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 as well as the experimental and theoretical approaches that led to their formulation. 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, or how Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire’s concept of the “unit of organizational plan” gave rise to evolutionary paleontology, developmental biology, and evolution and development (Evo/Devo).

In the context of bioethical issues, we will address problems such as the misuse of a concept (from craniology to eugenics) as well as the cases of “Georges Cuvier” and “Trophim Lysenko,” in which religious or political ideology interferes with science.

Finally, the philosophy of biology will lead us to discuss the value of models in biology and the “end of the ‘all-genetic’ paradigm” (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 in biology (cell theory, taxonomy, evolution, comparative anatomy, developmental biology, evo/devo, genetics/epigenetics, etc.) through the history of ideas.

- Gain a better understanding of the practices and challenges of biological research (the value of biological models, conceptual shifts, scientific ethics, and transdisciplinarity).

- Gain an understanding of the fundamentals of biological epistemology

basic concepts in cell and molecular biology and/or organismal biology.