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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Page 3
His idea was to draw together into one volume essays in that field of research and theory where evolution intersects with human values , for he had become concerned to provide some moral direction for a society confused about values and ...
His idea was to draw together into one volume essays in that field of research and theory where evolution intersects with human values , for he had become concerned to provide some moral direction for a society confused about values and ...
Page 17
Indeed , it was Darwin's strong desire and the thrust of his idea of natural selection to overthrow the old " argument from design Pitfalls: ONE The Amorality of Darwinism ROBERT WESSON.
Indeed , it was Darwin's strong desire and the thrust of his idea of natural selection to overthrow the old " argument from design Pitfalls: ONE The Amorality of Darwinism ROBERT WESSON.
Page 18
Although it was less immediately evident , a mechanistic theory of evolution makes it hard to avoid the idea that ethical and moral laws , the bases of human society , are only artifacts lacking in a solid basis in objective reality .
Although it was less immediately evident , a mechanistic theory of evolution makes it hard to avoid the idea that ethical and moral laws , the bases of human society , are only artifacts lacking in a solid basis in objective reality .
Page 19
Darwin was by no means responsible for ideas of individual , racial , and national competition , which are as ancient ; and some of his contemporaries were pressing similar ideas . Wallace saw the superior European race pushing aside ...
Darwin was by no means responsible for ideas of individual , racial , and national competition , which are as ancient ; and some of his contemporaries were pressing similar ideas . Wallace saw the superior European race pushing aside ...
Page 20
A thoroughgoing Darwinian materialist should dismiss this idea as a concession to ignorance and superstition . Fortunately , very few persons , perhaps none , take the mechanistic evolutionary theory seriously enough to apply it to ...
A thoroughgoing Darwinian materialist should dismiss this idea as a concession to ignorance and superstition . Fortunately , very few persons , perhaps none , take the mechanistic evolutionary theory seriously enough to apply it to ...
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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 |