My history and philosophy of biology seminar had its first meeting on Monday (8 January). I mentioned a post or so ago that I would post the reading list; you'll find it below, sans some of the citation information. Here's the syllabus. (Anyone who wants cites can email me.)
The seminar follows the arc of Mike Dietrich's, "From Mendel to Molecules" paper in Fox and Wolf's Evolutionary Genetics: Concepts and Case Studies. Incidentally, that anthology is just excellent. I don't think there's a paper not worth reading in the bunch. (If only philosophers of biology would pick it up!) Razib, over at Gene Expression, has been working through the book.
At any rate, as I say, my seminar follows the arc of Dietrich's paper. Dietrich's brief history of evolutionary genetics is of its core controversies, starting with early critiques of Darwin's pangenesis all the way to controversies over the molecular clock. My course structures the history in the same way, but I don't cover as much ground. Actually, I can't cover that much ground in what for me will be an abbreviated quarter --only 8 meetings. (And I doubt I could do much better in 10.)
We started out yesterday with Dietrich's paper as background and I gave an overview of the topics we're going to focus on. There's a general theme of the rise and fall (?) of panselectionism. But there are more specific issues in the conceptual foundations of evolutionary genetics and the nature of scientific controversy. Our next meeting, a sort of two-in-one since we won't meet on MLK Day, covers the origins of population genetics and a sketch of the evolutionary synthesis --or at least the synthesis of Mendelian genetics and Darwinian natural selection. We'll have read:
- Provine 2001, The Origins of Theoretical Population Genetics
- Fisher 1922, "On the Dominance Ratio"
- Fisher 1930a, "The Distribution of Gene Ratios for Rare Mutations"
- Wright 1931, "Evolution in Mendelian Populations"
- Haldane 1932, The Causes of Evolution, Appendix
- Provine 1986, Sewall Wright and Evolutionary Biology, chapter 8 (on Wright, Fisher, and evolution)
- Hodge 1992, "A Study of Fisher and Wright"
- Gould 1983, "The Hardening of the Modern Synthesis"
I realize that's a huge amount of reading, including an entire book. But, in fact, I edited the list down. And, again, it's a two-in-one meeting.
Once we get the back story down, we'll launch into portions of the controversy between Fisher and Wright (see my own views here, here, and here), starting out with Fisher's Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection:
- Fisher 1930b, The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, chapter 2 (on the theorem)
- Price 1972, "Fisher's 'Fundamental Theorem' Made Clear"
- Ewens 1989, "An Interpretation and Proof of the Fundamental Theorem...."
- Edwards 1994, "The Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection"
- Plutynski 2006, "What was Fisher's Fundamental Theorem...?"
I think I have a new way of reconstructing Fisher's construction of his theorem. So I'll no doubt have a lot to say about Plutynski's historical and philosophical view, and perhaps Price's, Ewens', and Edwards' views as well. After the FTNS, we look at Wright's adaptive landscape:
- Wright 1932, "The Roles of Mutation...."
- Provine 1986, Sewall Wright and Evolutionary Biology, chapter 9 (Wright's SBT)
- Wright 1988, "Surfaces of Selective Value Revisited"
- Ruse 1996, "Are Pictures Really Necessary?"
- Skipper 2004a "The Heuristic Role of … the Adaptive Landscape"
- Pigliucci and Kaplan 2006, Making Sense of Evolution, chapter 8 (on adaptive landscapes)
In addition to looking at Fisher's and Wright's disagreements with regard to their general theories, we'll also look at the problems endemic to each view and, on the landscape stuff, we'll worry a little about the role of diagrams in producing scientific knowledge.
Of course, this is really the tip of the iceberg in a discussion of Fisher's and Wright's theoretical disagreements. But time is a problem. And so we'll proceed to look at two key empirical debates, over the Panaxia dominula and Cepaea nemoralis:
- Provine 1986, Sewall Wright and Evolutionary Biology, chapter 12 (1940-1955)
- Turner 1987, "Random Genetic Drift...."
- Skipper forthcoming, "Revisiting the R. A. Fisher-Sewall Wright Controversy"
- Beatty 1987a, "Dobzhansky and Drift...."
- Millstein forthcoming, "Concepts of Drift and Selection...."
I'm not just interested in the debates over the roles of selection and drift in these cases, but also in the concepts of drift in particular and changes in methodology between the moth work and the snail work.
Finally, we get to the debates between Coyne, Barton, and Turelli and Wade and Goodnight over Wright's SBT, capping off our long if not truncated study of the Fisher-Wright Controversy.
- Coyne, Barton, and Turelli 1997, "A Critique of Sewall Wright's SBT"
- Wade and Goodnight 1998, "Evolution in Metapopulations...."
- Skipper 2002, "The Persistence of the R. A. Fisher-Sewall Wright Controversy"
- Skipper 2004b, "Calibration of Laboratory Models in Population Genetics"
- Plutynski 2005, "Parsimony in the Fisher-Wright Debate"
Of course we'll focus on the specific issues that occupied Coyne and Wade. But I also want to look at the role of parsimony in these specific disagreements. I've talked about this before, here. I haven't changed my mind.
Then we leave Fisher and Wright and move forward to the Classical-Balance Controversy and the "Electrophoretic Revolution":
- Muller 1950, "Our Load of Mutations"
- Dobzhansky 1955, "A Review of Some Fundamental Concepts...."
- Beatty 1987b, "Weighing the Risks...."
- Lewontin 1974, The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change, chapter 5 (paradox of variation)
- Gillespie 1991, The Causes of Molecular Evolution, chapter 1 (protein evolution)
- Skipper forthcoming, "Stochastic Evolutionary Dynamics: Drift vs. Draft"
In this part of the course I'm really looking at the nature of selection and explanations of genetic variation. So, the emphasis will largely be on Lewontin's discussion of the Classical and Balance positions and Maynard Smith and Haigh's hitchhiking response and then later Gillespie's new approach in the guise of genetic draft. Lots and lots of selection here folks.
In our last meeting, we'll look at the neutral theory and its role not only in Lewontin's discussion but its place in evolutionary genetics more broadly.
- Dietrich 1994, "Origins of the Neutral Theory"
- Kimura 1968, "Evolutionary Rate at the Molecular Level"
- King and Jukes 1969, "Non-Darwinian Evolution"
- Dietrich 1998, "Paradox and Persuasion"
- Dietrich and Skipper forthcoming, "Manipulating Underdetermination...."
The cornerstone piece is really Dietrich's "Origins of the Neutral Theory." I say just go get it and read it. In addition to exploring the neutral theory's origins, we'll look at the controversy between Takahata and Gillespie over the nature of the molecular clock. More selection, obviously, but also biological theory assessment in situations of underdetermination.
I know I've left a huge amount off my reading list. In part, I did that because I want my students to discover some things on their own. (This is supposed to be a learning experience after all.) But I also had to consider how much heavy reading I could expect a group of mostly philosophy of science students could take in a single week. And I'm sure I'm asking too much. (I always ask too much, so don't suggest I stop, because I won't.)
I'm excited about the seminar. Not only is it the sort of seminar I've wanted to run since I got this job at UC (sorry, Razib), but the timing is terrific: I'm working on Fisher during the spring, and I think a book reflecting the topics of the seminar is falling into place.
We meet next on 22 January. If something interesting happens or if I just have something worth blogging about, I'll do so.
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