Philosophy 3334: Philosophy of Biology
Spring, 2018

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

Class meets Tuesday, Thursday, 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:

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 -

Thur, 1/18
- Introduction
Extras

Week 2 -

Tue, 1/23
- Dawkins, ch 1
Thu, 1/25
- Dawkins, ch 2+3
Extras:
- Concepcion, How to read philosophy (the appendix especially)
- Szathmary and Maynard Smith, The Major Evolutionary Transitions
- Szathmary, The First Replicators

Week 3 -

Tue, 1/30
- Dawkins, ch 4+5 (ESS)
Thu, 2/1
- Dawkins, ch 6 (kin selection)
Extras:
- 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 4 -

Tue, 2/6
- Short Essay 1 due
- Dawkins, ch 7+8
Thu, 2/8
- Dawkins, ch 9
Extras:

Week 5 -

Tue, 2/13
- Dawkins, ch 10+12 (reciprocal altruism)
Thu, 2/15
- more on reciprocal altruism
Extras:

Week 6 -

Tue, 2/20
- Assignment 2 due
Thu, 2/22
- NO CLASS - JOEL OUT OF TOWN
Extras:

Week 7 -

Tue, 2/27
- Dawkins, ch 11
Thu, 3/1
- Dawkins, ch 13
Extras:

Week 8 -

Tue, 3/6
- Homework 3 due
- Maynard Smith review of Dawkins The Extended Phenotype
- Epilogue of The Selfish Gene
- 40th anniversary review from the Guardian
Thu, 3/8
- Mid-term in-class Exam BRING A BLUE BOOK (study guide)
Extras:
- Some articles from Richard Dawkins: How a Scientist Changed the way we Think (on Blackboard)

Spring Break - No Class on March 13, March 15

Week 9 -

Tue, 3/20
- Wilson and Hull (Chapters 1+2 of AAHN)
Thu, 3/22
- Cosmides and Tooby (Chapter 6 of AAHN)
Extras:
- Is consciousness a spandrel?

Week 10 -

Tue, 3/27
- Buller (Ch 3)
Thu, 3/29
- Machery and Cashdan (Ch 4+5)
Extras:

Week 11 -

Tue, 4/3
- short essay due
- Sober, Separating Nature and Nurture
- Bouchard (Ch 11)
Thu, 4/5
- Kitcher (Ch 13)
Extras:
- Block, How heritability misleads about race

Week 12 -

Tue, 4/10
- Hacking (Ch 21)
Thu, 4/12
- Mallon and Stitch (Ch 22)
Extras:

Week 13 -

Tue, 4/17
- short essay due
- Bernier, New Division of the Earth
- Appiah, Why there are no human races
- AAA (American Anthropological Association) statement on race
Thu, 4/19
- Haslanger (Ch 26)
Extras:

Week 14 -

Tue, 4/24
- 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)
Thu, 4/26
- Symons (Ch 28)
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)

Week 15 -

Tue, 5/1
- short essay due
- Dupre (Ch 29)
Thu, 5/3
- APA statement on gender differences
- Pinker, Gender, ch18 of The Blank Slate
Extras:
- 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

Week 16 -

Tue, 5/8 (last day of class)
- Fine, from Delusions of Gender: How our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Differences
Extras:
- 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

Final Paper - due Tue, May 15th before 2:00pm