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Nov 24, 2024
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PHIL106 PO - Philosophy of BiologyWhen Offered: Offered alternate years; last offered spring 2017.
Instructor(s): L. Perini
Credit: 1
This course will address philosophical problems that revolve around clarifying what is required to do good science on living systems, and the explanatory tactics and methods that are distinctive to the life sciences. A focus of the course will be ways in which biology has been used as a means to understand humans, in terms of their evolutionary history and more recently, in terms of genetics. We will examine some of the distinctive concepts and theoretical resources of the life sciences, like the theory of natural selection, the concept of species, reductionistic explanatory strategies and methodological worries about adaptationism. The course will examine how these conceptual and methodological issues are involved in many of the aspects of the life science that concern categories of difference in human societies, like race and gender. Prerequisite: one college-level philosophy or biology course.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement(s), subject to conditions explained in the Degree Requirements section of this Catalog:
Area 3; Analyzing Difference
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