THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF LIFE


Peter Taylor
B&Soc 301/ S&TS 401
Lectures and discussions 2x2hr MW 2.30-4.25 MvR NG35 4 credits
(Satisfies either the core or the sociology of science requirement for the Bio & Soc major.)

Professor: Peter Taylor, Dept. of Science & Technology Studies
Office: Clark 624
Phone: 255-7294
Email: pjt1@cornell.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 11.15-1.15 (Sign-up sheet outside Clark 624)

TAs: Chris London, Warren 431, Monday 12-2
Saul Halfon, Clark 278, Weds. 11-1

Critical thinking about the diverse influences shaping the life sciences. Topics include evolution and natural selection, heredity and genetic determinism, biotechnology and reproductive interventions, ecology & environmental change. We interpret episodes, past and present, in biology in light of scientists' historical location, economic and political interests, use of language, and ideas about causality and responsibility. Readings, class activities, and written assignments are designed so that students develop interpretive skills and explore their own intellectual and practical responses to controversies in biology and society.

Course goals
The most important goals of this course are that you actively ask questions about the shape and direction of inquiries in the biological sciences -- not just during class time, but all the time -- and develop your ability to express your own synthesis of issues succintly. To encourage this the course involves various kinds of writing, preparation, and participation in the teaching/learning process. These are described at the start of the course reader.

Texts: A xerox packet of readings for class 2 onwards is available from Gnomon on Eddy St. in CollegeTown; cost around $35. Buy this immediately! The reader also includes the full syllabus, course requirements and mechanics -- read this before class 2 -- , and sheets for each class (guides to the reading, introduction to the discussion, study questions, etc.) Buy a 3 ring binder to store the reader and other xeroxes in. Note that a few of the required readings and the extra readings are only on reserve, i.e., they are not in the xerox packet. These reserve items will be in Mann library and the Biology & Society reading room (Clark 278; open 8-4.30 M-F only).
In addition, also in Clark 278, is are two binders for the course containing newspaper clippings related to the course and examples of student assignments from previous years.
In areas where your background in biology or history is weak you will need to do additional prescribed reading before some of the classes.

This course will require considerable reading, writing and work on learning skills -- be prepared.

Assessment: Written assignments
(4 in total, plus 1 revision) 40%
Final take-home exam 30%
Class participation (30%):
Notecards 15%
Discussion co-leading or reporting 5%
General 10%

Final take-home Exam will be distributed on last Monday of classes and be due by 12 noon two weeks later.

Last date for submitting; assignments = the last Monday of classes; revisions = the last class.SYLLABUS
Note: Some classes, probably those marked **, will take more than one session.

1. Introduction: Critical thinking and the metaphor of construction as central themes.

I LANGUAGE: READING & WRITING BIOLOGY
2. How did we get here? I -- Origin stories and their structure.

3. How many genders make up mankind? -- Bias

4. What is a mother? -- Categories destabilized by scientific developments.

5**. How did we get here? II -- Structural themes used in interpreting the record of life.

6**. What is nature? -- Changes in meanings of "nature" in relation to changes in society.

II EVOLUTION I
7&8. How did Darwin try to convince people of Natural selection as the mechanism of evolution?

9. Why does evolution matter in thinking about society? I: Darwin as a social darwinist and sociobiologist.

III HEREDITY & DEVELOPMENT
(subtheme: causes & their relation to favored views of social action)
10. Why are people so concerned about heredity? -- Galton, regression to the mean & eugenics.

11. What causes a disease? -- the consequences of hereditarianism in the case of pellagra.

12. How did genetics become synonymous with heredity? -- Multiple accounts of heredity in early 20c.

13** How are characters produced? -- Transmission vs. development.

14. How can development be organized? -- Metaphors of control & co-ordination.

15-17**. Can genes determine characters like intelligence? To whom is this plausible? -- IQ & inheritance.

IV. EVOLUTION REVISITED
18. Does Nature select? -- Selectionist vs. constructionist explanations of evolution.

19. Why does evolution matter in thinking about society? II: Social messages

V. REPRODUCTIVE INTERVENTIONS
(subtheme: scientists working within a field of economics, politics & moral responsibility)
20. Who benefits from scientific progress? I: The breeding of hybrid corn.

21. Who benefits from scientific progress? II: The green revolution.

22. How autonomous can science be from social influences? -- The rise of biotechnology.

23. Who sets limits on the engineering of human reproduction? -- Gene therapy & pre-natal diagnosis & interventions.