Download Explanation and Mechanisms in Biology

Sex and Death
An Introduction to
Philosophy of Biology
Eric Oberheim
HUB SS2005
What is Philosophy of Biology?
Why is Biology relevant to Philosophy?
1. Because Biology helps explain
what we are
how we came to be
and our relation to the natural world.
What is Philosophy of Biology?
Why is Biology relevant to Philosophy?
2. Because Biology has theoretical, moral
and social significance.
Knowledge about living organisms is
relevant to ethical, cosmological, and
religious issues.
What is Philosophy of Biology?
Why is Biology relevant to Philosophy?
Examples:
1. Theory (evolution)
2. Bio technologies (health, food)
3. Political Policies (sociobiology, eugenics)
What is Philosophy of Biology?
Some Philosophy of Biology:
Examples:
Herbert Spencer
Friedrich Nietzsche
Charles Sanders Pierce
Bertrand Russell and J.J.C. Smart
Contemporary Bioethics
What is Philosophy of Biology?
Two types of philosophy of biology:
Norms and Descriptions
1. Biology generates conceptual problems
2. Biology generates ethical issues
What is Philosophy of Biology?
Warning: The Naturalistic Fallacy
Fallacious argument from is to ought.
1. Biological descriptions, by themselves,
cannot support arguments to normative
conclusions.
2. Normative premises are necessary for
arguing validly to conclusions about how
something ought to be.
What is Philosophy of Biology?
Warning: The Naturalistic Fallacy
3. is a limit on the ethical significance
of pure biology.
4. Just because something is, or has been, so
does not mean that should be like that.
5. Such arguments are especially relevant in
situations effecting events controlled by
human actions.
What is Philosophy of Biology?
Warning: The Naturalistic Fallacy
Example: The church is accused of using
fallacious arguments from authority.
‘Just because sex is for reproduction,
it should not be used merely for fun.’
What is Philosophy of Biology?
Warning: The Naturalistic Fallacy
6. However, there are Morally Relevant Facts
Example: Human Economic Practices cause
extinctions of species, decrease in disparity,
and deprecation of ecosystems. The potentially catastrophic Sixth Great Extinction is
man-made.
Note: Biotechnologies potentially part of
solution to morally sensitive issues.
What is Philosophy of Biology?
Current Focus: Evolutionary Theory
Conceptual and ethical problems generated by
how we understand ourselves and each other
in light of Theory of Evolution
What is Philosophy of Biology?
Five leading questions:
I. What is human nature?
II. Can we be altruistic?
III. To what extent is our behavior genetically
programmed?
IV. What should conservationists conserve?
V. How does Biology bear on psychology and
the social science?
What is Philosophy of Biology?
1. HUMAN NATURE
What are human beings?
Human beings are homo sapiens
What are homo sapiens?
Homo sapiens is a species
What are species?
Species are groups of organisms.
What is Philosophy of Biology?
1. HUMAN NATURE
What are groups of organisms?
Aristotle
Taxonomic Classifications are based
on Essential Property of Individuals
Example: Periodic Table.
Essential property of Oxygen is
having 8 protons.
Biology
Populations and Variation
What is Philosophy of Biology?
1. HUMAN NATURE
Diversity/Uniformity
Identification/Essence
Nothing privileged about the Norm
I.
Human Nature
1. HUMAN NATURE
Frequency-dependent selection
Example 1: Hawks and Doves
Example 2: Psychopaths?
Amount of variation in human population is an
empirical question.
II. Altruism
Altruism:
An altruistic act is an act preformed by one
individual to benefit another.
The Selfish Gene (Dawkins, 1976)
- Humans are survival machines built by genes.
- Sole function: Reproduction.
II. Altruism
Sociobiology:
Evolutionary explanations of human
behaviour. (1970s)
Gene Selectionism:
Only genes passed on through reproduction.
Sociobiological assumption:
Evolved human behaviour designed to
benefit genes.
II. Altruism
Question:
If organisms exist only to benefit genes, could
evolution create altruistic organisms?
Adaptation:
Feature of organism whose presence can be
explained by the fact that it served some useful
purposes in previous generations.
II. Altruism
Adaptations: organism/group
Example: Warning call
Group selective explanation
Against group selection:
1. ‘Subversion from within’
2. Dilemma:
Either much human behaviour inexplicable on the
basis of biology, or all human behaviour
explainable in terms of individual self-interest.
For group selection: ‘Population structure’
III. Genetic Programming
Two opposing views:
1. Biological determinism:
psychological or social organization are
somehow “fixed” by biology
2.Environmental/Social determinism:
Biology only provides broad constraints on
range of outcomes that can be produced by
environmental factors.
How do genes and the environment contribute to
determining human behaviour
IV.
Conservationism/Ecology
What should conservations conserve?
What is a species?
A group of organisms potentially capable of
interbreeding with each other (Ernst Meyer)
This definition fails for many types of organisms.
Implications of alternative definitions?
Should we try to conserve Species or Ecosystems?
Conclusions
Philosophy of Biology currently ‘hot topic’
Focus on Philosophical Implications of
Evolutionary Theory
Five specific topics:
Human Nature
Altruism
Genetic Programming
Conservationism