Elliott Sober masterclass

Elliott Sober's Sydney schedule

• March 30: Masterclass with Honours and Postgraduate students (see below).
• March 31: University of Sydney Department of Philosophy colloquium.
• April 1: University of Sydney-Australian National University (SANU) philosophy of biology workshop.
• April 15: ANU colloquium.
• April 19: HPS seminar.
• April 22: Sydney Ideas Open public lecture (venue and time TBA)

Masterclass, March 30: Did Darwin write the Origin backwards? And other philosophical reflections on Darwin's theory

We first examine a simple but fundamental question about how Darwin organized his argument in the Origin of Species. The two big ideas in Darwin’s theory are common ancestry and natural selection. Why did Darwin put selection first and foremost in the Origin and allow the idea of common ancestry to emerge only gradually and in a somewhat fragmentary form? This is a question about Darwin’s rhetoric – his strategy for laying out his argument. The question becomes pressing when we look at Darwin’s logic – at how the elements of his theory are related to each other and to the evidence that he assembles. I argue that Darwin took common ancestry to have evidential priority over natural selection. He uses the fact of common ancestry to reason about natural selection, and does so in a way that anticipates the role that contemporary biologists assign to phylogenetic considerations in testing hypotheses about adaptation. On the other hand, Darwin thinks that the best evidence we have for common ancestry comes from traits that did not evolve by natural selection. If common ancestry comes before natural selection in the order of evidence, why, in the Origin, does Darwin give selection top billing? The first part of the masterclass will also consider the use of parsimony to reconstruct the character states of ancestors and the question of how hypotheses about adaptation can be tested.

The second part of the masterclass concerns methodological naturalism, a philosophical position that is absolutely central to modern science. Methodological naturalism says that scientific arguments and theories should not make claims about God. I begin by describing the views about God that Darwin expresses in the Origin. Do Darwin’s remarks represent a violation of methodological naturalism? Answering this question leads to a refinement of what the thesis of methodological naturalism involves. I then explore how the theory of evolution is related to three theistic positions – creationism, deism, and the view that evolutionary theory is true but incomplete because God’s interventions in nature sometimes supplement the causes that the theory describes. It is obvious that the theory is incompatible with creationism and it is a familiar point that evolutionary theory is logically compatible with deism. It is less often recognized that evolutionary theory also is compatible with some interventionist theologies. I defend this thesis of compatibility by clarifying what biologists mean by saying that mutations are “undirected.” I do so, not because I want to endorse the thesis that God intervenes in nature, but because I think it is important that theists and atheists both recognize that evolutionary theory really is neutral on this question. I then consider three defenses that have been made of methodological naturalism–that science, by definition, is an enterprise that excludes claims about supernatural deities, that claims about the supernatural are untestable, and that including such claims in scientific theories would bring science to a stop. After criticizing these arguments, I provide a more modest defense of methodological naturalism. In addition, the second part of the masterclass considers whether the probabilities discussed in evolutionary theory describe objective matters of fact.

Readings consist of draft chapters of Prof. Sober's new book manuscript. Participants, who should be registered for Honours or Postgraduate study in a relevant discipline, should make a firm commitment to complete the required reading and come prepared to actively participate in discussion.
Registration for the masterclass is required.

To register, by March 19. Please include your name, affiliation, and a mailing address in your email. A hardcopy of the draft chapters will be sent to the address you provide. Alternatively, and preferably, if you are close to campus, please pick up a copy of the reading material from either Rod Taveira or Jack Justus in the SCFS, Room N293, Main Quadrangle.

Venue and Time
March 30, Kevin Lee Room, 10 am - 1230 pm and 2 pm - 430 pm.
Morning and afternoon tea will be provided.