History of biology and bioethics

The main goal of this module will be 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 journey and the experimental and theoretical approaches that led to their establishment. For example, we will analyze how the search for a "natural" classification led Jean-Baptiste Monet de Lamarck and Charles Darwin to lay the foundations of evolutionary biology, and how how Etienne Geoffroy Saint Hilaire's concept of "unity of plan of organization" gave rise to evolutionary paleontology, developmental biology, and evolution/development (Evo/Devo).

In the context of bioethical issues, we will address problems such as the distortion of a concept (from craniology to eugenics) and the cases of Georges Cuvier and Trophim Lysenko, where religious or political ideology interfered with science.

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

The entire module will consist of lectures, during which several seminal texts in modern biology will also 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 practices and issues in biological research (the value of biological models, conceptual drift, scientific ethics, transdisciplinarity).

- Acquire basic knowledge of biological epistemology

basic concepts in cellular and molecular biology and/or organism biology.