3539 Vorlesung: Ethik und Philosophie der Biologie (in German)
Studies in Biology and Philosophy, 3 ECTS, assessment: exam
What renders biology a science? What is life, and how can it best be studied? What explanatory value do models in biology have? And how should we treat experimental animals in biology research? While biology is the subject-matter of questions like these, they clearly go beyond the borders of the discipline. They cannot be answered by using biological methods and are therefore addressed in philosophy and ethics. This lecture is an introduction to the philosophy and ethics of biology. It aims to stimulate reflection about the nature, methods and results of modern biology, and address the ethical issues related to it.
The content of the course is structured into four blocks: (1) biology as a scientific discipline (Basics of philosophy of science: criteria for science, scientific method, models for the development of science according to Popper and Kuhn), (2) Ethical questions in biology (theories of ethics such as utilitarianism and their application to biology; animal welfare and animal ethics and their biological bases), (3) questions regarding methods in biology (Animal experiments and animal models, causal explanations and causal inferences), (4) metaphysics of biology (reductionism, concept of function).
