Course Description:

An exploration of the life sciences, past and present. Designed to
put life sciences into philosophical, historical, and ethical
perspective, the colloquium focuses on key problems and their
treatment through history (e.g. origin of life, classification of
organisms, energy conservation), processes of discovery and
reasoning (e.g. evidence vs. revelation, eureka-moments,
serendipity, logical reasoning, scientific research, cloning). The
colloquium also examines vogue ideas (e.g. biodiversity, esprit de
systeme, hopeful monsters, survival of the fittest, human ‘races’,
biofeedback) as well as biological misconceptions, deceptions, and
hoaxes (e.g. preformation, phrenology, creative Darwinism,
Piltdown man, intelligent design). Prerequisite: Membership in the
Honors Program or permission of the instructor.