17.-21. Oktober 2011, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB)
The course is 5 days in total (approx. 40 hours), plus preparations.
Students are expected to follow all three days of the international symposium as well as the two course days. The work-load of the essay is estimated to 3 full weeks and will be evaluated accordingly.
Participation at all days of the course and symposium, plus essay writing, amounts to 10 credits.
There will be no credits given if these requirements are not met.
An essay must be handed in no later than 5 December (approx. 15 pages). The topic of the essay must be related to the central themes of the symposium, such as causation, dispositions, philosophy of biology, reductionism, emergence, causal complexity or context-sensitivity. If possible, relate your essay to your own research.
Background reading for the essay includes the list of mandatory reading plus a selection from the optional reading list (about 600 pages in total). The mandatory reading list should be read before the course.
Participants: maximum 30
The course will be given in English. There is no course fee, but the participants must cover their own expenses (travel, accommodation, food). Registration is open for as long as there are available spaces to rani.anjum@umb.no. More information is found on our webpage: http://www.umb.no/causci/article/caubio
Arrival
All information about how to get to UMB, Ås is found here. On Monday morning you can get the train towards Moss at 8:43 from Nationalteatret, 8:48 from Oslo S, or 9:11 from Ski. Elias Núñez will meet those of you who arrive with this train in the café at Ås station.
One can also get the bus 906 towards Dyrløkke and get off at the stop called Universitetet i Ås. The bus leaves 27 and 57 past every hour from Ås train station. The Bioteknologi building is the biggest and most modern-looking building to the right when you get to the main university entrance. There is a parking lot in front of it. How to find the Bioteknologi building on your own (in pictures).
See map over campus here. The Bioteknologi building is number 44 on the map.
Program
Monday 17 October: Introduction lectures
Morning session:
Place: Bioteknologibygningen, 3rd floor, room 3.A.11
10-12: Terje Kvilhaug: Dispositions: historical overview, justification, scope
Afternoon session:
Place: Tårnbygningen, 1st floor, room 131
13-15: Frode Kjosavik: Reductionism and its alternatives
15-17: Rani Lill Anjum: Causation and tendencies
Tuesday 18 to Thursday 20 October: International symposium
See CauBio progam
Place: TF bygningen, entrance through the fence, building to the right, 1st floor, room TF102
Friday 21 October: Lectures and discussion sessions
Place: same as the CauBio symposium (TF building)
10-12: Stephen Mumford: Introduction lecture and discussion
13-15: John Dupré: Introduction lecture and discussion
15-16: Essay preparation
Place: Same as for the symposium
Mandatory course reading
- Sterelny, Kim & Paul E. Griffiths (1999) Sex and Death. An Introduction to Philosophy of Biology. University of Chicago Press. Part I and II, plus chapter 10, 13 and 15.
- F. J. Ayala & R. Arp (eds) Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Biology, Wiley-Blackwell 2010. Part I ‘Is it possible to reduce biological explanations to explanations in chemistry and/or physics?’ (papers by Evelyn Fox Keller and John Dupré).
- John Dupré (2007) ‘The Constituents of Life’, Spinoza Lectures
- Mumford ‘Dispositions’ [expanded version], in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Mumford ‘Causal Powers and Capacities’, in Oxford Handbook of Causation, H. Beebee, C. Hitchcock and P. Menzies (eds), Oxford: Oxford University Press: 265-78.
Optional essay reading
- John Dupré (2001) Human Nature and the Limits of Science, Oxford University Press
- John Dupré (1993) The Disorder of Things, Harvard University Press
- John Dupré: Darwin's Legacy - What Evolution Means Today, Oxford 2003
Particular relevance: ch. 6: Human Nature and ch. 8: Conclusion
- Alexander Powell and John Dupré (2009) 'From molecules to systems: the importance of looking both ways', Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 40: 54–64
- Barry Barnes and John Dupré (2008) Genomes and what to make of them, University of Chicago Press
- Elliott Sober (2000) Philosophy of Biology. Westview Press, 2nd edition.
- Elliott Sober and David Sloan Wilson (2003) Unto Others: The evolution and psychology of unselfish behaviour, Harvard University Press
- Webster and Goodwin (1996) Form and Transformation – Generative principles in biology, Cambridge
- Frode Kjosavik (2007) ’From symbolism to information? – Decoding the gene code’, Philosophy and Biology 22: 333-49
- Richard Lewontin (2000) The Triple Helix – Gene, organism and environment, Harvard University Press
- S. J. Gould and R. C. Lewontin (1979) ‘The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: a critique of the adaptationist programme’, Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 205, 581-598
- Michael Ruse (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Biology, Oxford University Press 2008. List of contents.
- William C. Wimsatt: Re-Engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings: Piecewise Approximations to Reality, Harvard University Press, 2007
- Lenny Moss (2003) What Genes Can’t Do, MIT Press.
- Alexander Rosenberg (2006) Darwinian Reductionism Or, How to Stop Worrying and Love Molecular Biology, The University of Chicago Press.
- PhilosophyTV: John Dupré discussing reductionism, physicalism and emergence with Alex Rosenberg (1 hour) http://www.philostv.com/john-dupr-and-alex-rosenberg/
- P. Clayton and P. Davies (eds) The Re-Emergence of Emergence: The emergentist hypothesis from science to religion, Oxford University Press 2006.
- Richard Dawkins (1976) The Selfish Gene, Oxford University Press
- Stephen Mumford (1998) Dispositions, Oxford University Press.
- George Molnar (2003) Powers, Oxford University Press
- R. Harré and E. H. Madden (1975) Causal Powers: A Theory of Natural Necessity, Blackwell.
- Stephen Mumford and Rani Lill Anjum (2011) Getting Causes From Powers, Oxford University Press (Discount flyer, 20% off until 16 December)
- Nancy Cartwright (1999) The Dappled World – A study of the boundaries of science, Cambridge
- Nancy Cartwright (1989) Nature’s Capacities and Their Measurements, Oxford University Press
- Anna Marmodoro (ed.) The Metaphysics of Powers – Their grounding and their manifestations, Routledge 2010.
The course is organised by CauSci and UMB School of Economics and Business.
