Philosophy of Biology

Reading Course, Fall 2008

Overview | Textbook | Reading [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 ]

Overview

An introductory reading course on philosophy of biology, run in collaboration with Richard E. Glor from the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology division of the Department of Biology. Graduate and undergraduate students are both welcome—email me for more information and permission to participate.

Textbook

The main textbook will be:

Sterelny, Kim, and Paul E. Griffiths. 1999. Sex and Death: An Introduction to Philosophy of Biology, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. [AddAll]

We will also be reading journal papers on issues that take our collective fancy.

Reading

Meeting One (Wednesday 10 September)

Sterelny and Griffiths (Chapters 1 and 2).

Optional

Griffiths, Paul. 2008. “Philosophy of Biology”, in Edward N. Zalta (Ed), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, Stanford, 2008. [URI]

Meeting Two (Wednesday 24 September)

Sterelny and Griffiths (Chapter 3).

Sober, Elliott and Lewontin, Richard C. 1982. “Artifact, Cause and Genic Selection”, in Philosophy of Science, Vol. 49, No. 2, June 1982, pp. 157–180. [URI]

Sterelny, Kim and Kitcher, Philip. 1988. “The Return of the Gene”, in The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 85, No. 7, July 1988, pp. 339–361. [URI]

Meeting Three (Wednesday 1 October)

Sterelny and Griffiths (Chapter 4).

Godfrey-Smith, Peter and Lewontin, Richard C. 1982. “The Dimensions of Selection”, in Philosophy of Science, Vol. 60, No. 3, September 1993, pp. 373–395. [URI]

Meeting Four (Wednesday 8 October)

Sterelny and Griffiths (Chapter 5).

Griffiths, Paul E. and Gray, Russell D. 1994. “Developmental Systems and Evolutionary Explanation”, in The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 91, No. 6, June 1994, pp. 277–304. [URI]

Meeting Five (Wednesday 22 October)

Lewontin, Richard C. 1974. “The Analysis of Variance and the Analysis of Causes”, in American Journal of Human Genetics, Vol. 26, No. 3, May 1974, pp. 400–411. [URI]

Northcott, Robert. 2008. “Can ANOVA Measure Causal Strength?”, in The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 83, No. 1, March 2008, pp. 47–55. [URI]

Optional

Downes, Stephen M. 2004. “Heredity and Heritability”, in Edward N. Zalta (Ed), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2004. [URI]

Meeting Six (Wednesday 29 October)

Sterelny and Griffiths (Chapter 8).

Meeting Seven (Wednesday 5 November)

Sober, Elliott and Wilson, David Sloan. 1994. “A Critical Review of Philosophical Work on the Units of Selection Problem”, in Philosophy of Science, Vol. 61, No. 4, December 1994, pp. 534–555. [URI]

Meeting Eight (Wednesday 12 November)

Lloyd, Elisabeth A. and Gould, Stephen Jay. 1993. “Species Selection on Variability”, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 90, No. 2, January 1993, pp. 595–599. [PDF]

Optional

Lloyd, Elisabeth A. 2005. “Units and Levels of Selection”, in Edward N. Zalta (Ed), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2005. [URI]

Gould, Stephen Jay and Lloyd, Elisabeth A. 1999. “Individuality and Adaptation Across Levels of Selection: How Shall We Name and Generalize the Unit of Darwinism?”, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 96, No. 21, October 1999, pp. 11904–11909. [PDF]

Meeting Nine (Wednesday 19 November)

Waters, C. Kenneth. “Why Genic and Multilevel Selection Theories are Here to Stay”, in Philosophy of Science, Vol. 72, No. 2, April 2005, pp. 311–333. [URI]

Updated: 19 November 2008