Philosophy 3334: Philosophy of Biology
Summer, 2017

Professor Joel Velasco
Office: 265G (Eng/phil building)
Office Hours: T, W, TH 2:00-3:00 or by appointment

Class meets Monday-Friday, 2:00-3:50 in English and Philosophy 264

All of the boilerplate information such as course policies and the grading scheme can be found on the syllabus. The readings for the course are below.

Syllabus

Required Books:

There is one required book - Philosophy of Biology by Peter Godfrey-Smith. The remainder of the readings will be articles that I will provide for you online. All class assignments and any other readings will be found on this website. You should check this website reguarly for updates and bring copies of the assigned readings to class.

This is a tentative schedule/reading list:

Week 1 -

Tue, 6/6
- Machery, A Plea for Human Nature (bring to class for in-class exercise)
- Hull, On Human Nature
Wed, 6/7
- Concepcion, How to read philosophy (the appendix)
- PGS chapter 1 (here if you don't have the book yet)
- Plutynski, Should Intelligent Design be Taught in Public School Science Classrooms?
Thu, 6/8
- PGS chapter 2
- Beatty, The Evolutionary Contingency Thesis
Fri, 6/9
- short essay due (sample essay)
- PGS chapter 3
- Mills and Beatty, The propensity interpretation of fitness
Extras
- Philosophy of Biology (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Nova, Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial
- Sober, Two Outbreaks of Lawlessness in Recent Philosophy of Biology
- Evolution (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Natural Selection (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Fitness (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Bethell, Darwin's Mistake
- Gould, Darwin's Untimely Burial (response to Bethell)

Week 2 -

Mon, 6/12
- PGS chapter 4
- Millikan, In defense of proper functions
Tue, 6/13
- short essay due
- PGS chapter 5
- Haber, Colonies are individuals: revisiting the superorganism revival
Wed, 6/14
- PGS chapter 7 (Species and the Tree of Life - we will come back to chapter 6)
- Velasco, Species Concepts Should not Conflict with Evolutionary History, But Often Do
- Velasco, The Tree of Life (from the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Darwin and Evolutionary Thought)
Thu, 6/15
- third short essay due
- PGS ch 9 (Information)
- Szathmary and Maynard Smith, The Major Evolutionary Transitions
Fri, 6/16
- Mid-term in-class Exam (practice sheet)
  BRING BLUE BOOK
Extras
- Cummins, Functional Analysis
- Griffiths, Functional Analysis and Proper Functions
- Lisa Lloyd's page about her book, The Case of the Female Orgasm
- Lewontin, Adaptation (from The Dialectical Biologist)
- The Biological Notion of an Individual (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Janzen, What are Dandelions and Aphids?
- Gilbert et al. A Symbiotic View of Life: We Have Never Been Individuals
- Clarke, The Problem of Biological Individuality
- Clarke, The Multiple Realizability of Biological Individuality
- Wilson and Sober, Reviving the Superorganism

Week 3 -

Mon, 6/19
- PGS Chapter 6
- Waters, Genes Made Molecular
Tue, 6/20
Wed, 6/21
- Wilson, E.O. from Sociobiology
- Barash, The Sociobiology of Human Behavior: Extrapolations and Specultations (Chapter 10 of Sociobiology and Behavior)
- Time Magazine, Why you do what you do
Thu, 6/22
- Sociobiology Study Group of Science for the People, Sociobiology: Another Biological Determinism
- Wilson, Reply to SSG note above
- Burian, Human Sociobiology and Genetic Determinism
Fri, 6/23
- Short Essay Due
- PGS chapter 8
- Dawkins, Genesmanship (Chap 6 from The Selfish Gene)
- Dawkins - endnotes for chap 6
Extras
- Lewontin, The Analysis of Variance and the Analysis of Causes
- Sober, Apportioning Causal Responsibility
- Kaplan, Misinformation, Misprepresentation, and Misuse of Human Behavioral Genetics Research
- Steele, Thin Ice (about stereotype threat)
- Block, How heritability misleads about race
- Biological Altruism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Sober, What is Evolutionary Altruism
- Skyrms, Chapter 4 from Signals (introduction to evolutionary game theory)
- Axelrod and Hamilton, The Evolution of Cooperation
- Skyrms, Evolution and the Social Contract (Tanner Lecture)
- Skyrms, The Stag Hunt
- Henrich et al, In search of Homo economicus: Experiments in 15 small scale societies
- Gintis et al. Explaining altruism in humans

Week 4 -

Mon, 6/26
- Levy, The Evolution of Morality, ch2 of What Makes us Moral?
Tue, 6/27
- Prinz, Is Morality Innate?
Wed, 6/28
- Short Essay Due
- IN CLASS EXAM (study guide)
Thu, 6/29
- Fausto-Sterling, Chapters 1+2 of Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality
Fri, 6/30
- APA statement on gender differences
- Pinker, Gender, ch18 of The Blank Slate
Extras
- Roughgarden, Chapters 1-4 of Evolution's Rainbow (about sex and gender in animals)
- Debate between Steven Pinker and Elizabeth Spelke about sex differences and scientific aptitude: text and video
- New York Times on sex testing female athletes
- Richardson, When Gender Criticism Becomes Standard Scientific Practice
- Thornhill, R. and Palmer, C., Intro and Conclusion of A Natural History of Rape [the underlining is not mine]
- Bering, Jesse, Darwin's Rape Whistle
- Lloyd, E. Science Gone Astray: Evolution and Rape
- Vickers, A. L. and Kitcher, P., Pop Sociobiology Reborn: The Evolutionary Psychology of Sex and Violence
- Coyne (and Myers) response to Bering
- Fine, from Delusions of Gender: How our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Differences
- Fine, a video lecture on her book
- Rippon, Sexing the Brain: How Neuro Nonsense joined Psychobabble to 'Keep Women in their Place'
- Fine, Neuroscience, Gender, and “Development To” and “From”: The Example of Toy Preferences

Week 5 -

Mon, 7/3
- Watch in class part I and 2 of Race: The Power of an Illusion
Tue, 7/4
- NO CLASS
Wed, 7/5
- Short Essay Due
- AAA statement on race
- Glasgow, A Theory of Race chapter 1
- Appiah, Why There are No Human Races
Thu, 7/6
- Feldman and Lewontin, Race, Ancestry, and Medicine (from Revisiting Race in a Genomic Age - 2008).
- Spencer, A Radical Solution to the Race Problem
- LAST DAY OF CLASS
Extras

Final Take Home Exam due Saturday, July 8th, 5:00pm (Submit through Blackboard)