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May 25, 2024
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Undergraduate Bulletin 2014-2015 [ARCHIVED BULLETIN]
Course Descriptions
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HNSM 352 - Darwin, Monkeys, Computers and Shakespeare 3 hours
What makes human beings human? Can 100 monkeys with iPads produce Hamlet? The central work of the course, Darwin’s Origin of Species, presents an evolutionary theory that questions the existence of a natural end for man. For most Darwinians, man is just another animal that evolves without any particular end. There is a natural being that is biologically driven and a human being who is culturally constructed, but no natural human being. Since man has no natural end, then no society, culture, or behavior can be universally wrong, just culturally unacceptable. This course will examine whether a Darwinian natural moral sense in the species can exist by discussing topics such as a parents love of children, conjugal bonding of opposite sex partners, slavery, and psychopaths. Along with Darwin’s major work and smaller readings, we will read Darwinian Natural Right: The Biological Ethics of Human Nature by Larry Arnhart.
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HNSM 363 - Science and Responsibility 3 hours
An examination of the relationship of intellectual and social contexts with the process of doing science, raising issues of responsibility that arise at the intersection of science and other human activities. The course will focus on Darwin’s Origin of Species and on questions relating to global warming and/or climate change.
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HNSM 366 - Darwinian Thinking Across Disciplines 3 hours
Evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky famously said that nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. This seminar will explore what it might mean to see all of human knowledge through the lens of Darwinian thinking. Students will use insights from evolutionary science to explore topics in their own disciplines and, drawing on each other’s disciplinary knowledge and expertise, will develop proposals for interdisciplinary research or social action projects.
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HNSM 381 - Continuous and Discrete 3 hours
Darwin’s great book, “Origin of Species” can be looked at as raising the question whether the line of descent from one species to another is continuous transition or progression. In this way, it prepares us to think about the difference between human beings and other natural beings. Is the difference between human beings and the non-humans the world in which they live? The continuous and the discrete is a theme with many variations. What is the relation between a point and a line, between rest and motion, between particles and waves, between knowing and learning. This course will explore as many of these topics as time allows.
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HNSM 382 - Contemporary Issues: Science and Technology 3 hours
Scientific discoveries in the 19th century stimulated the rapid growth of technology that is both blessing and bane to contemporary society. The seminal work of John Dalton, Charles Darwin, James Maxwell, et al., led to revolutionary advances in the physical and biological sciences, which in turn gave us tools capable of dignifying or demeaning our collective existence. In this course we will focus on the origin and history of two contemporary and contentious technological issues, specifically, genetic engineering and nuclear energy. Along the way we will explore the scientific method, the differences between science and technology, and the interdisciplinary nature of rational decision making.
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HNSM 383 - The Evolution of Science: Human Being and Natural Being 3 hours
This course will begin with a close reading of Darwin’s Origin of Species, leading to some questions for discussion. How did Darwin understand evidence? Does experiment play any role in Darwin’s science? How does Darwin’s understanding of science as present in Origin of Species differ from that of Karl Popper or Thomas Kuhn? Matt Ridley’s The Red Queen will give us a basis for talking about how modern genetics contributed to the evolution of the science of evolution. Throughout the course we will have in mind two questions: What is nature? And how do we know that we know?
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HNSM 384 - Evolution, Eugenics, and Disability in America 3 hours
Does Darwin’s theory of evolution change our understanding of what it means to be human? We will begin with Origin of Species, then explore the contentious issues of eugenics and disability in American history and contemporary society.
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