Philosophy 6740
The Philosophy of Biology
University of Guelph

Fall 2009

Instructors: 
Stefan Linquist                  
             Ryan Gregory
linquist@uoguelph.ca                            rgregory@uoguelph.ca
Office:  MACK 358                                               SCIE  1450
Hours:  Thursday  1:00-2:00 


Class:
Tues. 7:00- 9:50 P.M.               
MACk 304
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               Course Materials                                                                                       
Back to Biophilosophy.ca

                                      Syllabus  (pdf)
                                                  
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               Online  Readings

1.       R. Trivers (1971), “The evolution of reciprocal altruism”, Quarterly Review of Biology, 46:35-57.

2.       E. Sober & R. Lewontin (1982), “Artifact, cause and genic selection”, Philosophy of Science, 49: 157-180.

3.       K. Sterelny and P. Kitcher (1988), “The return of the gene”, Journal of Philosophy, 85: 339-361.

3.5 E. Sober and D.S. Wilson (1998), Unto Others, Chapter 1, “Altruism as a biological concept”, (17-54).

       4.    S. Okasha (2004), “The ‘averaging fallacy’ and the levels of selection.” Biology and Philosophy 19(2):
       167-184.

        5.      D.S. Wilson, (1989), “Levels of selection: An alternative to individualism in biology and the human sciences”,
       Social Networks
,  11:257-272.

      6.    R.A. Wilson, (2004) “Test cases, resolvability, and group selection: a critical examination of the myxoma case
       Phil Science 71(3): 380.


         7.    Alex Rosenberg (1997), Reductionism’s redux: computing the embryo.” Biology and Philosophy 12: 445–470.

        8.    Laubichler, M and Wagner, G. (2001), "How molecular is molecular developmental biology? A reply to Alex Rosenberg's Reductionism's Redux: Computing the embryo.  Biology and Philosophy, 16: 53-68.

 9.   Paul E. Griffiths and Russell Gray (1994), “Developmental systems and evolutionary explanation.” Journal   
      of Philosophy
91: 277-304
.

10.   Kim Sterelny, Kelly C. Smith and Michael Dickison (1996), “The Extended Replicator”, Biology and
       Philosophy 11: 377-403
.


11.  Gould, S. J. and Lewontin, R. (1979): 'The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Pardigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme' Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 205, pp. 581-98.

12.  E. Mayr, (1983), “How to carry out the adaptationist program?”, The American Naturalist, 121:324-334.

        13.   D. Dennett (1996) Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Chapter 9, “Searching for quality” (229-261).

        14.   J.C. Ahouse (1998), “The Tragedy of a Priori Selectionism: Dennett and Gould on Adaptationism.” Biology
                and Philosophy 13 (3): 359-391

 

        15.   D. Hull (1978), “A matter of individuality”, Philosophy of Science, 45: 335-360.

        16.    D.B. Kitts & D. J. Kitts (1979), “Biological species as natural kinds”, Philosophy of Science 46:613-622.

        17.  E. Sober, (1980), “Evolution, population thinking and essentialism”, Philosophy of Science, 47: 350-383.  

        18.  P. Griffiths (1999) “Squaring the circle: Natural kinds with historical essences”, In Species, New
        interdisciplinary essays
, edited by R. A. Wilson. (p. 209-228).

 

        13.  Erwin (2000), “Macroevolution is more than repeated rounds of microevolution”, Evolution and Development,               2: 78-84.

                        14.  S.J. Gould, (1985), “The paradox of the first tier: an agenda for paleobiolog”, Paleobiology 11: 1–12.

15.  Charlesworth, B. et al. (1982), “A Neo-Darwinian commentary on macroevolution”,  Evolution 36: 474–498. 

                        16.  T. Grantham (2007), “Is macroevolution more than just successive rounds of macroevolution?Palaeontology,                         50(1): 75–85.

                        17.  A.M. Simons (2002), “The continuity of microevolution and macroevolution”, J. of Evolutionary Biology, 15:                             688-701.


18.   R. Dawkins (1992), “Progress”, In Keller and Lloyd, Keywords in Evolutionary Biology.

19.  S.J. Gould (1994), “The history of life on the earth”, Scientific American, Oct: 85-91.

                       20.  T. Shanahan (2000), ‘Evolutionary progress?”, Bioscience, 50(5): 451-459.

                       21.  D. McShea (1996), “Metazoan complexity and its evolution: is there a trend?”, Evolution, 50(2): 477-492.


                       22.  J. Fracchia & R. Lewontin (1999), “Does culture evolve?”, History and Theory 38(4): 187-210.

                       23.  S. Blackmore (2001), “Evolution and memes: The human brain as a selective imitation device”, Cybernetics    
                        and Systems
, 32: 225-255.


                      24.  S. Atran (2001), “The trouble with memes: inference versus imitation in cultural creation”, Human Nature,        
                        12(4), 351–381.

                25.  Moore, John H. (1994), “Putting anthropology back together again: The ethnogenetic critique of cladistic
                        theory”, American Anthropologist 96(4): 925-948.

                      26.  R. Gray; S. Greenhill and R. Ross  (2007), “The pleasures and perils of Darwinizing culture (with phylogenies)”,    
                        Biological Theory
, 2(4): 360–375.


                     27.  R. Boyd & P. Richerson, culture and the evolution of human social instincts

                    28.  R. Masters (1989), “Obligation and the new naturalism”, Biology & Philosophy 4:17-32.

               29.  Robert Richards. 1986. A Defense of Evolutionary Ethics. Biology and Philosophy 1: 265-293.

               30. Lemos, John. 1999. Bridging the Is/Ought Gap with Evolutionary Biology: Is This a Bridge Too Far? The
                        Southern Journal of Philosophy
37: 559-577.


                  
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