SYLLABUS FOR HONORS
MODULE : VITALISM OLD AND NEW: WILL COMPLEXITY BE
THE NEXT WAVE AFTER MOLECULAR BIOLOGY?
Donald C. Mikulecky,
Professor of Physiology
Office: 3-012E
Sanger Hall, East Campus, Office phone : 828-4500
EMAIL:
mikuleck@hsc.vcu.edu, Home Page: http://views.vcu.edu/~mikuleck/
Summer 2000:
Tuesdays, July 18, - August 15, 2:00-4:30 PM, Bus. 1116B
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MODULE:
We will be
discussing modern views of the uniqueness of living systems. This will include a review of
the historical reasons for the rejection of vitalism and the subsequent dominance of
Cartesian reductionism. Holistic and
reductionist approaches will be contrasted. The relationship of biology to physics and
chemistry will be critically examined. Social
change is deeply involved in these issues in the areas of health care reform, genetic
engineering, and others. The influence of
reductionist thinking on these social issues will be foremost in our discussions.
TEXT:
Rosen, R. (1999) Essays
on Life Itself, Columbia Univ. Press, NY
Available in the VCU
Bookstore
Recommended:
The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising
Culture by Fritjof Capra, Bantam Books, 1982.
The
Dialectical Biologist by
R. Levins and R. Lewontin Harvard, Cambridge, MA, 1885.
METHOD OF
EVALUATION
Students will be
asked to choose topics for a short (around 10 double-spaced typewritten pages [it need not
be typed]) paper due at the end of the Summer Session (August 17, 2000). These may be turned in to the Honors Program
Office or to me directly. Class participation
in discussions and the paper will be the two evaluation tools. Each will count 50% . One
goal of the essay will be the integration of the course material into other aspects of the
student's work. Another will be to try to
write as an integral member of the class as a group.
This may be significantly different from expectations in other courses, so
please try to understand these guidelines. A
full 15% of the evaluation of the paper will be based on how well each paper is part of a
composite whole. This can be achieved in a
number of ways. One which I provide is to
require each of you to write a proposal due on the second day, July 25, 2000 (This
mandatory, no excuses accepted!), which will be distributed to all your classmates. The way to earn the credit for group participation
is to heed the proposals and class discussions and write about them in your paper. [PLEASE
MAKE ENOUGH COPIES OF YOUR PROPOSAL FOR EVERYONE IN THE CLASS.] This is one class where collaboration and working
together with one or more of your classmates will not only be recognized, but is required! The remainder of the grade for your paper will be
distributed as follows:
Overall quality 25%
Understanding of
concepts in handouts and lecture/discussion 25%
Organization 10%
Use of references
(This includes class discussion and internet material as well as e-mail discussions) 15%
FORMAT FOR
PROPOSAL: (One page will suffice)
Background: Why is this a good
subject? what makes it worth writing about?
Goals: What do you hope to achieve in this paper?
Methods: How do you expect to achieve these goals?
BACKGROUND:
This module is
self-contained, but also the first in a series of related modules.
Second module:
"New models of living systems" introduces the impact of Chaos and Fractal
Geometry on the way we view living systems. The
failure of reductionism to survive these new findings presents an interesting juncture
between eastern and western philosophy and foretells a revolution in science. Some simple examples of fractals and chaotic
dynamics are presented and the impact of such models on our interpretation of mechanistic
views of life is examined.
Third module:
"Neural networks, artificial intelligence, artificial life and societal control: do
we control technology or does it control us?" We examine the impact of these new
technologies on our freedom of choice and our ability to control our own destiny. The man-machine interface in the age of neural
network technology and artificial intelligence will be discussed in detail. An effort will be made to understand the capacity
and limits of machine intelligence. The
impact of computers and telecommunications on all aspects of our lives will be examined. The goal will be to arrive at some strategy for
human and humane control over these influences in the coming century.
COURSE OUTLINE:
First meeting
(Tuesday, July 18, 2000) Introduction:
I.
Introduction to
This Module
II.
Class discussion
on :
Ø Vitalism, Where it
came from and why it became ridiculed.
Ø Descartes'
reductionism and the machine metaphor: The birth of modern science.
Ø Newton's paradigm.
Ø A modern vitalism
and its rational basis.
Ø The relation
between biology and the other natural sciences.
Ø The failure of the
Newtonian paradigm in biology.
III.
The appendices to
the syllabus
Second Meeting
(Tuesday, July 25, 2000): Discussion of Text
Topics:
Ø Preface
Ø Introduction to
Part I: On Biology and Physics
Ø Chapter 3: What is Biology?
Third Meeting
(Tuesday, August 1, 2000): Discussion of Text Topics:
Ø Introduction to
Part III: On Genericity
Ø Chapter 9:
Genericity as Information
Ø Chapter 10:
Syntactics and Semantics in Languages
Fourth Meeting:
(Tuesday, August 8, 2000): Discussion of Text Topics:
Ø Introduction to
Part IV: Similarity and Dissimilarity in
Biology
Ø Chapter 16: Order
and Disorder in Biological Control Systems
Ø Chapter 17: What
Does it Take to Make an Organism?
Fifth Meeting: (Tuesday, August 15, 2000): Discussion of Text
Topics:
Ø Introduction to
Part V: On Biology and Technology
Ø Chapter 18: Some
lessons of Biology
Ø Chapter 20: On the Phiolosophy of Craft
Papers due at the
end of the Summer Session (August 17, 2000)
Possible Topics
for Papers:
The topic for your
paper can be selected from the provided list or some other topic may be substituted with
my approval.
Possible topics for
paper:
Parallels between
the holism-reductionism approaches in biology and another field (possibly yours if it
isn't biology).
The new vitalism and
the future of our planet (ecological ramifications).
Has science become
too commercial? (Pro or con).
Is there a place for
teleology in science?
Science in the
service of mankind.
Is there a
difference between science and technology?
The impact of
science on medicine.
The two cultures:
science and values in the modern technological world.
Is vitalism a valid
concept?
Descartes: origins
of dualism and mechanism.
What constitutes an
explanation? Mechanistic vs. relational
approaches to
knowing.
The contrast between
Eastern and Western philosophy and the ongoing revolution in science.
Are organisms
machines?
Environment or Gaia:
Is earth "alive"?
Biology: More
general than physics and chemistry, or a special case?
The role of theory
vs. empiricism in science.
The emerging science
of complexity.
Health care reform: Is it related to the reductionist/holism debate?
The role of the mind
in healing.
SUGGESTED SOURCES
FOR READINGS:
Briggs, J. and David Peat, Turbulent Mirror
Harper & Row, 1989.
Waldrop, M. M.
(1992) Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge
of Order and Chaos, Touchstone, N. Y.
Lewin, R. (1992) Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos, Collier
Books, N. Y.
Levy, S. (1992 ) Artificial
Life, Pantheon, NY.
Bohm,D. (1980) Wholeness and the Implicate Order, Routledge,
Kegan and Paul,
London.
Rosen, R. (1991)
Life Itself, Columbia Univ. Press, NY
Broad, W. and N.
Wade (1982) Betrayers of the Truth, Simon and
Schuster, N. Y.
Peacocke, A.R.
(1985) Reductionism in academic disciplines SRHE & NFER-Nelson, Surrey.
Peck, M. S. (1983) People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil,
Simon and Shuster, N. Y.
Rose, S., L. J.
Kamin & R. C. Lewontin (1984) Not in Our Genes:
Biology, Ideology, and Human Nature, Penguin, N. Y.
Rose, H. and S.
Rose, eds. (1976) Ideology of/in the Natural
Sciences, Shenkman, Cambridge, MA.
Roszak, T. (1974)
The monster and the titan: Science, Knowledge, and Gnosis, in Science and its Public: The Changing Relationship,Proc.
Am. Acad. Arts and Sci. 103:17-32.
Rosen,R., Anticipatory systems, Pergamon, London (1985).
Rosen,R., Theoretical Biology and Complexity, Academic Press,
London (1985).
Peacocke, A. R., An Introduction to the physical chemistry of biological
organization, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1983).