Snowy Portland

Wow: Portland was an absolute disaster! I went home to visit my family (once I-84 opened up again after being closed for a few days). We already know from the previous year that Portlanders can't drive in snow (I was fortunate enough to learn in New Hampshire). But this was a whole different ballgame. . . . With no --- or few --- snowplows clearing off the foot or so of snow, things ground to a halt. Huge ruts in the roads formed. It was like driving a rollercoaster. Someone sent me this time-lapse video of cars trying to make it up a little hill. Pretty funny stuff:



We're now in New York City where ironically it was just randomly warm and pleasant (read high 50s!). The world has gone haywire!

Ethics in Science Course

I've uploaded a draft syllabus for my ethics in science class (PHIL 450) for Spring 2009 for those interested students. It's just a draft: more readings will be added as we go along. I'm going to try out a new aspect of the course by increasing my blogging responsibilities with a course blog. Luckily I'll have some "co-bloggers" (those enrolled in the course).

Ethics in Science 2009 Syllabus

Snowy Moscow

It's been fun in the snow for Belly as she turned a year old. And yes, she's wearing pink, fleece dog-booties — otherwise she ended up with snowballs on her feet. Now hopefully the snow will calm down in the gorge long enough for us to drive to Portland (and then to New York for New Year).

Philosophy of Biology in Spring 2009

A few students have asked about my Philosophy of Biology course (PHIL 417/517, W 3:30–5:50, Spring 2009). Here's a near-final draft of the syllabus that will answer questions about the requirements and topics. Let me point out a few things for interested parties: First, the course will not be a survey. I've decided to alternate between offering more survey-style courses on the philosophy of biology (really surveys of a limited terrain within the phil bio world) and more focused, topic-based courses — the latter will be in odd years; the former in even years. In this case (an odd year par excellence), the topics we'll be dealing with will cluster around questions about biological taxonomy, biological laws, and reductionism — coincidentally all questions that I am actively working on. Thus, the course will feature a healthy dose of my articles, for better or worse. If you're inclined to think worse (my mother chided me about doing this before --- one of her professors in college apparently did something similar, to ill effect), then you should perhaps wait a year to take the course when I'll be much diluted. If you like the idea of talking about and influencing research that is currently going on, then you should enjoy the course.

Second, as the course will be taught as an advanced philosophy course (an undergrad-grad "slash" course), it is highly advisable that you have a bit of philosophy and biology under your belt (students interested in completing the Bioethics Minor should not start with this course!). If you feel especially nervous about your knowledge of evolutionary biology, I can recommend these two classic texts: Ridley's or Futuyma's. In fact, 3 credits of philosophy and 3 credits of biology are prerequisites for being in the class. Apparently, though the registrar will allow you to register for PHIL 417 without either or both (something about not being able to automatically handle non-specific prereqs). That doesn't detract from the fact that they are prerequisites still: if you do not meet them, then you need my permission to take the course.

I'll soon post the course website here. In the meantime, you wish to take a look at the course books as you course-shop, I've ordered Elliott Sober's excellent anthology Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology (3rd Edition, MIT 2006) and Lewontin's little book The Triple Helix. I also asked the UI Bookstore to order a few copies of Sterelny and Griffith's excellent and nicely named introductory text in Phil Bio as an optional text. Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions about the course or need to chat about your preparation for it in order to take it.

Phil Bio 2009 Syllabus

Laws in Lonely Worlds

Chris Haufe and I were just informed of the acceptance of a paper we've been tinkering with for a while, "Where No Mind Has Gone Before: Exploring Laws in Distant and Lonely Worlds", in the International Studies in the Philosophy of Science. The two referees offered us some quite helpful comments, but of course the most comment to deal with (even when offered in a friendly way) is: "Say more about this. . . . (the final section)". Hmmm. . . . yes. . . . I see your point. Hopefully we'll be able to add something without doubling the length of the paper. We'll see! Is there no room for tentative speculation to close philosophy papers anymore?!