Issues in Evolutionary Ethics

Buch | Hardcover

444 Seiten

1995
State University of New York Press (Verlag)
978-0-7914-2027-0 (ISBN)

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This book explores historical and current discussions of the relevance of evolutionary theory to ethics. The historical section conveys the intellectual struggle that took place within the framework of Darwinism from its inception up to the work of G. C. Williams, W. D. Hamilton, R. D. Alexander, A. L. Trivers, E. O. Wilson, R. Dawkins, and others. The contemporary section discusses ethics within the framework of evolutionary theory as enriched by the works of biologists such as those mentioned above. The issue of whether ethical practice and ethical theory can be grounded in the theory of evolution has taken a new and significant direction within the context of sociobiology and is proving to be a challenge to previous thinking. This book conveys that challenge.

Paul Thompson is Professor of Philosophy in the University of Toronto, is Principal and of Scarborough College at the University of Toronto, and is the author of The Structure of Biological Theories published by SUNY Press

Preface
Introduction
Part I. In the Wake of the Origin
Moral Sense
Charles Darwin
Ways of Judging Conduct
Herbert Spencer
Evolution and Ethics
Thomas H. Huxley
Part II. In the Wake of Sociobiology
The Morality of the Gene
Edward O. Wilson
The Law of the Jungle: Moral Alternatives and Principles of Evolution
J. L. Mackie
A Biological Interpretation of Moral Systems
R.D. Alexander
The Hypothalmic Imperative
P. Kitcher
Evolutionary Ethics: A Phoenix Arisen
M. Ruse
A Defense of Evolutionary Ethics
R.J. Richards
The Biological Roots of Morality
F.J. Ayala
Huxley's Evolution and Ethics in Sociobiological Perspective
George C. Williams
The Biological Justification of Ethics: A Best-Case Scenario
Alexander Rosenberg
Really Taking Darwin Seriously: An Alternative to Michael Ruse's Darwinian Metaethics
William A. Rottschaefer and David Martinsen
Evolutionary Naturlaism and the Objectivity of Morality
John Collier and Michael Stingl
General Bibliography
Notes on Contemporary Authors
Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	17.1.1995
Verlagsort	Albany, NY
Sprache	englisch
Gewicht	735 g
Themenwelt	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Evolution
ISBN-10	0-7914-2027-2 / 0791420272
ISBN-13	978-0-7914-2027-0 / 9780791420270
Zustand	Neuware