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PHIL 317

Philosophy of Biology

3 units

Winter 2025

Topics

  • Philosophy of biology
  • Evolution
  • Development
  • Molecular biology
  • Genes
  • Scientific explanations

Readings

  • Richard Dawkins. The Selfish Gene. 40th anniversary edition. Oxford University Press, 2016.
    required
  • Marc Kirschner and John Gerhart. The Plausibility of Life: Resolving Darwin’s Dilemma. Yale University Press, 2005.
    required
  • P. Godfrey-Smith. Philosophy of Biology. Princeton University Press, 2014.
    recommended
  • P. E. Griffiths and K. Sterelny. Sex and Death: An Introduction to Philosophy of Biology. University of Chicago Press, 1999.
    recommended
  • B. Garvey. Philosophy of Biology. Acumen Press, 2007.
    recommended
  • E. Sober. Philosophy of Biology. 2nd edition. Westview Press, 2000.
    recommended
  • K. Kampourakis and T. Uller. Philosophy of Science for Biologists. Cambridge University Press, 2020.
    recommended
  • D. Hull and M. Ruse, eds. The Cambridge Companion to the Philosophy of Biology. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
    recommended
  • F. Ayala and R. Arp, eds. Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Biology. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
    recommended
  • D. Hull and M. Ruse, eds. The Philosophy of Biology. Oxford University Press, 1998.
    recommended
  • E. Sober, ed. Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology. 3rd edition. MIT Press, 2005.
    recommended
  • E. F. Keller. The Century of the Gene. Harvard University Press, 2000.
    recommended
  • M. Morange. The Misunderstood Gene. Harvard University Press, 2001.
    recommended
  • J. Roughgarden. The Genial Gene: Deconstructing Darwinian Selfishness. University of California Press, 2009.
    recommended
  • K. N. Laland and G. R. Brown. Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour. Oxford University Press, 2011.
    recommended
  • D. J. Buller. Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature. MIT Press, 2005.
    recommended
  • R. C. Richardson. Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology. MIT Press, 2007.
    recommended
  • R. Amundson. The Changing Role of the Embryo in Evolutionary Thought: Roots of Evo-Devo. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
    recommended
  • J. Robert. Embryology, Epigenesis and Evolution: Taking Development Seriously. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
    recommended
  • M. Weber. Philosophy of Experimental Biology. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
    recommended
  • P. Beurton, R. Falk, and H.-J. Rheinberger, eds. The Concept of the Gene in Development and Evolution: Historical and Epistemological Perspectives. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
    recommended
Sources