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School of Philosophy · ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
This intermediate level course introduces the field of philosophy of biology and explores key questions within the contemporary discipline such as the nature and diversity of life on (and off) Earth, what biology can tell us about human nature, the explanatory power of natural selection, the role of modelling in the biological sciences and the extension of evolutionary thinking to the cultural and technological domain. The course draws on material in both philosophy and the life sciences including evolutionary biology, psychology and ecology and students collaborate across these disciplines. Real-life challenges such as the allocation of resources in ecology and conservation biology, the appropriate interpretation of human genetic analyses are engaged with.
Reading response quizzes (5 minutes, weekly in-class)
Learning outcomes 1, 3
Workshop Participation
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Short written assignment (1000 words)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4
Long written assignment (2000 words)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4
130 hours of total student learning time made up from: a) 36 hours of workshop participation over 12 weeks. b) 94 hours of independent student research, reading and writing. Other Information This course can be counted as a Group B course towards a degree of Bachelor of Science.
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