HUM 104: AGE OF DARWIN - PART 5 - The "Darwinian Revolution"

10/25 -- Class Cancelled on Fall 2007

10/30 -- NO CLASS: University President Inauguration

11/01 -- Darwin -- Introduction

• Readings: Darwin Selections: pp. 3-13, 23-40, 44-49, 61-81, 285-87

• No study questions

• Course Notes in pdf format: Part 5, Chapter 18

11/6 -- Darwin -- Argument for theory of evolution through natural selection

• Readings: Darwin Selections: pp. 95-111

• Study Questions
  1. List the different theses about his theory that Darwin states in the Introduction
  2. Why does Darwin want to suggest that the distinction between species and varieties is, perhaps, illegitimate?
  3. Why will there always be struggle for existence?
  4. How does the struggle for existence for life leads to certain variations being preserved?

• Course Notes in pdf format: Part 5, Chapter 19

11/8 Darwin -- Natural Selection and the Divergence of Character

• Readings: Darwin Selections: pp. 111-35

• Study Questions:

  1. Natural Selection is defined as the preservation of favorable characters over the generations. What does count as favorable character? Do you think there are some characters that are always favorable, or always disadvantageous?
  2. Does Darwin present natural selection as a mere eliminative mechanical process or as a positive force?
  3. What is common to natural and sexual selection? What is the difference? Can they conflict with one another?
  4. How does Darwin explain that the existent species are so different from one another? Why is there no species between cats and dogs?
  5. Darwin provides only ``imaginary illustrations", not actual experimental results, as evidence for his theory. To what extend is this acceptable from the point of view of the scientific method according to you?

• Course Notes in pdf format: Part 5, Chapter 20

11/13 Darwin -- Replies to Objections

• Readings: Darwin Selections: pp. 135-74

• Study questions
  1. How is it that Darwin's theory is giving an account of the two great laws: unity of type and conditions of existence
  2. Variations in organisms lead to gradual changes in the species. That said, the geological record seems inconsistent with this claim. What is Darwin's response?
  3. How does Darwin explain the similarities in morphology and embryology of radically different species?
• Course Notes in pdf format: Part 5, Chapter 21

11/15 Darwin -- Darwin and Scientific Method

• Readings:
  • Required: Darwin Selections: pp. 52–7(Herschel), 257 – 65 (Hull), 265-7 (Sedgwick), 267-70 (Owen), , 493-500 (Ruse)
  • Recommended: pp. 28–9 (Mayr), 280-5 (Huxley)

• Study questions
  1. According to Herschel, which is a good candidate for being a true cause of great change in climate in the Earth's history?

  2. According to Hull, after the scientific revolution, what was considered the proper scientific method was the method of induction, which is?

  3. According to Hull, how much did Darwin rely on, respectively, the observation of empirical facts and his theoretical hypotheses?

  4. In the last quote of Darwin given by Hull, under what conditions is an hypothesis worth considering according to Darwin?:

• Course Notes in pdf format: Part 5, Chapter 22

11/20 PEER REVIEW -- MANDATORY -- Come in class with your paper

11/22 Thanksgiving

11/27 Darwin -- The descent of man

• Readings:
  • Darwin Selections: pp. 175-177, 213 – 22, 243 – 54 , 280 – 85 (Huxley)

  • Descartes on animal machines
  • Leibniz on automata

• Study questions:
  1. What does Darwin intend to prove in the Descent of Man?

  2. How do animals compare to humans as far as emotions and reasoning capacities are concerned for Darwin?

  3. How do animals compare to humans as far as social instincts and moral faculties are concerned for Darwin?
  4. Discussion question: in what sense and to what extent (if any) do animal think? Reading Descartes, what do you think is at stake in the issue of animal thinking? What is the link with the Darwin Selections readings?

• Course Notes in pdf format: Part 5, Chapter 23

11/29 Darwin -- The descent of man

12/04 Darwin -- Social Darwinism

• Readings: Darwin Selections, pp. 389 – 408

• Study questions:
  1. What is Spencer's theory? On what scientific theories is it based? What does it propose?

  2. Explain why the law of competition is essential to the progress of humanity according to Carnegie. How does Carnegie reconcile his social Darwinism with his being Christian?

  3. Explain what are the respective weight of struggle and cooperation in the process of evolution according to Kropotkin

  4. Explain what is the prisoner's dilemma. What is it supposed to show? How were the conditions of the experiment modified? What results came out of such modifications of the experiment?

• Course Notes in pdf format: Part 5, Chapter 24

12/6 -- Darwin, Creationism and Intelligent Design

• Readings
  • SCOTT (534-41, 586-92),
  • THE INSTITUTE FOR CREATION RESEARCH (555-7),
  • RUSE (493-500, 605-12),
  • THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (289-300, 617-23),
  • JOHNSON (581-6), BEHE (592-601), AND DORIT (601-4)
  • DANIEL C. DENNETT, ``Show Me the Science'', The New York Times, August 28, 2005: Dennett

• Study questions:
  1. How can we understand the fact that the theory of evolution, while non controversial among scientists, is not accepted by the general public in the United States?
  2. What are the main trends of the anti-evolutionist movement in the past 50 years?
  3. What are Johnson's main contentions against the theory of evolution?
  4. What are the confusions he makes concerning the theory of evolution and scientific methodology?
  5. Explain Behe's argument from complexity.
  6. What are the six fallacies that Dorit finds in Behe's argument?
  7. What is methodological naturalism and how does it rely to science?
  8. How do creationism and the theory of evolution compare in terms of empirical support?
  9. What are the criteria for a theory to qualify as a competing theory? Does creationism fulfill such criteria?

• Course notes :Part 5, Chapter 26