Philosophy 3334: Philosophy of Biology
Spring, 2016

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

Class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-1:50 in English and Philosophy 163

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 -

Thur, 1/21
- Introduction
Extras

Week 2 -

Tue, 1/26
- PGS chapter 1 (here if you don't have the book yet)
- Concepcion, How to read philosophy (the appendix)
- Machery, A Plea for Human Nature (bring to class for in-class exercise)
Thu, 1/28
- Plutynski, Should Intelligent Design be Taught in Public School Science Classrooms?
Extras:
- Philosophy of Biology (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Nova, Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial

Week 3 -

Tue, 2/2
- PGS chapter 2
Thu, 2/4
- Beatty, The Evolutionary Contingency Thesis
Extras:
- Sober, Two Outbreaks of Lawlessness in Recent Philosophy of Biology

Week 4 -

Tue, 2/9
- PGS chapter 3
- short essay due (sample essay)
Thu, 2/11
- Mills and Beatty, The propensity interpretation of fitness
Extras:
- 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 5 -

Tue, 2/16
- PGS chapter 4
Thu, 2/18
- Millikan, In defense of proper functions
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)

Week 6 -

Tue, 2/23
- PGS chapter 5
- short essay due (sample essay)
Thu, 2/25
- Clarke, The Problem of Biological Individuality
Extras:
- 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 Multiple Realizability of Biological Individuality

Week 7 -

Tue, 3/1
- PGS chapter 7 (Species and the Tree of Life - we will come back to chapter 6)
Thu, 3/3
- 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)
Extras:

Week 8 -

Tue, 3/8
- PGS ch 9 (Information)
- third short essay due
Thu, 3/10
- Mid-term in-class Exam (practice sheet)
  BRING BLUE BOOK
Extras:

Spring Break - No Class on March 15, March 17

Week 9 -

Tue, 3/22
- PGS chapter 6 (genes)
Thu, 3/24
- Kaplan, Misinformation, Misprepresentation, and Misuse of Human Behavioral Genetics Research
Extras:
- Lewontin, The Analysis of Variance and the Analysis of Causes
- Sober, Separating Nature and Nurture
- Steele, Thin Ice (about stereotype threat)
- Block, How heritability misleads about race

Week 10 -

Tue, 3/29
- 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, 3/31
- Levy, ch 5 of What Makes us Moral?
Extras:
- Holcolmb and Byron, Sociobiology from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Leeds and Dusek, Editor's Note (on Sociobiology)
- Sociobiology Study Group of Science for the People, Sociobiology: Another Biological Determinism
- Wilson, Reply to SSG note above
- Burian, Human Sociobiology and Genetic Determinism

Week 11 -

Tue, 4/5
- short essay due
- PGS chapter 8
Thu, 4/7
- Dawkins, Genesmanship (Chap 6 from The Selfish Gene)
- Dawkins - endnotes for chap 6
Extras:

Week 12 -

Tue, 4/12
- Levy, The Evolution of Morality, ch2 of What Makes us Moral?
Thu, 4/14
- Prinz, Is Morality Innate?
Extras:

Week 13 -

Tue, 4/19
- short essay due
- APA statement on gender differences
- Fausto-Sterling, Chapters 1+2 of Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality
Thu, 4/21
- Pinker, Gender, ch18 of The Blank Slate
Extras:
- The rest of the Fausto-Sterling book (on Blackboard)
- 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

Week 14 -

Tue, 4/26
- Fine, from Delusions of Gender: How our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Differences
- Fine, a video lecture on her book
Thu, 4/28
- AAA statement on race
- Haslanger, (What) Are They? (What) Do We Want Them to Be?
Extras:
- 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
- Debate between Steven Pinker and Elizabeth Spelke about sex differences and scientific aptitude: text and video

Week 15 -

Tue, 5/3
- short essay due
- Glasgow, A Theory of Race chapter 1
Thu, 5/5
- Kitcher, Race, Ethnicity, Biology, Culture
Extras:
- Appiah, Why There are No Human Races

Week 16 -

Tue, 5/10 (last day of class)
- Winther, The Genetic Reification of “Race”? A story of Two Mathematical Methods
Extras:
- Spencer, Philosophy of Race Meets Population Genetics
- Interview with Richard Lewontin about race and genetics

Final paper due Tues, May 17th at 2:00.