An examination of the place of the organism in evolutionary theory from the early 1900s to the present. Biology is the science of living things, and yet, paradoxically, living things--organisms--have been comprehensively left out of the Modern Synthesis theory of evolution that developed in the twentieth century. This course surveys the reasons--historical, philosophical and empirical--for the marginalisation of organisms from evolutionary theory. It examines the ways in which evolutionary developmental biology attempts to restore the organisms to a central place in evolutionary biology. Offered by faculty in the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology.
6 full courses, including two half-courses or one full-year course in any one or more of EEB, BIO or HPS