Programa

Filosofia das Ciências da Vida

Mestrado Bolonha em História e Filosofia das Ciências

Programa

Syllabus and timetable for 2019 CLASS 1: LIFE The origin of life: spontaneous generation and abiogenesis. The nature of life: living things and living process. CLASS 2: DEVELOPMENT What is development: growth, differentiation and morphogenesis. How to conceptualise development: epigenesis and preformation. CLASS 3: ORGANISM Theories of organismality: autonomy, agency and functional integration. Biological individuals: cells, cellular aggregates, partnerships and ecosystems. CLASS 4: GENE The basis of heredity: from hereditary factors to the discovery of the material basis of heredity Causal role of genes in development: from genetic information to genetic specificity. CLASS 5: EVOLUTION The notion of evolution: fixity and transmutation. Modes of evolution: Lamarckian, Darwinian and Wrightian. CLASS 6: TREE OF LIFE The use of the tree of life metaphor: common ancestry and patterns of evolution. The significance of the metaphor: biodiversity, biocomplexity and progress. CLASS 7: SPECIES What are biological species? Realism and antirealism. The ontological status of biological species: kinds and individuals. CLASS 8: NATURAL SELECTION What natural selection is: Darwin’s concept and varieties of selection. How natural selection works: creativity and adaptation. CLASS 9l: ADAPTATIONISM What is adaptationism: empirical, explanatory and methodological Challenges to adaptationism: intelligent design; neutralism; directional variation. CLASS 10: CHANCE The various meanings of chance in evolutionary theory: from randomness to contingency. Chance processes in evolution: random mutagenesis and genetic drift. CLASS 11: SENTIENCE Characterising sentience: panpsychism and biopsychism. Sentience in the light of evolution: from human exceptionalism to universal distribution across phylogeny. CLASS 12: HUMAN NATURE Characterising human nature: from essentialistic monism to polytypic pluralism. Human nature in the light of evolution: reconstructing human origins and human evolution.