Evolutionary Contingency

This course explores evolutionary contingency¿the role of dependency relations and chance in the history of life. Topics to be explored will include some work by Stephen Jay Gould in addition to philosophical debates concerning modal and process-based approaches to chance in evolution. Our investigation of contingency will be set against background issues concerning evolutionary convergences, inevitability, panselectionism, (in)determinism, and the usefulness of narrative explanations in this context.