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Lecturer(s)
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Vranovský Karel, Mgr.
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Šotola Jaroslav, Mgr. Ph.D.
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Course content
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1) Introduction: the breadth, scope and controversies of the field of biological anthropology 2) The duality of man: body vs. soul as the central theme of the course (theory of mind: pre-modern concepts, transformations of modern thought from Carthesius to Dennett) 3) The Dark History of Biological Anthropology 1: Critique of Anthropometry and Race Theory (problems of classification, history of anthropometry, fallacies of craniometry, phrenology, eugenics, emergence of anti-race movements) 4) The Dark History of Biological Anthropology 2: A Critique of Psychometrics (IQ, Flynn Effect, the problem of defining mental health, the fallacies of clinical psychiatry, the emergence of the anti-psychiatry movement) 5) Anthropogenesis, or How It Really Was: A Brief History of the Human Species 6) Genetics in a nutshell: How genes (don't) work (the process of gene expression, genotype vs. phenotype, epigenetics, selection factors, common fallacies) 7) Lessons from ethology: creatures in their environment (instinct, imprinting, primed learning, pairbonding strategies, etc.) 8) Cooperation 1: the riddle of altruism (Game theory and its relatives) 9) Cooperation 2: Eyes, Hands, Tongue (Cooperative Adaptation of the Human Species) 10) A brief look at neuroscience: cognitive games (brain structure and limits of perception, confabulation and other oddities) 11) Sociobiology and Its Descendants 1: The History of the Split between Evolutionary and Social Sciences (Critical Race and Gender Theory, the Wilson Case, the Gould Case) 12) Sociobiology and its descendants 2: Some contemporary socio-evolutionary theories, their contributions and limits 13) The third side of the coin: The (anti-)biology fallacies (Michurinism, Young Earth Creationism and other pearls from the history of biology denial)
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Learning activities and teaching methods
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Lecture, Monologic Lecture(Interpretation, Training), Dialogic Lecture (Discussion, Dialog, Brainstorming), Work with Text (with Book, Textbook), Training in job and motor Skils
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Learning outcomes
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The aim of the course is to introduce students to the fundamentals of the field of biological anthropology, with an emphasis on its interconnection with social science disciplines. The field of biological anthropology brings with it a long line of complex academic, ethical and philosophical issues that deeply affect our everyday reality. We will therefore focus primarily on the conceptual problems, controversies and misunderstandings that accompany the field. We will look into the history of biological-anthropological practice, but also directly into the topics of biochemistry, genetics, neurology and psychiatry. The purpose is to understand exactly why these topics are at least in some sense important to us, how they intersect with the social sciences, how and why they are so often misinterpreted, and what their historical and cultural contexts are.
The graduate of the course should understand the general nature of issues related to topics such as race, IQ, mental illness, the importance of genetics and heredity, the limits of the nervous system and perception. They should be able to respond to the common myths and misconceptions surrounding these topics and understand the history of the cultural and political context surrounding them. Finally, he should come away with at least a basic awareness of the categorical incompleteness of current perspectives on the so-called nature vs. nurture issue, across the political spectrum.
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Prerequisites
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Not specified.
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Assessment methods and criteria
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Essay, Student performance
Final essay.
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Recommended literature
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Axelrod, R. M. The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books. 2006.
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Dawkins, R., Kopský, V., & Zrzavý, J. (1998). Sobecký gen. Praha: Mladá fronta.
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Denett, D. C. Darwin?s dangerous idea: Evolution and the meanings of life. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1995.
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Gould, St. J.:. Jak neměřit člověka, NLN, 1997.
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Koukolík. (2014). Mozek a jeho duše.
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Lewontin, R. C., & Prucklova?, R. Biologie jako ideologie: za co mohou naše geny?. Jota. 1997.
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Petrů, M. (2007). Fyziologie mysli: úvod do kognitivní vědy. Praha: Triton.
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Pinker, S. (2002). The Blank Slate: The modern denial of human nature.. New York, NY: Viking.
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Relethford, J.:. (2002). The human species: An introduction to biological anthropology (5. ed).. New York: McGraw-Hill.
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Ridley, M., & Konvička, M. (2007). Červená královna: [sexualita a vývoj lidské přirozenosti]. Praha: Portál.
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Richerson, P. J., & Boyd, R. (2005). Not by Genes Alone. How Culture Transformed Human Evolution. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
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Sacks, O., Čechová, A., & Stehlíková, O. Muž, který si pletl manželku s kloboukem: A jiné klinické povídky. Praha: Portál. 2024.
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Sahlins, M. The use and abuse of biology: An anthropological critique of sociobiology. Ann Arbor, Mich: Univ. of Michigan Press. 2003.
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Segerstr?le, U. C. O. Defenders of the truth: The sociobiology debate. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. 2001.
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Tomasello, M. Why we cooperate. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. 2009.
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Trivers, R. L. The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 46, 35?57. 1971.
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