Mastering Life: Biology Meets the Physical Sciences

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course will explore the efforts to reduce biological phenomena to physical explanations in the modern and recent period in the efforts to gain a physical understanding of life. The course will be divided into 5 sections: (1) Early Modern discussions (Harvey, Descartes, Newton); (2) The development of “organic” physics around 1800 (Lavoisier, German biophysics); (3) The debates over mechanism, vitalism and holism in the early 20 th century and the impact of the “new” physics (Loeb, Driesch, Niels Bohr, Schrödinger); (4) the foundations of “molecular” biology (Jacob, Monod, Delbrück, Watson and Crick; systems theory); (5) Toward a “Phenomenology” of Life (Husserl, Hans Jonas, Robert Sokolowski). Students will be asked to complete two take-home midterm examinations and a written final.