Evolution and Human ValuesInitiated by Robert Wesson, Evolution and Human Values is a collection of newly written essays designed to bring interdisciplinary insight to that area of thought where human evolution intersects with human values. The disciplines brought to bear on the subject are diverse - philosophy, psychiatry, behavioral science, biology, anthropology, psychology, biochemistry, and sociology. Yet, as organized by co-editor Patricia A. Williams, the volume falls coherently into three related sections. Entitled Evolutionary Ethics, the first section brings contemporary research to an area first explored by Herbert Spencer. Evolutionary ethics looks to the theory of evolution by natural selection to find values for human living. The second section, Evolved Ethics, discusses the evolution of language and religion and their impact on moral thought and feeling. Evolved ethics was partly Charles Darwin's subject in The Descent of Man. The last section bears the title Scientific Ethics. A nascent field, scientific ethics asks about the evolution of human nature and the implications of that nature for ethical theory and social policy. Together, the essays collected here provide important contemporary insights into what it is - and what it may be - to be human. |
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Evolved Ethics : Explaining Human Moral Nature as a Product of Evolution Language and Ethics : FIVE How Much in the Human Condition Is without Counterpart in Other Animals ? BERNARD G. CAMPBELL 117 139 Religion and Ethics : SIX Belief ...
Evolved Ethics : Explaining Human Moral Nature as a Product of Evolution Language and Ethics : FIVE How Much in the Human Condition Is without Counterpart in Other Animals ? BERNARD G. CAMPBELL 117 139 Religion and Ethics : SIX Belief ...
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In that year , William D. Hamilton published an explanation of the sociality of social insects based on their peculiar genetics , then generalized the explanation to other social animals . Hamilton's work marks the beginning of the ...
In that year , William D. Hamilton published an explanation of the sociality of social insects based on their peculiar genetics , then generalized the explanation to other social animals . Hamilton's work marks the beginning of the ...
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A second difficulty with basing morality on sympathy is that it includes in the moral universe animals whom we do not usually consider moral , for example all the social primates and probably social mammals like foxes and hyenas as well ...
A second difficulty with basing morality on sympathy is that it includes in the moral universe animals whom we do not usually consider moral , for example all the social primates and probably social mammals like foxes and hyenas as well ...
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One question is , What makes us unique among the animals ? This is a difficult question , and the old , simple answers like tool - use and symbol - use have fallen with the rise of primatology . Therefore , Bernard G. Campbell offers a ...
One question is , What makes us unique among the animals ? This is a difficult question , and the old , simple answers like tool - use and symbol - use have fallen with the rise of primatology . Therefore , Bernard G. Campbell offers a ...
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Rachels , James ( 1991 ) , Created from Animals : The Moral Implications of Darwinism . New York : Oxford University Press . Richards , Robert J. ( 1986 ) , " A Defense of Evolutionary Ethics , " Biology and Philosophy , 1 , pp .
Rachels , James ( 1991 ) , Created from Animals : The Moral Implications of Darwinism . New York : Oxford University Press . Richards , Robert J. ( 1986 ) , " A Defense of Evolutionary Ethics , " Biology and Philosophy , 1 , pp .
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Contents
| 1 | |
| 17 | |
| 35 | |
THREE Evolution Ethics and the Complexity | 49 |
EIGHT The Implications of Biology for | 199 |
About the Contributers | 245 |
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Common terms and phrases
according adaptive advance altruism American animals argued become behavior believe biological brain called century communities competitive complex concerned cooperative cultural Darwin dependence direct discussion effects environment ethics eugenics evolution evolutionary evolutionary theory evolved example existence fact fertility fitness Freud future genes genetic give human nature idea implications important improvement individual intelligence interests interpretation kind knowledge language less liberal living means moral natural selection objective organisms origin parents particular persons philosophical physics political population possible present principle probably problems productive programs progress question rates rational reason recipients relation religion religious reproductive result role scientific scientists seems social society species studies successful suggests theory thought traditional understanding University Press values welfare welfare policy Wilson women York
Popular passages
Page 117 - I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
Page 171 - The time has already come when each country needs a considered national policy about what size of Population, whether larger or smaller than at present or the same, is most expedient. And having settled this policy, we must take steps to carry it into operation.
Page 201 - We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessing of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.
Page 41 - The transcendental presupposition of every cultural science lies not in our finding a certain culture or any "culture" in general to be valuable but rather in the fact that we are cultural beings, endowed with the capacity and the will to take a deliberate attitude towards the world and to lend it significance.
Page 133 - The genes hold culture on a leash. The leash is very long, but inevitably values will be constrained in accordance with their effects on the human gene pool.
Page 174 - If we continue to reproduce ourselves in this lopsided way, we will be unable to maintain our present standards. Levels of competence will decline. Our economy will falter, the administration will suffer, and the society will decline.
Page 29 - But the fight is always a means for the promotion of the species' health and force of resistance, and thus a cause for its development towards a higher level. If it were different, every further development towards higher levels would stop, and rather the contrary would happen. For, since according to numbers, the inferior element always outweighs the superior element, under the same preservation of...
Page 45 - We used to think our fate was in the stars. Now we know, in large measure, our fate is in our genes" (quoted by Leon Jaroff, "The Gene Hunt,
Page 19 - Looking to the world at no very distant date, what an endless number of the lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilized races throughout the world.
Bibliographic information
| Title | Evolution and Human Values Volume 24 of Value inquiry book series, ISSN 0929-8436 |
| Editors | Robert Wesson, Robert G. Wesson, Patricia A. Williams |
| Contributors | Robert Wesson, Patricia A. Williams |
| Publisher | Rodopi, 1995 |
| ISBN | 9051838301, 9789051838305 |
| Length | 251 pages |
| Subjects | › Philosophy / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |