Fermín C Fulda PHL357 Philosophy of Biology

The University of Toronto

PHL 357H1
PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGY

Syllabus
Instructor: Fermin C. Fulda Class Schedule: Thursdays 15:00-18:00
Email: [email protected] Location: OE 8200
Office Hour: Wednesdays 10:00-11:00 (online, please contact the instructor)

Course description and aims

The philosophy of biology is a rapidly expanding area of study partly on account of important changes
that are taking place in biology. This course offers an introductory overview of some of the key
contemporary debates. The primary focus of the course will be the conceptual questions that stem from
evolutionary biology. Philosophical inquiry in biology generally raises two types of questions: those
concerning biology as a study of living organisms, and those considering biology as a model of
scientific success. Biology deals mainly with living organisms, their structures, functions, and
particularly, the process of evolution. In Part I of this course, we will delve into several philosophical
issues that arise from the unique content of biology. Additionally, there are topics related to biology's
role as a scientific discipline. The biological sciences can be used to deepen and expand our
understanding of scientific inquiry. In Part II, we will discuss how evolutionary biology addresses
fundamental questions in the philosophy of science. Finally, in Part III, we will explore a range of
current issues that are attracting the attention of philosophers of biology today.

Readings:

All mandatory readings will be provided as pdf files on Quercus. Students are expected to do all
the readings before lecture.

Outline of the course:

Week Topics

1 September 5 - Introduction

Part I. Genes/Organisms/Populations

2 September 12 - ‘Way of Life’ and the Struggle for Existence

 Lennox, J.G. (2017) “An Aristotelian Philosophy of Biology: Form, Function and
Development,” Acta Philosophica 26: 33–52.
 Darwin, C. (1859) The Origin of Species London: Penguin. Chapter III. The Struggle for
Existence

3 September 19 - Natural Selection

 Birch, J. 2012 The negative view of natural selection Studies in History and Philosophy
of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2012.02.002

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 Sober, E. 1995 Natural Selection and Distributive Explanation: A Reply to Neander.

British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 46:384-397

4 September 26 - Genes

 Waters, K. (2007) Causes that make a difference. Journal of Philosophy. CIV (11) 551-
579
 Fox Keller, E. (2010) The Mirage of a Space Between Nature and Nurture. Raleigh:
Duke University Press. Chapter 2.

5 October 3 - The Modern Evolutionary Synthesis

 L., Uller, T., Feldman, M., Sterelny, K., Müller, G. B., Moczek, A., . . . Odling-Smee, J.
(2015) The extended evolutionary synthesis: its structure, core assumptions, and
predictions. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 282, 20151019
 Ågren, A. (2023). Genes and organisms in the legacy of the modern synthesis. In T. H.
E. Dickens & J. A. Dickens (Eds.),Evolutionary Biology: Contemporary and historical
reflections upon core theory (pp. 555–568). Springer

Part II. Method and Metaphysics

6 October 10 - Laws

 Elgin, M. (2006) There may be strict empirical laws in biology, after all. Biology
and Philosophy 21:119–134
 Woodward, Jim. (2001). “Law and Explanation in Biology: Invariance is the kind of
Stability That Matters”. Philosophy of Science 68: 1-20.

7 October 17 – Causes

 Sober, E. (1984) The Nature of Selection Cambridge, Ma: MIT Press Chapter 1.
 Walsh, D.M., A. Ariew, M. Matthen (2017) Four Pillars of Statisticalism Philosophy,
Theory, and Practice in Biology New series 1: 1-18

8 October 24 – Models

 Weisberg, M. (2006) Forty Years of ‘The Strategy’: Levins on Model Building and
Idealization. Biology and Philosophy 21: 623-645.
 Collin, Rice (2019). Models Don’t Decompose That Way: A Holistic View of Idealized
Models. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 70 (1):179-208.

9 November 7 – Essentialism

 Walsh, D.M. ‘Evolutionary Essentialism.’ British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
57 (2006): 425–48.
 Devitt, Michael (2008) Resurrecting Biological Essentialism. Philosophy of Science pp
8-38

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 Lewens, T. (2012) Species, essence, and explanation. Studies in the History, and
Philosophy of Biology and the Biomedical Sciences 43 (4), 751-757.

Part III. Special Issues

10 November 14 – Adaptation and Intelligent Design

 Dembski, W. 2004 The Logical Underpinnings of Intelligent Design. In Dembski, W.

and M. Ruse (eds.) 2004 Debating Design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.
311- 330
 Sober, E. 2004 The Design Argument. In Dembski, W. and M. Ruse (eds.) 2004
Debating Design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 98-129.

11 November 21 – Organisms

 Nicholson, D. J. (2013). Organisms ≠ Machines. Studies in History and Philosophy of

Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 44, 669–678.
 Walsh, D.M. (2018) Objectcy and Agency: Toward A Methodological Vitalism. In
Nicholson, D. and J. Dupré (eds) Everything Flows: Towards a process biology. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.

12 November 28 – Evolution and Ethics

 Street, S., 2006, “A Darwinian Dilemma for Realist Theories of Value,” Philosophical
Studies, 127: 109–66.
 Joyce, R. (2016) Evolution and Moral Naturalism In K. J. Clark (ed.) 2016 The
Blackwell Companion to Naturalism. London: Blackwell. Pp. 370-385

Evaluation:

Assignment Weight Due date

Attendance 10% Throughout

Participation 10% Throughout
Three short critiques 30% (10% each) 1. Sept 26
2. Oct 24
3. Nov 28
Essay outline 15% November 4
Final Essay 35% December 6

Attendance 10%

Attendance consists of two things each worth half of the 10%. The first is being physically present during the
lecture. This will be registered by taking attendance. The second is submitting an ‘entry ticket’ before the
lecture. This is a written answer to one of the questions posted each week on Quercus. Students should choose at
least one question, answer it based on the readings, and submit it through Quercus before the class (so before
3:00 pm on Friday). The answer should be no more than 150 words.

Participation 10%

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Students are expected to take an active part in class by engaging in the discussion.

3 Reading Critiques 10% each 30% total

These are one-page (12 font, single space) short critical essay-like reviews of one of the readings done up to and
including the deadline. They have two main parts: (i) A summary of the main thesis of the paper and the main
argument or arguments supporting that thesis (this includes clarifying the meaning of the central concepts); and
(ii), a critical engagement with the content of the paper. This can take the form of an objection, an elaboration, a
new argument or reason for or against the main thesis, and interesting association with related work in the field
or other fields, etc. You’re not required to, but you can use other sources. If you do, please include the
bibliographic reference.

Essay Draft 15%

Writing a philosophical essay requires substantial preparation. This assignment is an exercise in developing the
skills required for this preparatory phase of philosophical essay writing. I will provide a list of questions for you
to choose as the topic of your essay. You can also propose a topic of your own devising with my approval. Each
topic consists of a statement or thesis. The essay must consist of an argument or set of arguments in favor or
against that statement. This assignment includes stating your thesis, locating your thesis in the context of the
debate, proposing a preliminary structure to develop your thesis, and a basic bibliography with a short comment
explaining the relevance of each bibliographic item for the essay. A more detailed set of instructions will be
provided later.

Final essay 35%:

This is a 2500-word essay (not including references or abstract) that should reflect the fact that you’ve been
continuously working on it. It should have a clear thesis, argument and structure, including possible objections to
the main thesis. Here are some links on how to write a philosophy paper:

 http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/writing.html
 https://philosophy.fas.harvard.edu/files/phildept/files/
brief_guide_to_writing_philosophy_paper.pd

Communication:
Feel free to contact me at anytime, preferably by email (use your account on the ‘utoronto.ca’
domain only). I shall endeavour to respond to all emails within two working days. You are also
encouraged to attend office hours, or to make an appointment to see me.

Academic Integrity:
The University of Toronto takes academic integrity very seriously, and there are significant
consequences for anyone caught cheating or engaging in academic misconduct. All academic
work in this course must adhere to the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters
(http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/policies/behaveac.htm). Some specifics to keep in
mind:
• In written work, all sources used must be correctly cited, and if material is copied
directly, appropriately cited and placed within quotation marks.
• If you work or study with friends, protect your work by not sharing or emailing your notes or
assignments. You can help friends by discussing your ideas together and comparing your
notes from lectures, but all written work must be completed on your own.

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• You can find help with your assigned work by seeing me in office hours or taking advantage of
the many resources available on campus. I urge you to visit, in particular, the Office of Student
Academic Integrity’s website (http://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/osai/students), where you can find
useful information on how to avoid plagiarism, and the Writing Centre’s website
(http://www.utoronto.ca/writing), where you can find further tips.

Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is a grave academic offence, and it is treated with severity at the University of Toronto.
You must not do it. It is incumbent upon you to apprise yourself of the University’s rules and
sanctions concerning plagiarism. They can be found at the OSAI (Code of Student Conduct)
webpage: www.artsci.utoronto.ca/osai/students.

Advice on academic writing, including how to avoid plagiarism, may be found here
www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice and here http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_paraphrase.html.

If you have any doubts or concerns about your use of other sources and the proper procedures for
citing them, please contact me.

All assignments will be checked by Turnitin for plagiarism.

The use of generative artificial intelligence tools or apps for assignments in this course, including tools like
ChatGPT and other AI writing or coding assistants, is prohibited.

“Normally, students will be required to submit their course essays to the University’s
plagiarism detection tool for a review of textual similarity and detection of possible plagiarism.
In doing so, students will allow their essays to be included as source documents in the tool’s
reference database, where they will be used solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism. The
terms that apply to the University’s use of this tool are described on the Centre for Teaching
Support & Innovation web site (https://uoft.me/pdt-faq).”

Sustainability:
In an attempt to comply with the University’s sustainability directives, all assignments, readings
and class notes will be posted on the course Quercus site. No printed copies will be distributed. I
would ask that you print as little as possible for the purposes of this course. All assignments
should be submitted in electronic format, in some editable document form (.doc, .docx, .pages,
.odt, .pdf). I shall attempt to set up the Assignment Submission function in Quercus. They will be
returned to you electronically. If, for any reason you need to submit a printed document to me,
you may do so on re-used paper.

Special Considerations:
There is a vast variety of ways of learning. I shall try to accommodate your way to the best of my
abilities. If you need any particular learning assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Accessibility:
The University of Toronto is committed to accessibility, and students with diverse learning needs
are welcome in this course. Please feel free to approach me or Accessibility Services
(http://www.studentlife.utoronto.ca/as) if you have any accessibility concerns about the course,
the classroom, or any course materials. We want to assist you in achieving academic success.

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If you require accessibility accommodation, please check the University of Toronto AODA
Office, or Academic Campus Events Office. Here are the links
http://aoda.hrandequity.utoronto.ca/
https://www.ace.utoronto.ca/
All accommodations need to be reported to one or both of these divisions in order to ensure
students’ accommodations are met appropriately.
There is a vast variety of ways of learning. I shall try to accommodate your way to the best of my
abilities. If you need any particular learning assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Missed assignment/classes:
Students who are absent from class for any reason (e.g., COVID, other illness or injury, family
situation) and who require consideration for missed academic work should report their absence
through the online absence declaration. The declaration is available on ACORN under the
Profile and Settings menu. Students should also advise their instructor of their absence.

Resources for Students:

 General student services and resources (Student Life)
 Resources on conducting online research (Library Research Help)
 Resources on academic support (Academic Success Centre)
 Writing centre/other learner support (Writing Centres)
 Information on accessibility (Accessibility Services)
 Information on Quercus support (Quercus Student Guide)

Copyright:
The unauthorised use of any form of device to audiotape, photograph, video-record or otherwise
reproduce lectures, course notes or teaching materials provided by instructors is covered by
the Canadian Copyright Act and is prohibited. Students must obtain prior written consent to such
recording. In the case of private