Download Summer 2013

Philosophy of Biology – syllabus
MCMP
Dr Cédric Paternotte
[email protected]
Within philosophy of science, philosophy of biology has become a field of its own; its importance is second only
to that of philosophy of physics. Some of its topics are shared with general philosophy of science, although
considered in a biological context: the nature of scientific explanation, the existence of natural kinds, the
reduction of some theories to others, the role of models, etc. However, many topics are also specific to
philosophy of biology: the definition of natural selection, of adaptations, of biological functions; the
classification of organisms; the problem of the levels of selection; as well as recent themes such as evolutionary
psychology.and non-genetic inheritance. Finally, the question of whether biology is a science, and if yes of what
kind, is still widely discussed. The course introduces each of these topics so as to provide a general perspective
on the field.
General Reading:
Evolutionary Biology:
Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker
John Maynard Smith, The Theory of Evolution 3rd Edition
Mark Ridley, Evolution
Philosophy of Biology:
Kim Sterelny and Paul Griffiths, Sex and Death: An introduction to philosophy of biology.
Alex Rosenberg and Daniel W. McShea, Philosophy of biology: A contemporary introduction
Elliot Sober, Philosophy of Biology
Collections of papers:
Elliot Sober (ed.) Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology (3rd edition)
David Hull & Michael Ruse (eds.) The Philosophy of Biology
Alex Rosenberg and Robert Arp (eds.) Philosophy of biology: An anthology
General Philosophy of Science:
Alexander Bird, The Philosophy of Science.
Alexander Rosenberg, The Philosophy of Science
James Ladyman, Understanding Philosophy of Science.
Samir Okasha, Philosophy of Science: A short introduction.
1.
Natural selection: the received view
Ariew, A. (2003). “Ernst Mayr’s ‘Ultimate/Proximate Distiction’ Reconsidered” Biology and Philosophy 18:
553-565.
Dawkins, R. (1986). The Blind Watchmaker. Chs. 1-4.
Dennett, D. (1995). Darwin’s Dangerous Idea. pp.39-52
Maynard Smith, J. (1993) The Theory of Evolution 3rd edition. Chs. 1-2.
Sterelny, K. & Griffiths, P. (1999). Sex and Death. Ch.2.
Ridley, M. (2003). Evolution. Chs. 1 & 4.
Jablonka, E. & Lamb, M. (2005). Evolution in Four Dimensions. Chs. 1-3.
Sober, E. (1984). The Nature of Selection. Ch. 1.
Sober, E. (1993). Philosophy of Biology. Ch. 3.
2.
Adaptation
Amundson, R. (1996).“Historical development of the concept of adaptation”. In Rose, S. & Lauder, G. (eds.)
Adaptation
Dawkins, R. (1982). The Extended Phenotype. Ch.3.
Dennet (1995). Darwin’s Dangerous Idea. pp. 262-282.
Dupre, J. (ed.) (1987). The Latest on the Best. (see the papers by Maynard Smith & Sober).
Hull, D. & Ruse, M. (eds.) (1998). The Philosophy of Biology. Part I.
Godfrey Smith, P. (2001) “Three kinds of adaptationism”. In S. H. Orzack and E. Sober (eds.), Adaptationism
and Optimality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 335-357.
Gould, S. & Lewontin, R. (1979). “The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: A critique of the
adaptationist program” Proc. R. Soc. Lon. B 1979: 581-598. (Also in Sober, Conceptual Issues … p. 7998)
(Special issue on the Spandrels paper in Biology and Philosophy Vol.24, No. 2)
Gould, S. & Vrba, S. (1982). “Exaptation—a missing term in the science of form.” Paleobiology 8: 4-15.
(Reprinted in Hull & Ruse The Philosophy of Biology 52-71).
Lewontin, R. (1978). “Adaptation” in Lewontin & Levins (eds.)
Maynard Smith, J. (1978). “Optimization theory in evolution” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 9:
31-56 (Also in Sober Conceptual Issues … p. 99-130) .
Queller, D.C. (1995) “The spaniels of St. Marx and the Panglossian Paradox: A critique of a rhetorical
programme”. The Quarterly Review of Biology 70: 485-489.
Resnick, D. (1997) “Adaptationism: Hypothesis or heuristic?” Biology and Philosophy 12: 39-50.
Rosenberg and McShea (2008). Philosophy of biology: A contemporary introduction Ch. 3.
Sterelny & Griffiths, Sex and Death. Ch. 10
On functions:
Allen, C. (2003). “Teleological notions in biology”. Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (online).
Amundson & Lauder (1994. “Function Without Purpose”. Biology and Philosophy 9, 443-469. (Also in Hull &
Michael Ruse The Philosophy of Biology)
Ariew, A., Cummins, R. & Perlman, (eds.) (2002). Functions : new essays in the philosophy of psychology and
biology. Oxford : Oxford University Press
Bedau, M. (1992). “Where’s the good in teleology”. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 52: 781-805.
Buller, D. (1998). “Etiological theories of function” . Biology and Philosophy 13: 505-527.
Cummings, R. (1975). “Functional analysis”. J. of Philosophy 72: 741-765.
Davies, P. (2001). Norms of Nature: Naturalism and the nature of functions. Ch.4.
Elster, J. (1994). “Functional explanation”. In Martin, M. & Mcintyre,L. (eds.) Readings in the Philosophy of
the Social Sciences p. 403-415.
Godfrey Smith, P. (1993). “Functions: Consensus without unity”. Pacific Phil. Quarterly, 196-208 . (Also in
Hull & Ruse (eds.) 1998 The Philosophy of Biology 280-292).
Hull & Ruse (1998). Philosophy of Biology Part IV.
Millikan, R. (1989). “In defence of proper functions”. Philosophy of Science 56: 288-302.
Neander, K. (1991). “The teleological notion of function”. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 69: 454-468.
Sterelny & Griffiths, Sex and Death. Ch. 10.
Wright, L. (1973). “Functions”. Philosophical Review 82: 139-168.
3.
The gene’s eye view
Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Ch.1-3.
Dawkins (1982). The Extended Phenotype Chs. 1 & 5-6.
Hull, D. & Ruse, M. (eds.) (1998). The Philosophy of Biology. Part VII.
Lehmann L. and Keller L. (2006). “The evolution of cooperation and altruism - A general framework and a
classification of models”. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 19:1365-1376.
Okasha, S. (2002). “Genetic relatedness and the evolution of altruism”. Philosophy of Science 69: 138-149.
Okasha “Biological Altruism” in The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/altruism-biological/
Sober, E. (1993). Philosophy of Biology. Ch. 4.
Sober, E. (1994). “Did evolution make us psychological egoists? In From a Biological Point of View
Sober, E. (1998). “What is Evolutionary Altruism?” in Hull & Ruse The Philosophy of Biology 459-478.
Sober, E. & Wilson, D. (1998). Unto Others: The evolution and psychology of unselfish behaviour.
Sterelny, K. & Kitcher, P. (1988). “The return of the gene”. Journal of Philosophy 85: 339-361. (Also in Hull &
Ruse The Philosophy of Biology).
Sterelny & Griffiths, Sex and Death. Chs. 3 & 8.
West, S.A., Griffin, A.S. & Gardner, A. (2007). “Social semantics: altruism, cooperation, mutualism, strong
reciprocity and group selection”. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 20, 415-432.
In Philosophy 53: 206, 54:210, 56: 218 there is a debate on “selfish genes”.
4.
Levels of selection
Brandon, R. (1998). “The levels of selection” In Hull & Ruse Philosophy of Biology.
Brandon, R. & Burian, R. (eds.) (1984). Genes, Organisms, Populations : controversies over the units of
selection.
Dawkins, R. (1982). The Extended Phenotype Ch. 6.
Hull & Ruse (1998). The Philosophy of Biology Part III.
Lehmann L., Keller L., West S., and Roze D. (2007). “Group selection and kin selection: Two concepts but one
process”. PNAS 104:6736-6739.
Lloyd, E. (2005). “Units and Levels of Selection” in Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/selection-units/
Okasha, S. (2001). “Why won’t the group selection controversy go away?” British Journal for the Philosophy of
Science 52: 25-50.
Okasha, S. (2004). “The averaging fallacy and the levels of selection.” Biology and Philosophy 19: 167-184.
Okasha, S. (2006). Evolution and the Levels of Selection.
Okasha, S. (2008). “Units and Levels of Selection”. in S. Sarkar and A. Plutynski (eds.) A Companion to the
Philosophy of Biology, Oxford: Blackwell.
Sober & Wilson (1998). Unto Others Part 1
Sterelny, K. (1996).“The return of the group” Philosophy of Science 63: 562- 84.
Sterelny & Griffiths. Sex and Death. Chs. 3 & 8.
West, S.A., Griffin, A.S. & Gardner, A. (2008). Social semantics: how useful has group selection been? Journal
of Evolutionary Biology 21, 374-385.
West, S.A., Griffin, A.S. & Gardner, A. (2007). “Social semantics: altruism, cooperation, mutualism, strong
reciprocity and group selection”. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 20, 415-432.
Wilson . D. “Levels of Selection: An Alternative to Individualism in Biology and the Human Sciences” In
Sober Conceptual Issues, or in Social Networks 11 (1989) 257-272.
5.
Organisms
Wilson, R. (2007). “The biological notion of individuality” in the Stanford encyclopaedia of philosophy
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/biology-individual/
6.
Species
Dupre, J. (1993). The Disorder of Things Ch. 2.
Ereshefsky, M. (1992). “Eliminative pluralism”. Philosophy of Science, 59 (4), 671-690. (Also in Hull and Ruse
(eds.) 1998 The Philosophy of Biology p.348-368).
Hull, D. (1997). “The ideal species concept and why we can’t get it” in Claridge et al (eds.) Species: The unit of
biodiversity.
Hull & Ruse (1998). Philosophy of Biology Part V.
Kitcher, P. (1984). “Species”. Philosophy of Science 51: 308-333.
Maynard Smith (1993). The Theory of Evolution 3rd edition. Ch. 13.
Okasha, S. (2002). “Darwinian Metaphysics: Species and the question of essentialism”. Synthese 131: 191-213.
Ridley, M. (2004). Evolution 3rd Edition Ch. 13.
Sober, E. (2006). Conceptual Issues, Section IX.
Sterelny, K. (1999). “Species as Ecological Mosaics” in Wilson, R. (ed.) Species: New Interdisciplinary
Essays. pp. 119-138.
Sterelny & Griffiths, Sex and Death Ch. 9.
Wilson, R. (ed.) 1999 Species: new interdisciplinary essays.
On systematics and classification:
Felsenstein, J. 1978. “Cases in which parsimony and compatibility methods will be positively misleading”
Systematic Zoology 27: 401-410.
Haber M.H. (2008) “Phylogenetic Inference.” In Blackwell Companion to the Philosophy of History and
Historiography, Avi Tucker, ed. Blackwell. 231-242
Ridley, M. (1986). Evolution and Classification : the reformation of cladism
Ridley, M. (2004). Evolution 3rd Edition Chs. 15 & 16.
Sober, E. (1988). Reconstructing the Past : parsimony, evolution, and inference.
Sober, E. (1993). Philosophy of Biology Ch. 6.
Sober, E. (1994). “Let’s Razor Ockham’s Razor” in: Sober, E. From a biological point of view: essays in
evolutionary philosophy.
Sober, E. (2006) Conceptual Issues … 3rd Edition Part X
Sterelny & Griffiths, Sex and Death Section 9.3.
7.
Reductionism
Griffiths, P. & Neumann-Held, E. (1999) “The many faces of the gene”. Bioscience 49: 656-662.
Maynard Smith, J. (1993). The Theory of Evolution. Ch.3.
Moss, L. (2003). What Genes Can’t Do Ch. 1.
Kitcher, P. (1982). “Genes”. BJPS 33: 331-359.
Kitcher, P. (1984). “1953 and all That. A Tale of Two Sciences”. Philosophical Review, Vol. 93, No. 3 (Jul.,
1984), pp. 335-373. (Also in Sober (ed) Conceptual Issues).
Laubichler, M. & Wagner, G. (2001). “How molecular is molecular biology?”. Biology and Philosophy 16: 5368
Machamer, P. et al (2000). “Thinking about mechanisms”. Philosophy of Science 67: 1-25.
Rheinberger, H. et al (eds.) (2000). The Concept of the Gene in Development and Evolution : Historical and
epistemological perspectives.
Rheinberger, H. 2004 “Gene” in Stanford E. of Phil.
Rosenberg, A. Darwinian Reductionism.
Sarkar, S. (1998). Genetics and Reductionism. Ch. 1 (reviewed by Okasha in BJPS 2000, 51: 181-185).
Sober, E. (2006). Conceptual Issues …Part VII.
Sterelny & Griffiths, Sex and Death Chs. 6 & 7.
Waters, K. “Why the antireductionist consensus won’t survive the case of classical Mendelian genetics” in
Sober (ed) Conceptual Issues.
8.
Biology as a science
Beatty, J. (1997). “Why do biologists argue like they do?”. Philosophy of Science 64: Supplement.
Brandon, R. (1997). “Does biology have laws?”. Philosophy of Science 64: Supplement
Dupre, J. (1993). The Disorder of Things.
Matthen, M. & Ariew, A. (2002). “Two Ways of Thinking about Fitness and Natural Selection”. The Journal of
Philosophy, Vol. 99, No. 2 (Feb., 2002), pp. 55-83.
Mills, S. & Beatty, J. (1979). “The Propensity Interpretation of Fitness”. Philosophy of Science 46: 263-286.
(Also in Sober (2006) Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology 3rd Edition. p. 3-24 ).
Mitchell, S. (1997). “Pragmatic laws”. Philosophy of Science 64: Supplement.
Rosenberg, A. (1994). Instrumental Biology, or, The Disunity of Science.
Sober, E. (2006). “The Two Faces of Fitness” in Sober (ed) Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology 3rd
Edition. pp. 25-38.
Sober, E. (2006). Conceptual Issues … Part VI.
Sterelny & Griffiths, Sex and Death Section 15.2.
9.
Non-genetic inheritance
Dawkins, R. (1982). The Extended Phenotype.
Downes, S. (2004). “Heredity and Heritability” In Stanford E. of Phil.
Griffiths, P. & Gray, R. 1998 “Developmental systems and evolutionary explanations”.
In Hull & Ruse (eds.) 1998 The Philosophy of Biology 117-145.
Jablonka, E. & Lamb, M. (2005). Evolution in Four Dimensions Parts II and III.
Jablonka, E. & Lamb, M. (2007). “Précis of Evolution in Four Dimensions”. Behavioral and Brain Sciences
30(4), 353-365.
Jablonka & Raz (2009). “Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance: prevalence, mechanisms, and implications
for the study of heredity and evolution”. Quarterly Review Of Biology 84: 131-176.
Mameli, M. (2004). “Non-genetic selection and non-genetic inheritance”. BJPS 55: 35-71.
Odlee-Smee, F. et al (1996). “Niche construction”. American Naturalist 147: 641-648.
Reviews and commentaries on Niche Construction in Biology and Philosophy (2005) 20:1
10. Evolutionary psychology
Barkow, J., Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (eds.) (1992). The Adapted mind : Evolutionary psychology and the
generation of culture (Introduction & Cosmides & Tooby “The psychological foundations of culture”).
Boyd, R. & Richerson, P. (2005). Not by Genes Alone: How culture transformed human evolution.
Brown, Donald (1991). “Human Universals”.
Buller, D. “Evolutionary Psychology: A critique”.
Buller, D. (2006). Adapting Minds: Evolutionary psychology and the persistent quest for human nature. For a
critique of Buller on cheat detection, see Cosmides et al (2005). “Detecting Cheaters”. Trends in
Cognitive Sciences, 9(11), 505-506.
Carruthers, P. (2006). “Simple heuristics meet massive modularity”. In Carruthers, Laurence, and Stich (eds.),
The Innate Mind 2: culture and cognition. OUP.
Carruthers, P. (2008). Precis of his The Architecture of the Mind: Massive Modularity and the Flexibility of
Thought with commentaries and replies. Mind and Language 23(3).
Cosmides, L.& Tooby, J. (1987). “From Evolution to Behavior: Evolutionary Psychology As The Missing
Link” In Dupré The Latest on the Best: 277-306.
Daly & Wilson 1988 Homicide.
Dennett, D. (1995). Darwin’s Dangerous Idea pp. 481-492.
Grantham, T. & Nichols, S. (1999). “Evolutionary Psychology: Ultimate explanations and Panglossian
predictions”. In Hardcastle, V. (ed.) Where biology meets psychology : Philosophical essays.
Kitcher, P. (1985). Vaulting Ambition: Sociobiology and the quest for human nature.
Laland, K. & Brown, J. (2002). Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary perspectives on human behaviour.
Lewontin, R., Rose, R. & and Kamin, L. (1984). Not in our genes : Biology, ideology, and human nature.
Samuels, R (2006). “Is the mind massively modular?”. In Stainton, R. Contemporary Debates in Cognitive
Science, Blackwell.
Smith et al (2001). “Controversies in the evolutionary social sciences: A guide for the perplexed”. Trends in
ecology and evolution 16:128-134.
Sober, Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology 3rd Edition CH9 & 10, pp. 175-214.
Sterelny, K. (1992). “Evolutionary explanations of human behaviour”. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 70:
156-173.
Sterelny, K. (2003). Thought in a Hostile World.
Sterelny & Griffiths. Sex and Death Ch. 13.
Tooby & Cosmides. “Toward Mapping the Evolved Functional Organization of Mind and Brain”.
Whitehouse, H. (ed.) (2001). The Debated Mind : Evolutionary psychology versus ethnography.
11. Evolutionary game theory
Alexander, Jason McKenzie
Evolutionary Game Theory.
Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/game-evolutionary/
Alexander, J. (2007). The Structural Evolution of Morality.
Alexander, J. & Skyrms, B. (1999). “Bargaining With Neighbours - Is justice contagious?”. Journal of
Philosophy 96: 588-598.
Binmore, K. (1994). Game Theory and the Social Contract. Volume I: Playing Fair.
Binmore, K. (1998). Game Theory and the Social Contract. Volume 2: Just Playing.
Bradie (1999). “Evolutionary Game Theory Meets the Social Contract.” Biology and Philosophy 14: 603-613.
Boyd & Richerson (2005). Not by Genes Alone.
Danielson, P. (ed.) 1998 Modelling Rationality, Morality and Evolution.
D'Arms, J., Batterman, R. & Górny, K. (1998). “Game Theoretic Explanations and the Evolution of Justice” .
Philosophy of Science 65: 76-102.
Ernst, Z. (2001). “Explaining the Social Contract”. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 52: 1-24.
Hargreaves Heap & Varoufakis (2004). Game Theory. 2nd Ed Chs. 1, 2, 5 & 6.
Little, D. (1991). Varieties of Social Explanation. Ch. 3.
Mesoudi, Whiten & Laland (2006). “Towards a Unified Science of Cultural Evolution” (+ comments and
replies) Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29: 329-83.
Mitchell, M. (1996). An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms.
Samuelson, L. (1997). Evolutionary Games and Equilibrium Selection.
Sen, A (1977). “Rational Fools” Philosophy & Public Affairs 6: 317-44.
Sperber, D. (1997). Explaining Culture: A naturalistic approach.
Skyrms, B. (1996). Evolution of the Social Contract.
Skyrms, B. (1999). Precis by Skyrms, multiple reviews and replies. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research
59: 217-254.
Skyrms, B. (2000). “Game theory, rationality and the evolution of the social contract” in Katz, L. (ed.)
Evolutionary Origins of Morality.
Skyrms, B. (2004). The Stag Hunt and the Evolution of Social Structure.
Vanderschraff, P. (2000). “Game Theory, Evolution, and Justice”. Philosophy and Public Affairs 28: 325-358.