The Darwinian Revolution

The Darwinian Revolution marks one of the greatest changes in our conception of nature and our place within it, challenging received views on religion, history, culture, teleology, essence, knowledge, and ethics. This class explores the historical and philosophical background to Darwin’s great contribution as well as its consequences for science, society, and beyond.

Darwinian Evolution

• January 7    Syllabus
• January 14    Darwin Origin, Chs. 3 & 4
  Bowler – Evolution (‘A New Classification’ p.  59-63,
  ‘Erasmus Darwin & Lamarck’ p. 76-84, )
  Bowler – Evolution Ch. 6 “The Origins of Darwinism”
• January 21    Bowler – Evolution Ch. 9 “The Eclipse of Darwinism”
  Plutynski – “The Modern Synthesis”
• January 28    Sterelny & Griffiths – “The Received View”
  Laland et. al. & Wray et. al. “Does evolutionary theory need a rethink?”

Darwinian Revolution

• February 4    Bowler – Evolution Ch. 8 “Religious and Moral Problems”
  Excerpts from the Dover Trial
• February 11    Mayr – “The Idea of Teleology”
  The Great Chain of Being        Gould & Lewontin – “The Spandrels of San Marcos…”
• February 18    Mayr – “Typological versus population thinking”
  Population Thinking        Gannett – To Be Announced
• February 25    Dawkins – “Accumulating Small Change”
  Eldredge & Gould – “Punctuated Equilibrium comes of Age.”
• March 4    Dawkins – selections from The Selfish Gene
  Gould – “Fallacy of Selfish Genes”
• March 11    Doolittle – “Uprooting the tree of life”
  (Guest Lecture)        Doolittle – To be Announced

Darwinian Extensions

• March 18    Bowler –Evolution Ch. 10 “The Social Implications of Evolutionism”
• March 25    Laland & Brown – “Evolutionary Psychology”
  Sterelny – The Evolved Apprentice, selections
• April 1    Dawkins – “Memes: the new replicators”
  Laland & Brown – “Gene-culture coevolution”
• April 8    Callebaut – “Beyond Generalized Darwinism”
  Chaisson – “Evolution, Broadly Considered”