Author : Jane Maienschein
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 348 pages
File Size : 19,36 MB
Release : 1999-02-28
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9780521559232
This collection of essays focuses on the connection between biology and questions in ethics.
Author : Richard Joyce
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 285 pages
File Size : 12,61 MB
Release : 2007-08-24
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0262263254
Moral thinking pervades our practical lives, but where did this way of thinking come from, and what purpose does it serve? Is it to be explained by environmental pressures on our ancestors a million years ago, or is it a cultural invention of more recent origin? In The Evolution of Morality, Richard Joyce takes up these controversial questions, finding that the evidence supports an innate basis to human morality. As a moral philosopher, Joyce is interested in whether any implications follow from this hypothesis. Might the fact that the human brain has been biologically prepared by natural selection to engage in moral judgment serve in some sense to vindicate this way of thinking—staving off the threat of moral skepticism, or even undergirding some version of moral realism? Or if morality has an adaptive explanation in genetic terms—if it is, as Joyce writes, "just something that helped our ancestors make more babies"—might such an explanation actually undermine morality's central role in our lives? He carefully examines both the evolutionary "vindication of morality" and the evolutionary "debunking of morality," considering the skeptical view more seriously than have others who have treated the subject. Interdisciplinary and combining the latest results from the empirical sciences with philosophical discussion, The Evolution of Morality is one of the few books in this area written from the perspective of moral philosophy. Concise and without technical jargon, the arguments are rigorous but accessible to readers from different academic backgrounds. Joyce discusses complex issues in plain language while advocating subtle and sometimes radical views. The Evolution of Morality lays the philosophical foundations for further research into the biological understanding of human morality.
Author : John Mizzoni
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 26,97 MB
Release : 2017-02-03
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0739199846
If human biological evolution is part of our worldview, then how do commonplace notions of ethics fit in? To ask the question, “what does evolution imply about ethics?” we must first be clear about what we mean by evolution. Evolution and the Foundations of Ethics discusses four models of evolution, represented by Darwin, Dawkins, Gould, and Haught. We must also be clear about what we mean by ethics. Do we mean metaethics? If so, which variety? With metaethical theories (such as Error Theory, Expressivism, Moral Relativism, and Moral Realism), theorists are attempting to explain the general nature, status, and origins of ethics. In the first four chapters of this book (Part I), John Mizzoni examines how metaethical theories fit with evolution. Next, in asking about the implications of evolution for ethics,do we mean normative ethics? Theorists who work with normative ethical theories—such as Virtue Ethics, Natural Law Ethics, Social Contract Ethics, Utilitarian Ethics, Deontological Ethics, and Ethics of Care)—articulate and defend a normative ethics that people can and do use in a practical way when deliberating about specific actions, rules, and policies. The next six chapters (Part II) look at how normative ethical theories fit with evolution. A full reckoning of ethics and evolution demands that we consider the range of ethical elements, both metaethical and normative. Thus, this book looks at what several different models of evolution imply about four metaethical theories and six normative ethical theories. This book will be of interest to scholars interested in the intersection of evolutionary theory and ethical theory.
Author : Cora May Williams
Publisher : DigiCat
Page : 751 pages
File Size : 17,77 MB
Release : 2022-07-31
Category : Fiction
ISBN :
DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "A Review of the Systems of Ethics Founded on the Theory of Evolution" by Cora May Williams. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.
Author : Nicolas Baumard
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 27,58 MB
Release : 2016-03-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0190210230
In order to describe the logic of morality, "contractualist" philosophers have studied how individuals behave when they choose to follow their moral intuitions. These individuals, contractualists note, often act as if they have bargained and thus reached an agreement with others about how to distribute the benefits and burdens of mutual cooperation. Using this observation, such philosophers argue that the purpose of morality is to maximize the benefits of human interaction. The resulting "contract" analogy is both insightful and puzzling. On one hand, it captures the pattern of moral intuitions, thus answering questions about human cooperation: why do humans cooperate? Why should the distribution of benefits be proportionate to each person's contribution? Why should the punishment be proportionate to the crime? Why should the rights be proportionate to the duties? On the other hand, the analogy provides a mere as-if explanation for human cooperation, saying that cooperation is "as if" people have passed a contract-but since they didn't, why should it be so? To evolutionary thinkers, the puzzle of the missing contract is immediately reminiscent of the puzzle of the missing "designer" of life-forms, a puzzle that Darwin's theory of natural selection essentially resolved. Evolutionary and contractualist theory originally intersected at the work of philosophers John Rawls and David Gauthier, who argued that moral judgments are based on a sense of fairness that has been naturally selected. In this book, Nicolas Baumard further explores the theory that morality was originally an adaptation to the biological market of cooperation, an arena in which individuals competed to be selected for cooperative interactions. In this environment, Baumard suggests, the best strategy was to treat others with impartiality and to share the costs and benefits of cooperation in a fair way, so that those who offered less than others were left out of cooperation while those who offered more were exploited by their partners. It is with this evolutionary approach that Baumard ultimately accounts for the specific structure of human morality.
Author : Paul Lawrence Farber
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 228 pages
File Size : 15,2 MB
Release : 1994-10-11
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780520920972
Evolutionary theory tells us about our biological past; can it also guide us to a moral future? Paul Farber's compelling book describes a century-old philosophical hope held by many biologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and social thinkers: that universal ethical and social imperatives are built into human nature and can be discovered through knowledge of evolutionary theory. Farber describes three upsurges of enthusiasm for evolutionary ethics. The first came in the early years of mid-nineteenth century evolutionary theories; the second in the 1920s and '30s, in the years after the cultural catastrophe of World War I; and the third arrived with the recent grand claims of sociobiology to offer a sound biological basis for a theory of human culture. Unlike many who have written on evolutionary ethics, Farber considers the responses made by philosophers over the years. He maintains that their devastating criticisms have been forgotten—thus the history of evolutionary ethics is essentially one of oft-repeated philosophical mistakes. Historians, scientists, social scientists, and anyone concerned about the elusive basis of selflessness, altruism, and morality will welcome Farber's enlightening book.
Author : Allen Buchanan
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 441 pages
File Size : 11,91 MB
Release : 2018-06-08
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0190868430
In The Evolution of Moral Progress, Allen Buchanan and Russell Powell resurrect the project of explaining moral progress. They avoid the errors of earlier attempts by drawing on a wide range of disciplines including moral and political philosophy, evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, anthropology, history, and sociology. Their focus is on one especially important type of moral progress: gains in inclusivity. They develop a framework to explain progress in inclusivity to also illuminate moral regression--the return to exclusivist and "tribalistic" moral beliefs and attitudes. Buchanan and Powell argue those tribalistic moral responses are not hard-wired by evolution in human nature. Rather, human beings have an evolved "adaptively plastic" capacity for both inclusion and exclusion, depending on environmental conditions. Moral progress in the dimension of inclusivity is possible, but only to the extent that human beings can create environments conducive to extending moral standing to all human beings and even to some animals. Buchanan and Powell take biological evolution seriously, but with a critical eye, while simultaneously recognizing the crucial role of culture in creating environments in which moral progress can occur. The book avoids both biological and cultural determinism. Unlike earlier theories of moral progress, their theory provides a naturalistic account that is grounded in the best empirical work, and unlike earlier theories it does not present moral progress as inevitable or as occurring in definite stages; but rather it recognizes the highly contingent and fragile character of moral improvement.
Author : Francisco J. Ayala
Publisher : Academic Press
Page : 424 pages
File Size : 34,52 MB
Release : 2016-07-21
Category : Science
ISBN : 0128037318
Evolution, Explanation, Ethics and Aesthetics: Towards a Philosophy of Biology focuses on the dominant biological topic of evolution. It deals with the prevailing philosophical themes of how to explain the adaptation of organisms, the interplay of chance and necessity, and the recurrent topics of emergence, reductionism, and progress. In addition, the extensively treated topic of how to explain human nature as a result of natural processes and the encompassed issues of the foundations of morality and the brain-to-mind transformation is discussed. The philosophy of biology is a rapidly expanding field, not more than half a century old at most, and to a large extent is replacing the interest in the philosophy of physics that prevailed in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century. Few texts available have the benefit of being written by an eminent biologist who happens to be also a philosopher, as in this work. This book is a useful resource for seminar courses and college courses on the philosophy of biology. Researchers, academics, and students in evolutionary biology, behavior, genetics, and biodiversity will also be interested in this work, as will those in human biology and issues such as ethics, religion, and the human mind, along with professional philosophers of science and those concerned with such issues as whether evolution is compatible with religion and/or where morality comes from. - Presents the unique perspective of a distinguished biologist with extensive experience in the field who has published much about the subject in a wide variety of journals and edited volumes - Covers the philosophical issues related to evolution and biology in an approachable and readable style - Includes the most up-to-date treatment of this burgeoning, exciting field within biology - Provides the ideal guide for researchers, academics, and students in evolutionary biology, behavior, genetics, and biodiversity
Author : Thomas Henry Huxley
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 46,15 MB
Release : 2024-01-03
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781835913178
"Evolution and Ethics" is a collection of essays written by Thomas Henry Huxley, a prominent English biologist and advocate for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The book was first published in 1893 and brings together Huxley's thoughts on the implications of evolutionary theory for ethics and morality. Key features of "Evolution and Ethics" include: Integration of Evolutionary Theory and Ethics: Huxley explores the relationship between the theory of evolution and ethical principles. He seeks to reconcile the scientific understanding of evolution with moral philosophy, addressing the potential impact of evolutionary ideas on traditional ethical frameworks. Naturalistic Ethics: One of the central themes of the book is Huxley's advocacy for a naturalistic approach to ethics. He suggests that ethical principles can be derived from an understanding of the natural world and human evolution, rather than relying solely on religious or supernatural foundations. Scientific Rationalism: Throughout the essays, Huxley emphasizes the importance of applying scientific reasoning to ethical questions. He promotes a rational and empirical approach to understanding human behavior and morality. Critique of Social Darwinism: While Huxley was a strong supporter of evolutionary theory, he was critical of certain interpretations, particularly those associated with Social Darwinism. He cautioned against using evolutionary ideas to justify social inequality or unethical practices, emphasizing that ethical considerations should guide human conduct. Humanitarian Values: Despite the naturalistic approach, Huxley advocates for humanitarian values. He argues that an understanding of evolution should lead to a greater sense of human responsibility and empathy, rather than providing a rationale for selfish or ruthless behavior. Intellectual Rigor: Huxley's writing in "Evolution and Ethics" reflects his characteristic intellectual rigor and clarity. He presents his arguments in a logical and systematic manner, making the complex relationship between evolution and ethics accessible to a broad readership. "Evolution and Ethics" is an important work in the history of the discussion on the relationship between science and morality. It reflects the intellectual climate of the late 19th century and the ongoing dialogue about the implications of Darwinian evolution for various aspects of human thought and society.
Author : Donald M. Broom
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 24,35 MB
Release : 2003-12-04
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780521529242
Table of contents
