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Spring 2002
This information effective
for Spring 2002.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
Spring 2002
Instructor: Daniel Friedman
MWF 11:00–12:10 p.m.
Stevenson 213
To all majors in Social Sciences (e.g., Anthropology, Economics, Environmental Studies, Politics, Psychology, Sociology) and in Biology and Philosophy:
Have you been looking for an old-fashioned UCSC course that is innovative, interdisciplinary, and intellectual? Consider taking Evolutionary Thought in the Social Sciences, sponsored Spring 2002 by the Economics Board as ECON 106.
The course covers historical background, biological evolution, sociobiology, and recent work in psychology, economics, and anthropology. It emphasizes applications to human society and deals with the social evolutionary mechanisms of learning, resource redistribution and entry/exit as well as the genetic mechanism. Meets the W requirement.
Prerequisite: upper-division coursework in a social science or biology major.
The material is very timely and cuts across many of the social sciences as well as biology and philosophy. Although evolutionary thought originated in social philosophy, it has developed most fully in biology after Darwin. Its recent history in the social sciences is quite checkered, including questionable doctrines such as social darwinism and controversial ideas in sociobiology. In the last decade or so, evolutionary thought has developed to the point that it threatens existing paradigms in economics, psychology, anthropology, and other social sciences.
In this course you will read classic authors such as Aristotle, Malthus and Darwin, and modern authors such as Gould, Maynard Smith and Trivers, as well as very recent general audience articles by leading researchers in anthropology, economics, psychology, and other disciplines.
You will discuss the central ideas with fellow students in other disciplines, trying to sort out which ideas make sense today and which do not.
You will write a term paper discussing the applicability of evolutionary thought in your own discipline. Group projects are encouraged.
Enrollment limited to 25. Reserve your place now!
For more information, contact:
Professor Daniel Friedman
dan@cats.ucsc.edu