Philosophy and Biology of Evolutionary Theory

Catalog description

This course explores the question of evolutionary theory from the perspectives of philosophy and biology. From the biological perspective, the course focuses on genetics, adaptive evolution, neutral evolution, the genetic impact of selection on populations, the origin and maintenance of genetic variation, the importance of development in evolution, the expression of variation, and coevolution. From the philosophical perspective, the course focuses on evolution as theory and ideology, the critique of the adaptationist program, evolution and contingency, typological versus population thinking, and the developmental systems critique. Crosslisted with BIOL 1095 .