History of biology and bioethics

The main aim of this module is to provide a better understanding of the major concepts of modern biology, through the history of their development. In other words, to analyze the intellectual path and the experimental and theoretical approaches that led to their construction. For example, we'll look at how the search for a "natural" classification led Jean-Baptiste Monet de Lamarck and Charles Darwin to lay the foundations of evolutionary biology, or how Etienne Geoffroy Saint Hilaire's concept of "unity of organization plan" is at the origin of evolutionary paleontology, developmental biology and evolution/development (Evo/Devo).

In the context of bioethics, we'll look at the problems of conceptual drift (from craniology to eugenics), or the cases of "Georges Cuvier" and "Trophim Lyssenko" when religious or political ideology interferes with science.

Finally, biological philosophy will lead us to discuss the value of models in biology, and the "end of the all-genetic" (from Lamarck through epigenesis to epigenetics).

The entire module will be taught in lectures, during which some of the founding texts of modern biology will be analyzed and discussed.

- Gain a better understanding of the major concepts of biology (cell theory, taxonomy, evolution, comparative anatomy, developmental biology, evo/devo, genetics/epigenetics, etc.) through the history of ideas.

- Gain a better understanding of biology research practices and issues (interest in biological models, conceptual drift, scientific ethics, transdisciplinarity).

- Acquire notions of biological epistemology

basic knowledge of cellular and molecular biology and/or organism biology.