolutionary biology and population genetics) into the mid-20th century. We’ll focus in particular, on three conceptual thickets: the concept of fitness, the pervasiveness of adaptation (to what extent is natural selection an “optimizing” force?), and the concept of biological function in a mechanistic worldview.
Life & Development
We'll focus on two somewhat distinct topics in this meeting: (1) a big set of questions about how we should think of life — what is it?, how did it arise in the first place? — and (2) whether our understanding of development should unseat the prevalent understanding of evolution and the relationship between genes, organisms, and environment.
"Human Nature"
Continuing the theme of whether genes in any relevant sense "determine" organisms, we'll turn to the perennially-debated question of whether there is such a thing as "human nature". How stands the "nature/nurture" debate these days? How are biological sex and gender related? What is the status of Evolutionary Psychology (a trendy but controversial school of psychological research that often concerns itself with these questions)?
What are Species?
Are species objective features of the world or merely artifacts of how we choose to divide up the world. This is is the first of three meetings we will spend on the so-called "Species Problem" — the problem of how to define species — and a number of associated questions. Our focus in this meeting will be on understanding the basic philosophical issues connected with classification in general and the major schools of thought in biology about how to define species, but we will also consider the challenges posed by recent discoveries concerning microbial evolution. Is there there a single, objective “tree of life”? Can we reasonably treat species as "natural kinds"?
Race
Another area of intense interest and dispute has centered on the question of whether there is any biological reality behind the concept of race. Some scholars argue that the study of human evolution offers us a phylogenetic race concept; others argue that a careful study of human biology shows that race is at best a merely social kind (and, at worst, a pernicious fiction). Who's right?
The Environment
What do ecology and evolutionary theory tell us about the nature of the environment? Is (or was) there a "balance of nature"? Does it make sense to conserve or restore wilderness areas or try to prevent species from going extinct? Do we have any duties to the preserve the environment?
Biodiversity
The question of how to understand the much used term 'biodiversity' inherits many of the difficulties of the species problem but raises new ones as we consider questions of how to assess and prioritize different areas of concern for biodiversity? How is biodiversity related to ecological stability?
Evolutionary Progress & Contingency
Is evolutionary change in any way progressive? Does it, for instance, trend toward greater complexity or is it a directionless wander? How contingent are the products of evolution? What, if anything, does this imply about existence of distinctively biological laws?
In our first (substantive) meeting, we will begin to consider the role that philosophical reflection can take in the context of biology. What is it to do philosophy? What can philosophers offer biologists? How can biologists start to think philosophically? On the other side of this coin, philosophers might wonder how biology (or any of the sciences) should influence their thinking. We’ll start trying to answer these questions by applying a historical perspective to biology. When did it start? What is its subject matter, its assumptions, its methods, its main questions — and how have these changed over time?
Conceptual Issues for the Modern Synthesis
Our second meeting will continue tracing the evolution of biology into the “Modern Synthesis” (of evolutionary biology and population genetics) into the mid-20th century. We’ll focus in particular, on three conceptual thickets: the concept of fitness, the pervasiveness of adaptation (to what extent is natural selection an “optimizing” force?), and the concept of biological function in a mechanistic worldview.
Life & Development
We'll focus on two somewhat distinct topics in this meeting: (1) a big set of questions about how we should think of life — what is it?, how did it arise in the first place? — and (2) whether our understanding of development should unseat the prevalent understanding of evolution and the relationship between genes, organisms, and environment.
"Human Nature"
Continuing the theme of whether genes in any relevant sense "determine" organisms, we'll turn to the perennially-debated question of whether there is such a thing as "human nature". How stands the "nature/nurture" debate these days? How are biological sex and gender related? What is the status of Evolutionary Psychology (a trendy but controversial school of psychological research that often concerns itself with these questions)?
What are Species?
Are species objective features of the world or merely artifacts of how we choose to divide up the world. This is is the first of three meetings we will spend on the so-called "Species Problem" — the problem of how to define species — and a number of associated questions. Our focus in this meeting will be on understanding the basic philosophical issues connected with classification in general and the major schools of thought in biology about how to define species, but we will also consider the challenges posed by recent discoveries concerning microbial evolution. Is there there a single, objective “tree of life”? Can we reasonably treat species as "natural kinds"?
Race
Another area of intense interest and dispute has centered on the question of whether there is any biological reality behind the concept of race. Some scholars argue that the study of human evolution offers us a phylogenetic race concept; others argue that a careful study of human biology shows that race is at best a merely social kind (and, at worst, a pernicious fiction). Who's right?
The Environment
What do ecology and evolutionary theory tell us about the nature of the environment? Is (or was) there a "balance of nature"? Does it make sense to conserve or restore wilderness areas or try to prevent species from going extinct? Do we have any duties to the preserve the environment?
Biodiversity
The question of how to understand the much used term 'biodiversity' inherits many of the difficulties of the species problem but raises new ones as we consider questions of how to assess and prioritize different areas of concern for biodiversity? How is biodiversity related to ecological stability?
Evolutionary Progress & Contingency
Is evolutionary change in any way progressive? Does it, for instance, trend toward greater complexity or is it a directionless wander? How contingent are the products of evolution? What, if anything, does this imply about existence of distinctively biological laws?