Andre Wakefield, Ph.D.
Scott Hall 226
Ext.: 73068
awakefield@pitzer.edu
David S. Moore, Ph.D.
Broad Hall 108
Ext.: 71648
dmoore@pitzer.edu

Pitzer College
Psychology/History 138
Seeking Human Nature: The History and Science of Innateness
Spring, 2011
 

Class Logistics
Time: Mondays and Wednesdays 12:00 pm - 1:10 pm
Location: Broad Center 208

Andre Wakefield's Office Hours
Mondays/Wednesdays 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
David Moore's Office Hours
Mondays 4:15 pm - 5:15 pm
Fridays 10:30 am - 11:30 am
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Course Description:

Philosophers and political economists have long used "human nature" as a way to understand and justify the world. After the advent of Darwinian evolutionary theory and Mendelian genetics, however, the notion of innate characteristics gained new authority, reshaping categories like race, nature, and instinct. We will track that shift and examine how its effects have continued to ramify into the present, influencing politics and social policy along the way.
 

Required Books:

Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. New York: W. W. Norton, 1962.
Keller, Evelyn Fox. The Century of the Gene. Cambridge, Mass. Harvard UP, 2000.
Lewontin, Richard. Biology as Ideology. New York: Harper Collins, 1991.
Lewontin, Richard. The Triple Helix. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 2000.
Sahlins, Marshall. The Western Illusion of Human Nature. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press, 2008.
Shenk, David. The Genius in All of Us. New York: Doubleday, 2010.

Other Readings:

All other readings are available on the course web site (Sakai).
PSYCH/HIST 138 Homepage
PSYCH/HIST 138 Course Requirements
PSYCH/HIST 138 Syllabus
PSYCH/HIST 138 Course Objectives
David Moore's Homepage