Jump to: Courses – Supervised Reading – Course Notes
Prospective graduate students
I am always glad to talk to graduate students interested in doing work in my field. Don’t hesitate to drop me a note. Students with degrees in Computer Science, Mathematics or Biology who want to work on conceptual questions in theoretical biology are encouraged to apply.
Please keep in mind that I strongly prefer to work with students who are interested in participating in my current research projects. For philosophy of biology work, previous studies in biology are not required, but you should be willing to learn what you need to know for your project.
In particular, I am currently looking for students interested in modeling and/or simulation work, for three projects that are suitable for Master theses (and can also serve as a stepping stone towards PhD work). These projects are concerned with: (1) selection and drift; (2) cultural evolution; (3) evolution of the chromosome.
I also have a couple of projects related to scientific explanation and explanation more generally that are appropriate for students who want to do philosophy.
Students interested in historical research: I have some historical questions that might be appropriate for students to investigate (among them one that requires French, and two that require Russian).
I expect my students to participate in the philosophy of biology reading group.
Courses
My courses mainly focus on philosophy of biology. I teach an introductory course on the topic, and graduate seminars devoted to particular topics that are related to my particular research interests at any given time. I also teach historical courses related to aspects of biology that are at the focus of what I am working on. I intend to occasionally teach courses about topics related to the history or philosophy of technology, particularly current technology.
Unless otherwise indicated all courses are graduate seminars.
2018-B
- Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
- Social Norms
2018-A
2017-B
- Philosophers Writing about Technology and the Future (aka as Philosophy Meets the Future)
- Imagination, Fiction, Narrative: Contemporary discussions in philosophy of mind and cognitive science
2017-A
- Contemporary Reading of Charles Darwin
- Biological Thinking (mandatory prereq. course for MA students)
2016-A
- Philosophy of Biology
- Biological Thinking (mandatory prereq. course for MA students)
2016-B
- Simulations in Philosophy
- Cultural Evolution, Cognition, and the Baldwin Effect (advanced seminar)
2015-A
- Muti-level selection (advanced seminar)
- Simulations in Philosophy
2015-B
- Fringe Science
- Imagination, Fiction, Narrative: Contemporary discussions in philosophy of mind and cognitive science
2014-A
- Biological Thinking (mandatory prereq. course for MA students)
- Contemporary Reading of Charles Darwin
2014-B
- Hoaxes, Bias and Fraud in Science (Monday, 14-18. Gilman 449)
- Philosophy of Biology (Sunday, 12-16. Gilman 455)
2013-A
- Biological Thinking (mandatory prereq. course for MA students)
- Social Evolution
2013-B
- Fictions and Metaphors in Science (focusing on modeling)
- Solving Philosophical Questions Using Models and Simulation: Signals & Language
2012-A
- The Logic of Natural Selection - Introduction to Philosophy of Biology
- Imagination, Fiction, Narrative: Contemporary discussions in philosophy of mind and cognitive science
2012-B
- The Structure of the Biological Sciences - Individuality, Reduction, Mechanisms, and Models
- Emotions and Moral Judgement: The New Sentimentalism (co-taught with Prof. Eva Jablonka)
2011-A
2011-B
- Evolutionary Narratives
- Evolution and The Levels of Selection
2010-B
- Philosophy of Science I (undergraduate course)
- Philosophy of Science II (undergraduate course)
- Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection
Planned
- Philosophy of Biology I
- New approaches to teleology
- Models and Idealizations in Science
- Methodological Indvidualism
Supervised Reading
One of the requirements at the Cohn Institute is taking a supervised reading course. Supervised reading is a great opportunity to read and discuss classic texts that every educated person should know. I am very flexible about what to read. In general, my preferences and recommendations as regards the choice of texts are as follows:
For historical texts, I prefer texts in English from the 19-20th centuries. I am mostly interested in the history of the theory of evolution (e.g., Lamarck, Darwin, Wallace), and genetics. I strongly prefer primary source materials. Reading secondary literature is possible, but please try to relate the reading to primary source materials that we can access. For specific recommendations, contact me.
Students interested in pursuing philosophical texts should consider recently published books or classical works that fall in my areas of interest. These include philsophy of biology, and several niches in philosophy of mind, language, and computation. Since finding an appropriate text my be a daunting task, please contact me so I can direct you to books that I am interested in at the moment. It is also possible to read several journal articles that attack the same or related issues.
This semester
This semester we are reading Ian Hacking’s The Taming of Chance (1990).
Texts that have been discussed recently in my supervised readings
- Contrastive reading of Tomasello, M. (2009) Why We Cooperate and Kropotkin P. (1902) Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution.
- Erwin Schrodinger (1942) What is Life?
- Eugene Koonin (2011) The Logic of Chance: The Nature and Origin of Biological Evolution.
- Erich Auerbach (1946) Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature.
- A collection of Israeli judicial opinions (court rulings) regarding the right to privacy.
- Bas van Fraassen (2008) Scientific Representation:Paradoxes of Perspective. Oxford University Press.
- Herbert Simon (1969) The Sciences of the Artificial. A classic. Google scholar says it has been cited 15,934 timess so far…; Gregory Bateson (1972) Steps to an Ecology of Mind; Andrew Pickering (2010) The cybernetic brain: Sketches of another future.
- Patricia Churchland (2011) Braintrust.
- Karl Popper (1957) The Poverty of Historicism.
- Lisa Feldman Barrett (2017) How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain.
- Cecilia Heyes (2018) Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking.
- Patricia Churchland (2019) Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition.
Course Notes
