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Course:
Phil 4210
Topics in Advanced Philosophy of Science: Darwin and Psychology
Instructors:
Carl Craver [email protected] Office hours: By Appointment
Galand Allen [email protected] Office hours: By Appointment
Course Description:
This course serves two purposes: 1) as an historical and philosophical introduction to the theory
of evolution by natural selection; 2) as an historical and philosophical investigation of the
applications of evolutionary in psychology and psychiatry. Primary source material will be
combined with contemporary historical and philosophical secondary literature to bring Darwin’s
text into live contemporary discussions in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of mind.
The course will combine a broad survey of a theory with detailed explorations of divisive topics
in contemporary philosophy.
Course Books:
James T. Costa (Annotator) The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the first Edition of On the Origin of
Species. Belknap Press: Harvard.
Garson, J. The Biological Mind. Routledge.
Gould, S. J. The Misemeasure of Man. W.W. Norton: New York.
Course Requirements:
Semester grades will be based primarily on a single term project to be presented in the form of a
paper. Students will produce two drafts with the aim to writing something publishable on the
topic of their choice. They are encouraged to discuss their topic with the course instructors and
are restricted to topics related to the themes discussed in class and the readings. Students will
produce two drafts of this paper.
Paper Draft 1 (5-10 pages): Students will turn in a draft of their paper. This will contain,
minimally:
a) an introduction that identifies a question or a problem, motivates the reader to be
interested in the problem, and states a thesis with respect to the problem.
b) a draft or outline of how the paper will develop the problem.
c) a working bibliography of texts to be consulted in pursuing the problem.
Maximally, the draft is the student’s best effort at a final paper.
DUE NOV 4
Paper Draft 2 (15-20 pages):
Papers will be prepared according to the standards of the Philosophy of Science or the
Journal of the History of Biology (see Instructions to Authors). Papers will be evaluated by
their clarity of exposition, the depth of research, the reach of their curiosity, the generosity
of their interpretations, and the persuasiveness of the arguments.
DUE DEC 2
Plagiarism in any form will result in a failing grade for the semester. Cases will be referred
to the judicial board.
Final Presentation. Students will share their paper topics with each other during the last
class meeting.
Reading Presentation. Students will sign up to present a single non-Darwin reading during
the semester to present to the class and about which to lead a discussion. This material is
to be presented professionally with handouts or Powerpoint presentations as necessary.
Attendance and Participation: Students are expected to do the reading for this course and
to show up ready to discuss the material. Class should take on the feeling of a workshop
rather than a lecture hall. Merely showing up for class is sufficient to receive a C. We
expect you to participate in ways that reflect your interest. We ask that you leave
electronic devices, internet connections, telephones off and out of sight during class time
so that we can focus on the material before us.
Part 1: Conceptual and Historical Foundations of Darwin’s Theory.
Aug 26 Orientations
No Reading
Class purpose and requirements
The Species Problem: History and Philosophy
18th/19th Century Natural History: Exploration and Colonialism
Taxonomy for Life: Linnaeus, Great Chains, and Evolution
Geological Background: Catastrophism and Uniformitarianism
A Darwinian Revolution?
Sep 2 Origin Day I
Reading: Chapters 1-3
The Voyage of the Beagle
Darwin as naturalist and geologist
Darwin’s Method: Origin of the Coral Reef Atols
Genesis of Natural Selection: Malthus and Political Economics
Chapters 1-3 Discussion
Sep 9 Origin Day 2
Reading: Chapters 4-7; 9-10
Discussion of 4-7
Sources of Variation
The Theory of Natural Selection
Is Natural Selection a Tautology?
Is Natural Selection a Theory?
Problems for Darwin’s theory
Explanation of Instinct
Geological/Archeological Evidence
Sep 16 Origin Day 3
Readings: Chapters 11-14
Speciation and Geographic Distribution
Reception of the Origin (1860-1900)
The Morphological Research Program
Neo-Darwinism and the Problem of “Natural Selection”
Sep 23 Adaptationism, Function, and Optimality
Readings: Gould and Lewontin (OL) “The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian
Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Program," proceedings of the royal
Society of London, series b, vol. 205, no. 1161 (1979), pp. 581- 598. (reprint)
Eliot Sober: Evolution and Optimality: Feathers, Bowling Balls, and the Thesis of
Adaptationism. Philosophical Exchange. 26: 41- 51.
Does natural selection optimize?
Does natural selection imbue the world with purpose?
Sep 30 The Synthesis: Mechanism and Statistics
Readings: Smocovitis (1992) “Unifying Biology: The Evolutionary
Synthesis and Evolutinoary Biology” Journal for the History of
Biology 25:1-65
Ariew, A. (Draft) Four Pillars of Statisticalism.
What sort of scientific achievement was the synthesis?
Reduction and its discontents.
Is natural selection a mechanism?
Is there a distinctively mathematical component to selective explanation?
Part II Darwin’s Idea Applied to the Mind
Oct 7 Human Evolution and Psychology
Readings: Descent of Man, Chapters 2, 3, and 21
Hull “On Human Nature” (OL) Proceedings Philosophy of Science Assn. 1986. 3-16.
Garson, Chapter 3 “Evolution and Psychology”
What’s left of human nature without essentialism?
Darwin’s puzzles about morality and their argumentative role in evolutionary theory.
Extending Darwin to Psychology: A survey.
Oct 14 Eugenics
Background: Secondary Sources
ALLEN, G.E. "Eugenics as an International Movement,"
International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral
Sciences (Oxford: Elsevier, 2015): Vol II: 224-232.
BOLLER, Paul F. "An Evolutionary View of Society"
Chapter 3 of American Thought in Transition: The Impact
of Evolutionary Naturalism, 1865-1900. (Chicago: RandMcNally, 1971): 47-69.
Primary Sources
Sumner, William Graham, "What Social Classes Owe to Each Other." (New York, Harper,
1883: 42 pp.
Pearl, Raymond, “Breeding Better Men,” The World’s Work (January, 1908): 9818-9824.
Davenport, Charles B. “Research in Eugenics,” Science 54 (No. 1400, Oct, 1921): 1-6.
Goddard, Henry H. “Heredity of Feeblemindedness,” Eugenics Record Office Bulletin No. 1
(1911): 14 pp.
Davenport, Charles B. “Race Crossing in Jamaica,” Scientific Monthly 27 (Sept., 1928): 225238,
Grant, Madison. “Race and Democracy”, Chapter 1 of The Passing of the Great Race (N.Y.,
Scribners, 1916): 3-51 [Optional]
Carr-Saunders, A.M. “A Criticism of Eugenics,” The Eugenics Review 5 (1914): 214-233.
Muller, Hermann J. “The Dominance of Economics over Eugenics,” Scientific Monthly 37
(July, 1933): 40-47.
Oct 21Emotions
Readings: The Expression of the Emotions in animals and Man Ch. 14
Richards: “Darwin on Mind, Morals and Emotions” in Cambridge
Companion to Darwin. eds. J. Hodge and G. Radick (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2003), pp. 92-115
Garson Ch. 4
Oct 28 Altruism
Readings:
Darwin: Descent of man, Chapters 4 and 5
Garson 7-44
Kurzban, Robert, Maxwell N. Burton-Chellew, and Stuart A. West.
2015. “The Evolution of Altruism in Humans.” Annual Review of
Psychology 66 (1): 575–99. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010814015355.
Darwin’s role for the puzzle of altruism.
The scientific puzzle of altruism today.
The moral puzzle of altruism.
Nov 4 Mismeasure of Man: Contemporary Debates
Readings: Gould Mismeasure 1-3
Lewis, Jason E., David DeGusta, Marc R. Meyer, Janet M. Monge,
Alan E. Mann, and Ralph L. Holloway. 2011. “The Mismeasure of
Science: Stephen Jay Gould versus Samuel George Morton on
Skulls and Bias.” PLoS Biol 9 1- 6.
Weisberg, M. (2014) “Remeasuring Man,” Evolution and
Development, 6: 166–178.
Kaplan, J.M., M. Pigliucci, and J. A. Banta. 2015. “Gould on Morton,
Redux: What Can the Debate Reveal about the Limits of Data?”
Studies in History Sciences, Genomics and Philosophy of Race, 52 (August): 22–31.
Nov. 11 Evolutionary Psychology
Readings:
S.J. Downes “Evolutionary Psychology” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
J. Panksepp and A. Panksepp “Seven Sins of Evolutionary Psychology.”
Tooby and Cosmides “The Psychological Foundations of Culture.”
Nov. 18 Evolutionary Psychiatry
Readings: Garson Chapter 8
Murphy, Chapter 8 “Evolutionary Explanations of Psychopathology”
{Perhaps Harrington Double Brain/Sullaway chapter on evolution}
Evolutionary Mismatch Hypotheses
Constraints on Just-So Stories
Nov 25 Thanksgiving
Dec 2 Student Presentations