Philosophy 3334: Philosophy of Biology
Summer, 2018

Professor Joel Velasco
Office: 265G (Eng/phil building)
Office Hours: M-F 12:00-1:00 or by appointment

Class meets Monday-Friday (June 5th-July5th), 10:00-11:50 in English and Philosophy 164

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:

The Selfish Gene (40th anniversary edition) by Richard Dawkins. Oxford Landmark Science, 2016. (Any edition after and including the second edition of this book is fine).

Arguing About Human Nature: Contemporary Debates edited by Stephen M. Downes and Eduoard Machery. Routledge, 2013.

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. All readings should be done before the date they are listed here. Come to class on that day prepared to discuss them.

This is a tentative schedule/reading list:

Week 1 -

Tue, 6/5
- Introduction, Dawkins ch 1
Wed
- Dawkins, ch 2+3
- reading questions
Thur
- Dawkins, ch 4+5 (ESS)
- reading questions
Fri
- Dawkins, ch 6 (kin selection)
- reading questions
Extras
- Concepcion, How to read philosophy (the appendix especially)
- Szathmary and Maynard Smith, The Major Evolutionary Transitions
- Szathmary, The First Replicators
- Skyrms, Chapter 4 from Signals (the basics of ESS and evolutionary game thoery)
- Evolutionary Game Theory (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Maynard Smith and Price, The Logic of Animal Conflict
- Maynard Smith, The Theory of Games and the Evolution of Animal Conflicts
- Maynard Smith and Parker, The Logic of Asymmetric Contests

Week 2 -

Monday, 6/11
- Homework 1 due
- Dawkins, ch 7+8
- reading questions
Tue,
- Dawkins, ch 9+10
- reading questions
Wed,
- Dawkins, ch 10+12 (reciprocal altruism)
- reading questions
Thu,
- Dawkins, ch 11+13
- reading questions
Fri,
- Wilson, from On Human Nature (Chapter 1 of AAHN)
- reading questions
Extras:
- Maynard Smith review of Dawkins The Extended Phenotype
- Epilogue of The Selfish Gene
- 40th anniversary review from the Guardian
- Some articles from Richard Dawkins: How a Scientist Changed the way we Think (on Blackboard)
- Brown (Chapter 14 of AAHN)

Week 3 -

Monday, 6/18
- Homework 2 due
- Cosmides and Tooby, Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer (Ch 6)
- reading questions
Tue
- Buller, from Adapting Minds (Ch 3)
- reading questions
Wed
- Amundson, Against Normal Function (Ch 32)
- reading questions
Thu
- Symons, The evolution of human sexualtiy: Sexal Choice (Ch 28)
- reading questions
Fri
- APA statement on gender differences
- Pinker, Gender, ch18 of The Blank Slate
- reading questions
Extras:
- Tooby and Cosmides (Ch 16)
- Is consciousness a spandrel?

Week 4 -

Monday, 6/25
- homework 3
- Dupre (Ch 29)
- Vickers and Kitcher, Pop Sociobiology Reborn
- reading questions
Tue,
- Sober, Separating Nature and Nurture
- Bouchard (Ch 11)
- reading questions
Wed,
- Bateson (Ch 12)
- reading questions
Thu,
- Bernier, New Division of the Earth
- AAA (American Anthropological Association) statement on race
- Appiah, Why there are no human races
- reading questions
Fri,
- Mills, But what are you really?
- reading questions
Extras:
- Haslanger, Ch 26
- 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
- Debate between Steven Pinker and Elizabeth Spelke about sex differences and scientific aptitude: text and video
- 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 -

Monday, 7/2
- Homework 4 (though due on Tues)
- Rosenberg et al., Genetic Structure of Human Populations (Ch 25- but link has figures)
- Bolnick, Individual Ancestry Inference and the reification of race as a biological phenomenon (Ch 27)
- reading questions
Tue,
- Spencer, A racial classification for medical genetics
- reading questions
Wed, July 4th - NO CLASS
Thu, 7/5
- Last day of class
- Kass (ch 37)
- Bostrom (ch 38)
- reading questions
Extras:
- Interview with Richard Lewontin about race and genetics
- Rosenberg, A Population-Genetic Perspective on the Similarities and Differences among Worldwide Human Populations
- Feldman and Lewontin, Race, Ancestry, and Medicine (from Revisiting Race in a Genomic Age - 2008).
- Spencer, A Radical Solution to the Race Problem
- Spencer, A racial classification for medical genetics
- Reich, How genetics is changing our understanding of race (NY Times March 23, 2018)
- Reich, How to talk about 'race' and genetics (NY Times March 30, 2018)
- Klein on race and IQ
- Klein and Harris on race and IQ
- How not to talk about race and genetics (open letter)
- Sullivan, Denying race isn't shutting down racism, its fueling it
- What happens when geneticists talk sloppily about race (the Atlantic)

Final homework -- emailed to me before Sat, July 7th at noon