This course will focus on a range of foundational problems in evolutionary biology, including the possibility of meaningful explanations and laws, evolutionary explanations of human behavior from sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, and controversies over the meanings and roles of a variety of foundational concepts (including fitness, adaptation, optimality, and probability). Philosophers have historically played a central role in these debates, and so we will also examine the ways in which the theory and practice of evolutionary biology have changed in light of philosophical arguments and observations. This course will be accessible both to philosophers interested in the epistemological and metaphysical status of evolutionary biology, and to biologists interested in better understanding the foundations of their field. Although there are no formal prerequisites for this course, students will be expected to have taken courses in either philosophy or biology.
