DARWINIAN   REVOLUTION
Biology 120       - -       Summer, 2020     - -     Worcester State Univ.
Prof. Eli C. Minkoff, Ph.D.

REQUIRED TEXTS:
    Darwin, Charles. ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION.... Facsimile of the first edition.
            Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press.
    Dawkins, Richard. THE SELFISH GENE   New York: Oxford University Press
    Wilson, E. O. THE SOCIAL CONQUEST OF EARTH. New York: W.W. Norton
    Online sources and library reserves as listed below.
THE FOLLOWING LINKS (incorporated by reference) are considered part of this syllabus:   Course expectations | Grading | Exams | How To Study | Video info. | Acad. Affairs Info. | course blog


C L A S S   S C H E D U L E   and   R E A D I N G   A S S I G N M E N T S
(still subject to change)
DATES: TOPICS AND READING ASSIGNMENTS:
Unit1
July 13-17 		Course introduction.   Greek and Roman nature-philosophers.
        Read: B. Russell: History of Western Philosophy (pdf version online): pages 42-47top, 82-91, 136-139;
            Bailey: The Greek Atomists and Epicurus pages 14-16, 28-34, 117-128;
            Lucretius: De Rerum Naturae (excerpt).
Chain of Being (scala naturae) and Fixity of Species. Plato, Aristotle, Pope, Linnaeus.
        Read: Aristotle: De Anima (On the Soul) book 2 chapter 3; also Metaphysics, book Delta ch. 2 (pages 40bot-42top)
            Pope's ESSAY ON MAN, Epistle I: verses IV (second half) and VIII (first half).
Environmental determinism (Geoffroy, Lamarck, Humboldt) and the French Revolution. Cuvier, Goethe and the Bauplan concept.
        Read: Lamarck: Zoological Philosophy, pages xxx-xlviii, 2, 44-46, 57-59, 106-115, 122-127.
Geology before Darwin. Fossils, catastrophism, uniformitarianism; Hutton, Lyell.
        "The result, therefore, of our present enquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning,--no prospect of an end." — Hutton 1788
Natural Theology. Charles Darwin's family, youth, and education.
        Read: Paley, NATURAL THEOLOGY: pages 1-16, 198-211 (NOTE: Other editions have different pagination);
            also: Erasmus Darwin
Unit2
July 20-24 		Voyage of HMS Beagle; geographic distribution on continents and islands.
        Read: Darwin: ORIGIN, pages 1-4, 346-352, 390-399

Malthus, animal breeders; Vestiges; barnacles; Wallace & Linnean Society papers
        Read: Malthus ch. 1,2;     also: Darwin and Wallace Shift the Paradigm ;     also:   Wallace 1858 (all)


Darwin's ORIGIN: natural selection
        Read: ORIGIN pages vii-xxvii plus chs. 1-6.
Darwin's ORIGIN: branching descent, classification, phylogeny; homology explained.
        Read: ORIGIN chs. 7-14;       also: Minkoff/Baker pages 124-141

Reception in various countries: positive receptions (T.H. Huxley, Spencer, Haeckel)
Reception: negative & lukewarm receptions   Discussion and review
FIRST EXAM (details to come)

Unit3
July 27-31 		Mendelian genetics; DeVries and mutations; Morgan and fruit flies.
Natural selection demonstrated: corn experiments, industrial melanism, mimicry.

Era of Controversy. Modern Synthesis.       Fisher, Dobzhansky, J. Huxley, Mayr

Geographic variation within species;    
Speciation       Read: Minkoff/Baker pages 151-153
Phylogenetics and cladistics

Selected highlights of animal evolution

Great transitions. Adaptive shifts and adaptive radiation.
        Read: Gould and Lewontin
Insect evolution: wings, metamorphosis, mouthparts, etc.

Unit4
Aug. 3-7 		Dawkins's SELFISH GENE       Read entire book.
Sociobiology and kin selection; Hamilton's rule         Read: Minkoff/Baker ch. 8
Sex differences and sexual selection. Feminism and other social trends. Ciani & Pellizzari

Music and poetry in a Darwinian context       Read: Three poems;         also: Miller: Evolution of human music...  pages 1-12.
        also: articles by   Abbott: Music, Maestro, Please!   |   McDermott: Evolution of Music   |   Marcus & Miller: Did humans invent music?

Wilson's SOCIAL CONQUEST       Read entire book; also Review by Dawkins and article by Hammond
Morality and evolutionary ethics
        Read: Rosenberg: Darwinism in Contemporary Moral Philosophy...
        Evolutionary Theory and Psychology
Unit5
Aug. 10-14 		Discussion and review
SECOND EXAM (details to come)

  Primate evolution     Human origins
Races and racism I
        Read: Minkoff/Baker ch. 7;       also: Barbujani/Pigliucci

Races and racism II

Eugenics
Genomics and Darwinian medicine. Pathogens and the "evolutionary arms race".
        Read: Herper: Race-Based Medicine Arrives
Unit6
Aug. 17-21 		Creationism I (before 1960)
        Explore the website: ncse.com       also read: Creationism past and present
        also: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Creationism         also: Minkoff/Baker pages 142-150;
Creationism II (1960-2000)    
        Read: Matsumura & Mead: Ten major court cases...

Creationism today; legal and educational struggles
Aug. 22 is deadline to finish 9 video quizzes for extra 10th credit

Week of
Aug. 24-28 		Dobzhansky: making sense of biology     Read: Dobzhansky
Last class. Discussion and review
FINAL EXAM (details to come)