SYLLABUS


WEEK 1: 1/17 & 1/19

  • Tuesday: Course Introduction
  • Thursday: A Posteriori versus A Priori
    1. John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), pp. 43-65, 85-103 [Sakai]
    2. Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (1787), preface to the first edition [Sakai]


WEEK 2: 1/24 & 1/26

  • Tuesday: Scientific Objectivity: A History
    1. Daston and Galison, Objectivity, pp. 191-251 [Sakai]
  • Thursday: Human Nature before Darwin: Preformationism, Epigenesis, and Recapitulation
    1. Gottlieb, Individual Development and Evolution, pp. 3-9 [Sakai]
    2. Gould, Ever Since Darwin, pp. 201-206 [Sakai]
    3. Gould, Ontogeny and Phylogeny, pp. 13-28 [Sakai]


WEEK 3: 1/31 & 2/2

  • Tuesday: The Great Chain of Being versus Evolution
    1. Norton Critical Edition, Darwin, pp. 44-49 [Sakai]
    2. Gould, Ontogeny and Phylogeny, pp. 33-35 [Sakai] 
    3. Norton Critical Edition, Darwin, pp. 33-39 [Sakai]
  • Thursday: The View from Economics: Self Interest, Creativity, Work
    1. Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, excerpts [Sakai] 
    2. Karl Marx, 1844 Manuscripts [Sakai]


WEEK 4: 2/7 & 2/9

  • Tuesday: Natural Selection and the Inheritance of Adaptive Characteristics: The Origin of Species
    1. Norton Critical Edition, Darwin, pp. 85-87 [Sakai]
    2. Darwin, Origin of Species, pp. 95-115, 133-147 [Sakai]
  • Thursday: Darwin Considers the Humans: The Descent of Man
    1. Darwin, Descent of Man (1871), pp. 66-99 [Sakai]


WEEK 5: 2/14 & 2/16

  • Tuesday: The Humans Consider Darwin: Social Darwinism
    1. Huxley, On the Origin of Species (1863), pp. 96-120 [Sakai] 
    2. Spencer, "Comparative Psychology" (1876), pp. 7-20 [Sakai]
  • Thursday: The Rise of Eugenics: The Complex Case of Francis Galton
    1. Gottlieb, pp. 48-58 [Sakai] 
    2. Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics, Chapter 1 [Sakai]


WEEK 6: 2/21 & 2/23

  • Tuesday: Dr. Freud Weighs In
    1. Freud, Civilization and its Discontents.
  • Thursday: The Advent of Experimental Embryology
    1. Weismann, The Effect of External Influences upon Development (1894); read pp 1-22, 38-41, and 48-54…you can scan the rest [Sakai]
    2. Gottlieb, pp. 59-72 [Sakai]


WEEK 7: 2/28 & 3/2

  • Tuesday: Galton’s Spawn, Behavior Genetics
    1. Nature and Nurture, Chapter 1, pp. 20-56, and pp 64-66 [Sakai]
    2. Block, "How Heritability Misleads about Race" (1995); read at least the first 20 pages [Sakai]
  • Thursday: Political Consequences: German Scientific Racism
    1. Proctor, Racial Hygiene, pp. 10-63 [Sakai]


WEEK 8: 3/7 & 3/9

  • Tuesday: Instinct and Human Nature: Ethology and Its Critics
    1. Lorenz, "Evolution of Behavior," Scientific American (1958) [Sakai]
    2. Lehrman, "Critique," Quarterly Review of Biology (1953) [Sakai]
  • Thursday: Nativism Persists
    1. Honeycutt, “Nature and Nurture as an Enduring Tension in the History of Psychology,” Oxford Research Encyclopedia, Psychology (2019) [Sakai]
    2. Spelke, “Core Knowledge,” American Psychologist (2000) [Sakai]


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ MID-TERM PAPERS DUE: FRIDAY, MARCH 10 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

WEEK 9: 3/14 & 3/16 — SPRING BREAK!

WEEK 10: 3/21 & 3/23

  • Tuesday: Evolutionary Psychology: The Darwinists Take On Human Minds
    1. Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Chapters 1-3 [Sakai]
  • Thursday: Sociobiology and Its Critics
    1. Liesen, “Women, Behaviour, and Evolution,” Politics and the Life Sciences (2007) [Sakai]


WEEK 11: 3/28 & 3/30

  • Tuesday: Evolutionary Psychology: The Proliferation of Mental Modules
    1. Pinker, The Blank Slate, Chapters 1-3 [Sakai]
  • Thursday: How Genes Work: What They Do and What They Can’t Do
    1. Moore, The Developing Genome, Chapters 1-5


WEEK 12: 4/4 & 4/6

  • Tuesday: Nature & Nurture in the 21st Century
    1. Keller, The Mirage of a Space Between Nature and Nurture
  • Thursday: Final Project Discussions


WEEK 13: 4/11 & 4/13

  • Tuesday: Rediscovering the Person:Gene, Organism, Environment
    1. Lewontin, Triple Helix, pp. 3-68
  • Thursday: Final Project Discussions


WEEK 14: 4/18 & 4/20

  • Tuesday: Reintegrating Development & Evolution: Inheriting Developmental Systems
    1. Lewontin, Triple Helix, pp. 71-129
  • Thursday: The Flourishing Field of Epigenetics: Its Implications for Human Nature
    1. Moore, The Developing Genome, Chapters 6, 8, 10, and 12


WEEK 15: 4/25 & 4/27

  • Tuesday: Politics and Society: Not in Our Genes
    1. Lewontin, Biology as Ideology, pp. 3-57
  • Thursday: Science and Freedom
    1. Lewontin, Biology as Ideology, pp. 61-123


WEEK 16: 5/2 & 5/4

  • Tuesday: Wrap-up
  • Thursday: No Class (Reading Days)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ FINAL PAPERS DUE ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
SENIORS: WEDNESDAY, MAY 3
NON-SENIORS: FRIDAY, MAY 5

© David S. Moore, Ph.D. & Andre Wakefield, Ph.D. ~ Pitzer College ~ 2015-2023