Taking Darwin Seriously: A Naturalistic Approach to Philosophy

Front Cover
Prometheus Books, 1998 - Philosophy - 323 pages
Table of Contents Preface to the Second Edition Preface 1 The Biological Background 1 The fact of evolution 1 The path of evolution 4 The theory of evolution: natural selection 16 The theory of evolution: modern genetics 18 Good science? 20 2 Evolutionary Epistemology 29 Evolution as analogy 31 Herbert Spencer and the law of progress 37 Stephen Toulmin's Darwinian model 45 The analogy considered: the fact of evolution 46 The analogy considered: the path of evolution 49 The analogy considered: the cause of evolution 53 Donald Campbell's Darwinian variations 58 Karl Popper and the revision of Darwinism 61 3 Evolutionary Ethics 67 Moral issues 68 Evolution and ethics 71 Herbert Spencer and the moral value of progress 73 Spencerian problems 75 William Graham Sumner and Social Darwinism 78 Thomas Henry Huxley and his stand against nature 82 Hume's law and the naturalistic fallacy 86 Is the natural innately good? 90 Edward O. Wilson and the foundations of morality 93 The evolution of the moral sense 99 4 Human Evolution 103 The fact of human evolution 104 The path of human evolution 109 The cause of human evolution 115 The problem of culture 123 The biology of language 126 Ape language 134 Is culture independent of biology? 140 Epigenetic rules 143 5 Darwinian Epistemology 148 The nature of science 149 Scientific reasoning 155 The case for a biological backing 160 The case for (continued) 164 The case against 168 The rivals to science 174 Philosophical precursor: Kant? 178 Philosophical precursor: Hume? 182 Common-sense realism 184 Metaphysical scepticism 192 Konrad Lorenz and the biological a priori 196 The ultimate foundations 199 6 Darwinian Ethics 207 Substantive ethics 208 Meta-ethics 213 The evolution of morality 217 The empirical evidence: social animals 223 The empirical evidence: chimpanzees 227 The empirical evidence: humans 230 Substantive ethics reconsidered: utilitarianism 235 My family and other animals 238 To give and not to count the cost 242 Substantive ethics reconsidered: Kantianism 244 Moral disagreements 247 Darwinian meta-ethics 250 Objectifying morality 252 Stepping around Hume's law 256 Freedom of choice 258 Possible precursor: Kant? 262 Possible precursor: Hume? 266 Looking forward 269 Darwin's New Critics on Trial 280 References 298 Index 316.

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Contents

The Biological Background
1
Evolutionary Epistemology
29
Evolutionary Ethics
67
Copyright

7 other sections not shown

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About the author (1998)

Michael Ruse is the Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University.As a prominent philosopher of science, he is well known for his work on the relationship between science and religion, the creation-evolution controversy and the demarcation problem within science. He has published over 25 books: most recently, Reflections on the Origin of Species, with David Reznick (Princeton UP, 2008); Science and Spirituality: Making Room for Faith in the Age of Science (Cambridge UP, 2010); and Atheism: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford UP, 2015).

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