Objectives and Contextualisation

The concept of evolution by natural selection of Charles Darwin is one of the most revolutionary ideas of Western thought.

GLOBAL OBJECTIVES:

a) To raise a vital concern for evolution as a conceptual framework of explanation capable of providing a synthetic view of nature, and of exerting a decisive influence on the understanding of oneself, and one's position in the future of our planet.

b) To provide a solid and integrated knowledge of the core of modern evolutionary theory and its most relevant implications - anthropological, sociological, philosophical. To appreciate how this knowledge comes about and continues to expand through the creativity, the rigorous scientific method, and the cooperation among researchers, within the cultural and social context of each moment.

c) To face the uncertainty associated with change and the multiple perspectives of knowledge and reality.

d) Promotion of intellectual autonomy and personal creative independence in the search and acquisition of knowledge.

e) To transfer theoretical approaches to concrete situations, demonstrating the applicability of evolutionary theory (e.g. in health sciences, agriculture and conservation), and the positive impact that a citizen with a solid knowledge of this subject can have in society.

TRAINING OBJECTIVES:

a) Development of syntactic-semantic skills for the transmission of evolutionary ideas with rigour, avoiding teleologisms of language. Evolution is a contingent historical process, without purpose or direction.

b) Acquisition of a perspective of all the biological disciplines articulated ina coherent conceptual frame of evolution of the life on the Earth.

c) Knowledge of the history and social relations of evolutionary thought, including the most recent discussions on the need for revision of the New Synthesis. The theory of biological evolution is usually identified only with the figure of Charles Darwin.

d) Knowledgeof the main empirical evidence on which modern evolutionary theory is based. Biological evolution is such a solid scientific theory that in practice it can be considered a fact.

e) Knowledge of the main theories on the origin of life, the nature of the last common ancestor and the history of its diversification (extinction) in present life forms, emphasizing the great evolutionary transitions, in connection with the dynamics of the planet. The purpose of evolutionary biology is to interpret phenomena that cannot be understood without knowing the past.

f) Understanding of basic methodological concepts and approaches (based on tacit premises, based on explicit models) for the inference of evolutionary relationships (genealogies, phylogenies) between organisms at different taxonomic levels (populations, species, higher order categories), and its dating (molecular clocks), from characters of diverse nature (genetic sequences, molecular markers, physiological or anatomical properties).

g) Understanding of the method of evolutionary analysis. In a broad sense, evolution is offspring with modification. Evolutionarily more related organisms tend to have more similar biological properties. Through the evolutionary approach it is possible to predict the biology of an organism by comparison with related organisms and on the contrary, the comparison is the most general method of inquiry into the regularities of evolutionary change.

h) Understanding of the genetic basis of evolution (structural variants vs. regulatory variants) andthe connections between evolution and development.

i) Understanding the causes and mechanisms of the evolutionary process in its two dimensions: anagenesis and cladogenesis, integrating classical approaches to the study of evolution with modern techniques of genetic analysis (genetic sequences, molecular markers, genetic manipulation) and bioinformatics (analysis sequence comparison).

j) Understanding of human nature and diversity, and the connections and interrelationships of our species in the evolutionary scheme of life on Earth.

k) Understanding of evolutionary biology not as a discipline of exclusively formal interest, but as fundamental knowledge with practical implications in multiple areas. The rapid advancement of evolutionary biology has sparked the development of powerful technologies for health monitoring, law enforcement, agriculture, ecology, and the treatment of all kinds of design and optimization problems.