Download Milam-Hist392-Evolution Syllabus

Princeton University History 392 Spring 2012 – History of Evolution Prof. Erika L. Milam
time: T/Th lecture, with precept
classroom: tbd
office hours: tbd & by appt.
[email protected]
office: 135 Dickinson Hall
office phone: 609.258.0209
You can sign up for an appointment during office hours through WASS:
https://wass.princeton.edu/pages/viewcalendar.page.php?makeapp=1&cal_id=1615
The question of questions for mankind—the problem which underlies all others, and is
more deeply interesting than any other—is the ascertainment of the place which Man
occupies in nature and of his relations to the universe of things.
– Thomas Henry Huxley, “On the Relations
of Man to the Lower Animals,” (1861)
Description In 1973, population geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky proudly declared, “Nothing in biology
makes sense except in the light of evolution.”1 At the time, however, classic evolutionary biologists
were fighting battles on many fronts: against molecular biologists who believed the future of
evolution resided in cells and DNA, not analyses of whole organisms, against the “young turks” like
Stephen Jay Gould who sought to make intellectual room for theories like punctuated equilibrium,
and (most profoundly) against conservatives seeking to oust natural selection from public school
classrooms. Despite Dobzhansky’s triumphalist title, the future of evolutionary biology as a field
seemed anything but secure.
By interweaving intellectual and cultural threads, this course
covers the history of evolutionary theory from Charles Darwin
(and the scholars on whom he drew), through Dobzhansky and
Gould, to the late 20th century. Throughout this century and a
half we will explore how biologists invested in evolutionary
theory the capacity to explain our all too human nature and
perhaps, therefore, to help us solve some of the world’s most
pressing problems (like aggression and warfare). We will also
discuss how and why critics have attacked evolution as amoral,
anti-Christian, and socially dangerous, seeking to remove it
from public schools and the lives of their children. In doing so,
we investigate how scientists have negotiated the dynamic (and
sometimes fraught) relationship between professional and
public science.
1
Charles Darwin, Notebook B: Transmutation of Species (1837) Theodosius Dobzhansky, “Nothing in Biology Makes Sense except in the Light of Evolution,” The
American Biology Teacher 35/3 (1973): 125-129.
1 His392 – History of Evolution Milam Grading
Attendance and class participation mandatory.
Class participation:
Reading responses:
Short paper (5-7 pages):
Long paper (10-15 pages):
Final examination:
15%
10%
15%
30%
30%
[due Friday, Mar 8 at 4pm]
[due Friday, May 3 at 4pm]
Lectures Each week, the two lectures will be organized around a main theme in the history of evolutionary
theory. Each lecture will pose a central question, with students sometimes writing a short in-class
response (a few sentences) and handing in these responses at the end of the lecture. These responses
will help to launch the discussions sections.
Reading This course involves approximately 100-150 pages of reading per week. Attendance at lectures and
discussion section is required. Each week, the readings consist of primary sources related to the
main theme of the week’s lectures. They provide historical evidence of the social and intellectual
stakes of scientists at the time as well as important supplemental information relating to the
overarching weekly theme and lectures. There are no books required for this course. All articles and
chapters will be posted on Blackboard.
Discussion sections will focus on the lecture questions, and on deeper analysis of selected issues
raised in the readings assigned for that week.
Reading responses Each Thursday I will give you questions to consider for the following week’s reading. Reading
response which engage with the questions should be ~ 500 words and are due at the beginning of
the discussion the following week. Over the course of the semester, you will be expected to turn in
at least 8 responses (this gives you a great deal of flexibility in terms of planning your workload).
Papers will be judged on the merits of their argument, evidence, and presentation, as outlined in the
History Department’s grading rubric (found at the end of this syllabus).
2 His392 – History of Evolution Milam Course Readings All readings are available through the course Blackboard site. Readings that are marked “Further
Exploration” are sources that provide additional background for the week. They will be available
through Blackboard but we will not discuss them in class.
Week 1 (Feb 5/7)
Development and Design
Tuesday Lecture: Romanticism & the Unity of Life
Thursday Lecture: Philosophies of Animal Form
Readings
Georges-Louis LeClerc, Comte de Buffon. “Initial Discourse: On the Manner of Studying and
Expounding Natural History,” in Lyon and Sloan, eds. Natural History to the History of Nature:
Readings from Buffon and his Critics (Notre Dame, 1981): 97-128; from Histoire naturelle, générale et
pariculière avec la description du cabinet du roy (Paris, 1754).
Georges Cuvier, The Animal Kingdom: Arranged in Conformity with its Organization, trans. H.
M’Murtrie (New York: G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1833): “Introduction,” 9-36.
Georges Cuvier, Essay on the Theory of the Earth, trans. Professor Jameson (Edinburgh: William
Blackwood, 1822): 7-23, 114-128.
Erasmus Darwin, The Temple of Nature: Or, the origin of society: A Poem, with philosophical notes (1803):
“Canto I. Production of Life,” 9-18.
M. the Chevalier Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, “Preliminary Discourse of Anatomical Philosophy (1818),”
in ed. Herve Le Guyader, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire: A Visionary Naturalist, trans. Marjorie Grene
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004): 26-35.
Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet de Lamarck, “Of the Natural Order of Animals, and the
Way in Which Their Classification Should Be Drawn Up so as to Be in Conformity with the
Actual Order of Nature,” in Zoological Philosophy, trans. Hugh Elliot (New York: The
Macmillan Company, 1914): 128-134, skim to 173.
Lorenz Oken, Elements of Physiophilosophy, trans. Alfred Tulk (London: Ray Society, 1847):
“Conception of the Science,” 1-4; “Animal Kingdom,” 318-327.
Week 2 (Feb 12/14)
On the Origin of Species
Tuesday Lecture: Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
Thursday Lecture: On the Origin of Species
Readings
Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured
Races in the Struggle for Life (London: John Murray, 1859): “Struggle for Existence,” 60-79,
“Natural Selection,” 80-130, and “Recapitulation and Conclusion,” 459-490.
Richard Owen, Palaeontology, or a Systematic Summary of Extinct Animals and Their Geological Relations,
2nd ed. (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1861): 1-3, 441-450.
3 His392 – History of Evolution Milam William Paley, “The Being of God Demonstrated in the Works of Creation,” in Edmund Paley,
ed. Works of William Paley, D. D., Vol. VII (London: Thomas Davison, 1825): 405-411.
Week 3 (Feb 19/21)
Descent of Man
Tuesday Lecture: Descent of Man & Selection in Relation to Sex
Thursday Lecture: The Evolution of Sex
Readings
Charles Darwin, “General Summary and Conclusion,” in Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to
Sex (London: John Murray, 1871): 385-405.
Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thompson, “Theory of Sex: Its Nature and Origin,” in Evolution of
Sex (New York: Scribner & Welford, 1890): 117-134.
Richard Grant White, The Fall of Man, or The Loves of the Gorillas (New York: G. W. Carleton &
Co., 1871), 44 pp.
Eliza Burt Gamble, “Part I: The Theory of Evolution,” in The Evolution of Woman: An Inquiry into
the Dogma of Her Inferiority to Man (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1893): 1-79.
Further Exploration
Charles Darwin, “General Principles of Expression,” in The Expression of the Emotions in Man and
Animals (New York: Penguin Books, 2009 [1890]): 37-83.
George John Romanes, “The Criterion of Mind,” Mental Evolution in Animals (New York:
Appleton and Company, 1884): 15-23.
Charlotte Perkins Stetson [Gilman], Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation Between
Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution (Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1898):
Chapter II, 23-39.
Week 4 (Feb 26/28)
What is ‘Darwinism’?
Tuesday Lecture: Evolutionary Theism
Thursday Lecture: Scientific Secularism
Readings
Charles Kingsley, “Speech of Lord Dundreary in Section D, on Friday Last, on the Great
Hippocampus Question (Cambridge, October, 1861) in Charles Kingsley, His Letters and Memories
of His Life (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1884): 322-325.
Thomas Henry Huxley, “The Coming of Age of ‘The Origin of Species’ (1880),” in Darwiniana:
Collected Essays: Volume II (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1912): 227-243.
John Dewey, “The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy,” in The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy:
And Other Essays in Contemporary Thought (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1910): 1-19.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, “Manifesto of the Communist Party,” in Manifesto of the
Communist Party (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Company, 1906): 3-64.
4 His392 – History of Evolution Milam Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, trans. James Stachey (New York: W. W. Norton &
Company, 1989): selections.
Alfred Russel Wallace, “The Limits of Natural Selection as Applied to Man,” in Contributions to
the Theory of Natural Selection, a Series of Essays (London: Macmillan and Co., 1870): 332-372.
Further Exploration
Selections from the correspondence between Asa Gray & Charles Darwin, 1855-1881. Available
online through the Darwin Correspondence Project: http://bit.ly/Gray-Darwin
Week 5 (Mar 5/7)
A Mendelian Alternative
Tuesday Lecture: Galton & the Biometricians
Thursday Lecture: Anti-Darwinian Mendelism
Readings
Gregory Bateson, “Preface” and “The Problems of Heredity and Their Solution,” in Mendel’s
Principles of Heredity: A Defence (Cambridge: The University Press, 1902): v-xii, 1-39.
Francis Galton, “Hereditary Character and Talent [Part I/II],” MacMillan’s Magazine 12 (1865):
157-166, 318-327.
Aleš Hrdlička, “Physical Anthropology: Its Scope and Aims; Its History and Present Status in
America,” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 1/1 (1919): 3-23.
Vernon L. Kellogg, “Introductory: The ‘Death-Bed of Darwinism,’” in Darwinism To-Day (New
York: Henry Holt and Company, 1907): 1-9.
Thomas Hunt Morgan, “Selection and Evolution,” in A Critique of the Theory of Evolution
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1916): 145-194.
Week 6 (Mar 12/14)
Synthesizing Evolution & Genetics
Tuesday Lecture: Eugenics & the Scopes Trial
Thursday Lecture: The Modern Synthesis
Readings
A. M. Carr-Saunders, “Human Evolution and the Control of Its Future,” in Gavin de Beer, ed.
Evolution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1938): 111-126.
Ronald A. Fisher, “Social Selection of Fertility,” in The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930): vii-x, 228-255.
Julian Huxley, “Scientific Humanism,” in The Uniqueness of Man (London: Chatto & Windus,
1941): 260-276. [Originally published as “Human Power and its Control,” in Yale Review
(Summer 1931).]
Ernst Mayr, “The Biology of Speciation,” in Systematics and the Origin of Species from the Viewpoint of
a Zoologist (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999 [1942]): 216-274.
5 His392 – History of Evolution Milam George Gaylord Simpson, “Modes of Evolution,” in Tempo and Mode in Evolution (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1984 [1944]): 197-217.
Spring Recess Week 7 (Mar 26/28)
Scientific Humanism
Tuesday Lecture: The Family of Man
Thursday Lecture: Scientific Humanism
Readings
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, “Birth of Thought” and “Deployment of the Noosphere,” in The
Phenomenon of Man, trans. Bernard Wall (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959): 163-211.
Theodosius Dobzhansky, “Species After Darwinism,” in S. A. Barnett, ed. A Century of Darwin
(London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1958): 19-55.
Theodosius Dobzhansky, “The Road Traversed and the Road Ahead,” in Mankind Evolving: The
Evolution of the Human Species (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962): 319-348.
Paul R. Ehrlich and Richard W. Holm, “A Biological View of Race,” in Ashley Montagu, ed. The
Concept of Race (London: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1964): 153-178.
George Gaylord Simpson, “Man’s Place in Nature,” in The Meaning of Evolution: A Study of the
History of Life and of Its Significance for Man (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1949): 281-293.
Edward Steichen, The Family of Man, prologue by Carl Sandburg (New York: MACO Magazine
Corporation, 1955): 1-5.
UNESCO Statement on Race, 18 July 1950.
Week 8 (Apr 2/4)
Experimental Evolution
Tuesday Lecture: Ethology
Thursday Lecture: Ecology
Readings
Warder Clyde Allee, “Co-operation Among Animals,” University of Chicago Magazine 20 (June
1928): 418-425.
Barry Commoner, The Closing Circle (Bantam Books, 1971): 122-37, 176-213.
Paul R. Ehrlich, The Population Bomb (Ballantine Books, 1968): 46-67, 158-73.
Alfred Emerson, “The Biological Basis of Social Cooperation,” Illinois Academy of Sciences
Transactions 39 (1946): 9-18.
Raymond Lindeman, “The Trophic-Dynamic Aspect of Ecology,” Ecology 23 (1942): 399-418.
Konrad Lorenz, “The Comparative Method in Studying Innate Behaviour Patterns,” Symposia of
the Society for Experimental Biology 4 (1950): 221-268.
6 His392 – History of Evolution Milam Nikolaas Tinbergen, “The Curious Behavior of the Stickleback,” Scientific American (December
1952): 22-26.
Week 9 (Apr 9/11)
Neo-Darwinism
Tuesday Lecture: The “Tarzanists”
Thursday Lecture: Game Theory and Sociobiology
Readings
Ashley Montagu, “The New Litany of ‘Innate Depravity,’ or Original Sin Revisited,” in Man and
Aggression (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968): 3-17.
Desmond Morris, “Sex,” in The Naked Ape: A Zoologist’s Study of the Human Animal (New York:
McGraw Hill, 1967): 50-102.
Lionel Tiger, “Man, Aggression, and Men,” in Men in Groups (New York: Random House, 1969):
156-193.
Richard Dawkins, “Nice Guys Finish First” and “The Long Reach of the Gene,” in The Selfish
Gene (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976): 202-266.
Elaine Morgan, “Man-Made Myth,” in The Descent of Woman (NY: Stein and Day, 1972): 1-13.
Robert Trivers, “Parental Investment and Reproductive Success,” in Natural Selection and Social
Theory (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002): 56-110.
Week 10 (Apr 16/18)
Modern Protests
Tuesday Lecture: Scientific Creationism
Thursday Lecture: Intelligence and Evolution
Readings
Michael Behe, “What Darwinism Can’t Do” in The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of
Darwinism (Simon & Schuster, 2007): 84-102.
Sean Carroll, “God as Genetic Engineer” [review of Michael Behe’s The Edge of Evolution], Science
316 (8 June 2007): 1427-28.
John B. Conlan and Peter B. Dow, “Pro/Con Forum: The MACOS Controversy,” Social
Education 39/6 (1975): 388-396.
Stephen Jay Gould, “Racist Arguments and IQ,” Natural History Magazine (May 1974).
Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, “The Emergence of a Cognitive Elite,” in The Bell Curve:
Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (New York: Free Press, 1996 [1994]): 29-50.
Dorothy Nelkin, “The Science-Textbook Controversies,” Scientific American 234/4 (April 1976):
33-38, plus letters to the editor that followed in July & October 1976.
Alan Ryan, “Apocalypse Now?” The New York Review of Books (November 17, 1994).
7 His392 – History of Evolution Week 11 (Apr 23/25)
Milam Evolution and Development
Tuesday Lecture: Paleobiology, Punctuated Equilibrium, Neutral Evolution
Thursday Lecture: Levels of Selection & the Evolution of Multicellularity
Readings
Sean Carroll, “Little Bangs: Wings and Other Revolutionary Inventions,” in Endless Forms Most
Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005): 137-165.
Stephen Jay Gould, “The Evolution of Life on Earth,” Scientific American (October 1994): 85-91.
Stephen Jay Gould, “Mickey Mouse Meets Konrad Lorenz,” Natural History 88/5 (May 1979):
30-36.
Lynn Margulis, Origin of Eukaryotic Cells: Evidence and Research Implications for a Theory of the Origin
and Evolution of Animal Cells on the Precambrian Earth (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1970): selection.
Marcelo R. Sánchez, Embryos in Deep Time: The Rock Record of Biological Development (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2012): 1-45.
George C. Williams, “Introduction,” and “Group Selection,” in Adaptation and Natural Selection
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966): 3-19, 92-124.
V. C. Wynne-Edwards, “Self-Regulating Systems in Populations of Animals,” Science 147/3665
(1965): 1543-1548.
Week 12 (Apr 30/May 2)
Looking to the Future…
Tuesday Lecture: Group Selection and the Evolution of Kindness
Thursday Lecture: Final Wrap-Up…
Readings
Brian Boyd, “Evolution and Fiction,” in On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press): 127-208.
Matt Ridley, “The Tribal Primates: In Which Animals Cooperate in Order to Compete,” in The
Origins of Virtue (New York: Viking, 1996): 149-169.
Robert Trivers, “The Evolutionary Logic of Self-Deception,” in The Folly of Fools: The Logic of
Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life (New York: Basic Books, 2011): 1-28
David Sloan Wilson, “Introduction” and “The View From Evolutionary Biology,” in Darwin’s
Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
2002): 1-46.
[Further Exploration: Michael Tomasello, Why We Cooperate (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009).]
Final Examination – Date to be determined
8 His392 – History of Evolution Milam Department of History Grading Practices Class Participation
A student who receives an A for participation in discussion in precepts or seminars typically
comes to every class with questions about the readings in mind. An ‘A’ discussant engages others
about ideas, respects the opinions of others, and consistently elevates the level of discussion.
A student who receives a B for participation in discussion in precepts or seminars typically
does not always come to class with questions about the readings in mind. A ‘B’ discussant waits
passively for others to raise interesting issues. Some discussants in this category, while courteous and
articulate, do not adequately listen to other participants or relate their comments to the direction of
the conversation.
A student who receives a C for discussion in precepts or seminars attends regularly but
typically is an infrequent or unwilling participant in discussion.
A student who fails to attend precepts or seminars regularly and adequately prepared for
discussion risks the grade of D or F.
Research Papers
An A or A- thesis, paper, or exam is one that is good enough to be read aloud in a class. It is
clearly written and well-organized. It demonstrates that the writer has conducted a close and critical
reading of texts, grappled with the issues raised in the course, synthesized the readings, discussions,
and lectures, and formulated a perceptive, compelling, independent argument. The argument shows
intellectual originality and creativity, is sensitive to historical context, is supported by a well-chosen
variety of specific examples, and, in the case of a research paper, is built on a critical reading of
primary material.
A B+ or B thesis, paper, or exam demonstrates many aspects of A-level work but falls short
of it in either the organization and clarity of its writing, the formulation and presentation of its
argument, or the quality of research. Some papers or exams in this category are solid works
containing flashes of insight into many of the issues raised in the course. Others give evidence of
independent thought, but the argument is not presented clearly or convincingly.
A B- thesis, paper, or exam demonstrates a command of course or research material and
understanding of historical context but provides a less than thorough defense of the writer's
independent argument because of weaknesses in writing, argument, organization, or use of evidence.
A C+, C, or C- thesis, paper, or exam offers little more than a mere a summary of ideas and
information covered in the course, is insensitive to historical context, does not respond to the
assignment adequately, suffers from frequent factual errors, unclear writing, poor organization, or
inadequate primary research, or presents some combination of these problems.
Whereas the grading standards for written work between A and C- are concerned with the
presentation of argument and evidence, a paper or exam that belongs to the D or F categories
demonstrates inadequate command of course material.
A D thesis, paper, or exam demonstrates serious deficiencies or severe flaws in the student's
command of course or research material.
An F thesis, paper, or exam demonstrates no competence in the course or research materials.
It indicates a student's neglect or lack of effort in the course.
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