Download or read book The Philosophy of Human Evolution written by Michael Ruse and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-12 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a unique discussion of human evolution from a philosophical viewpoint, covering such issues as religion, race and gender.
Download or read book Evolution s First Philosopher written by Jerome A. Popp and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Dewey was the first philosopher to recognize that Darwin's thesis about natural selection not only required us to change how we think about ourselves and the life forms around us, but also required a markedly different approach to philosophy. Evolution's First Philosopher shows how Dewey's arguments arose from his recognition of the continuity of natural selection and mindedness, from which he developed his concept of growth. Growth, for Dewey, has no end beyond itself and forms the basis of a naturalized theory of ethics. While other philosophers gave some attention to evolutionary theory, it was Dewey alone who saw that Darwinism provides the basis for a naturalized theory of meaning. This, in turn, portends a new account of knowledge, ethics, and democracy. To clarify evolution's conception of natural selection, Jerome A. Popp looks at brain science and examines the relationship between the genome and experience in terms of the contemporary concepts of preparedness and plasticity. This research shows how comprehensive and penetrating Dewey's thought was in terms of further consequences for the philosophical method entailed by Darwin's thesis. Dewey's foresight is further legitimated when Popp places his work within the context of the current thought of Daniel Dennett.
Download or read book The First Philosophers written by Robin Waterfield and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-03-26 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These first philosophers paved the way for the work of Plato and Aristotle - and hence for the whole of Western thought. This is a unique and invaluable collection of the works of the Presocratics and the Sophists. Waterfield brings together the works of these early thinkers with brilliant new translation and exceptional commentary. This is the ideal anthology for the student of this increasingly appreciated field of classical philosophy.
Download or read book Creative Evolution written by Henri Bergson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-12-01 with total page 689 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in French in 1907, Henri Bergson’s L’évolution créatrice is a scintillating and radical work by one of the great French philosophers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This outstanding new translation, the first for over a hundred years, brings one of Bergson’s most important and ambitious works to a new generation of readers. A sympathetic though critical reader of Darwin, Bergson argues in Creative Evolution against a mechanistic, reductionist view of evolution. For Bergson, all life emerges from a creative, shared impulse, which he famously terms élan vital and which passes like a current through different organisms and generations over time. Whilst this impulse remains as forms of life diverge and multiply, human life is characterized by a distinctive form of consciousness or intellect. Yet as Bergson brilliantly shows, the intellect’s fragmentary and action- oriented nature, which he likens to the cinematograph, means it alone cannot grasp nature’s creativity and invention over time. A major task of Creative Evolution is to reconcile these two elements. For Bergson, the answer famously lies in intuition, which brings instinct and intellect together and takes us “into the very interior of life.” A work of great rigour and imaginative richness that contributed to Bergson winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927, Creative Evolution played an important and controversial role in the trajectory of twentieth-century philosophy and continues to create significant discussion and debate. The philosopher and psychologist William James, who admired Bergson’s work, was writing an introduction to the first English translation of the book before his death in 1910. This new translation includes a foreword by Elizabeth Grosz and a helpful translator’s introduction by Donald Landes. Also translated for the first time are additional notes, articles, reviews and letters on the reception of Creative Evolution in biology, mathematics, and theology. This edition includes fascinating commentaries by philosophers Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Georges Canguilhem, and Gilles Deleuze.
Download or read book Pragmatism s Evolution written by Trevor Pearce and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-10-20 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An important contribution . . . invaluable to anyone interested in the history of pragmatism and the influence of biology and evolution on pragmatic thinkers.” —Richard J. Bernstein, The New School for Social Research, author of The Pragmatic Turn In Pragmatism’s Evolution, Trevor Pearce demonstrates that the philosophical tradition of pragmatism owes an enormous debt to specific biological debates in the late 1800s, especially those concerning the role of the environment in development and evolution. Many are familiar with John Dewey’s 1909 assertion that evolutionary ideas overturned two thousand years of philosophy—but what exactly happened in the fifty years prior to Dewey’s claim? What form did evolutionary ideas take? When and how were they received by American philosophers? Although the various thinkers associated with pragmatism—from Charles Sanders Peirce to Jane Addams and beyond—were towering figures in American intellectual life, few realize the full extent of their engagement with the life sciences. In his analysis, Pearce focuses on a series of debates in biology from 1860 to 1910—from the instincts of honeybees to the inheritance of acquired characteristics—in which the pragmatists were active participants. If we want to understand the pragmatists and their influence, Pearce argues, we need to understand the relationship between pragmatism and biology. “Pragmatism’s Evolution is about the role of evolution, as a theory, in American pragmatism, as well as the early evolution of pragmatism itself.” —Isis “Superb.” —Metascience “[An] important book.” —Acta Biotheoretica “A significant and edifying work.” —Choice “Pearce has done something remarkable and all too rare: written a book at the intersection of philosophy, science, and history that is equally excellent in all three respects.” —International Journal of Philosophical Studies
Download or read book The Philosophy of Social Evolution written by Jonathan Birch and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-13 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From mitochondria to meerkats, the natural world is full of spectacular examples of social behaviour. In the early 1960s Bill Hamilton changed the way we think about how such behaviour evolves. He introduced three key innovations - now known as Hamilton's rule, kin selection, and inclusive fitness - which have been enormously influential, but which remain the subject of fierce controversy. Hamilton's pioneering work kick-started a research program now known as social evolution theory. This is a book about the philosophical foundations and future prospects of that program. Part I, "Foundations", is a careful exposition and defence of Hamilton's ideas, with a few modifications along the way. In Part II, "Extensions", Jonathan Birch shows how these ideas can be applied to phenomena including cooperation in micro-organisms, cooperation among the cells of a multicellular organism, and culturally evolved cooperation in the earliest human societies. Birch argues that real progress can be made in understanding microbial evolution, evolutionary transitions, and human evolution by viewing them through the lens of social evolution theory, provided the theory is interpreted with care and adapted where necessary. The Philosophy of Social Evolution places social evolution theory on a firm philosophical footing and sets out exciting new directions for further work.
Download or read book Creative Evolution written by Henri Bergson and published by Read Books Ltd. This book was released on 2016-09-29 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Creative Evolution” is a 1907 book by French philosopher Henri Bergson. Within it, Bergson offers a version of orthogenesis to replace Darwin's evolutionary mechanism, which surmises that evolution is stimulated by a "vital impetus". “Creative Evolution” was hugely popular in the early twentieth century and is highly recommended for those with an interest in evolution and allied subjects. Henri-Louis Bergson (1859–1941) was a French-Jewish philosopher. He had a significant influence on the tradition of continental philosophy during the first half of the twentieth century until World War II, and is famous for his idea that immediate experience and intuition are more important than abstract rationalism and science for understanding the nature of reality. This classic work is being republished now in a new edition complete with a chapter From “Bergson And His Philosophy” by J. Alexander Gunn.
Download or read book Evolutionary Philosophy written by Ed Gibney and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2012-04-24 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolutionary Philosophy is the foundation text for a new belief system. We are all products of evolution. Understanding all of the implications of this statement leads to a comprehensive worldview that can answer our universally shared questions: Where did I come from? What am I? What is a good life? How do I know? These questions and many more are answered in this book, before the beliefs of 60 of the top philosophers of history are put to the test in an evaluation of the survival of their fittest ideas. This is an audacious work of research and analysis from author Ed Gibney, who finishes by asking readers to help Evolutionary Philosophy to grow and adapt as mankind's knowledge continues to accumulate. This clear and accessible work promises to help you reevaluate mankind's place in the universe and your place in society.
Download or read book Meditations of Global First Philosophy written by Ashok K. Gangadean and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the roots of logos in different cultural milieux.
Download or read book The Evolutionary Philosophy of Chauncey Wright written by Chauncey Wright and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2000-10-15 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The Wright volumes look like an excellent contribution. It makes me realize again how sad it is that he did not leave more than he did. He was such a seminal figure and contributed so much by way of his reflections on science and evolution in particular as well as the role he played in the origins of pragmatism. It will be good to have the essays in one place and to see what is in the letters. Volume 3 also looks good, as it has the best interpreters and critics of the period covered.' --Professor Barbara MacKinnon In an era when American higher education was dominated by theologians and idealists, Chauncey Wright (1830-75) pioneered the cause of natural evolution and scientific empiricism. C. S. Peirce admired Wright's sheer intellect as superior to his own and to that of William James. Charles Darwin respected a mind 'so clear' that he asked him to develop a theory of the genesis of intelligence. Wright's response to this and other challenges solidifies his legacy as the first American philosopher of science. To understand the universe and our place in it, he argues, we must appeal not to theology or 'cosmic' philosophy but to scientific laws of nature. Consciousness is not an occult power, but a tool organisms utilize for adaptability and survival. Philosophy is suited to the moral and aesthetic realm, where Wright anticipates pragmatism in holding that values develop in effective social practices. Regrettably, Wright's brilliance was not vested in his temperament, and his early death at age forty-five leaves a scattering of suggestive essays but no developed system. Still, his ideas have a strikingly modern tone that establishes their relevance to later developments in evolutionary theory, pragmatism, and the philosophy of science. This 3-volume collection gathers Wright's Philosophical Discussions and Letters, each featuring a biographical sketch, with a third, reset volume of reviews and tributes, including contributions by John Fiske, C. S. Peirce, Joseph Blau and Gail Kennedy. The set is edited and introduced by Wright scholar Frank X. Ryan, with an additional introduction by prominent Wright expert Edward H. Madden. This significant collection: --provides a historical record of the development of scientific thought in America --recovers the central figure in the path from Darwin to American Evolutionism --identifies an important influence upon the foundations of pragmatism --examines a source of contemporary issues in the philosophy of cognition --foreshadows the development of utilitarian, naturalistic and pragmatic ethics in America
Download or read book But is it Science written by Robert T. Pennock and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The emotionally charged debate pitting creationism against evolution has been swirling since the publication of Charles Darwin's Origins of Species in 1859. The primary locus of controversy in the United States has been the courts, which have stepped in repeatedly to rule on the constitutionality of laws and policies regarding how each may be taught in the public schools. This fully updated anthology will inform readers about the history of the debate and bring philosophical clarity to the complex arguments on both sides."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Mind and Cosmos written by Thomas Nagel and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-22 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The modern materialist approach to life has conspicuously failed to explain such central mind-related features of our world as consciousness, intentionality, meaning, and value. This failure to account for something so integral to nature as mind, argues philosopher Thomas Nagel, is a major problem, threatening to unravel the entire naturalistic world picture, extending to biology, evolutionary theory, and cosmology. Since minds are features of biological systems that have developed through evolution, the standard materialist version of evolutionary biology is fundamentally incomplete. And the cosmological history that led to the origin of life and the coming into existence of the conditions for evolution cannot be a merely materialist history, either. An adequate conception of nature would have to explain the appearance in the universe of materially irreducible conscious minds, as such. Nagel's skepticism is not based on religious belief or on a belief in any definite alternative. In Mind and Cosmos, he does suggest that if the materialist account is wrong, then principles of a different kind may also be at work in the history of nature, principles of the growth of order that are in their logical form teleological rather than mechanistic. In spite of the great achievements of the physical sciences, reductive materialism is a world view ripe for displacement. Nagel shows that to recognize its limits is the first step in looking for alternatives, or at least in being open to their possibility.
Download or read book Thomas Kuhn s Revolution written by James A. Marcum and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2005-10-02 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The influence of Thomas Kuhn (1922 -1996) on the history and philosophy of science has been truly enormous. In 1962, Kuhn's famous work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, helped to inaugurate a revolution - the historiographic revolution - in the latter half of the twentieth century, providing a new understanding of science in which 'paradigm shifts' (scientific revolutions) are punctuated with periods of stasis (normal science). Kuhn's revolution not only had a huge impact on the history and philosophy of science but on other disciplines as well, including sociology, education, economics, theology, and even science policy. James A. Marcum's book focuses on the following questions: What exactly was Kuhn's historiographic revolution? How did it come about? Why did it have the impact it did? What, if any, will its future impact be for both academia and society? At the heart of the answers to these questions is the person of Kuhn himself, i.e., his personality, his pedagogical style, his institutional and social commitments, and the intellectual and social context in which he practiced his trade. Drawing on the rich archival sources at MIT, and engaging fully with current scholarship on Kuhn, Marcum's is the first book to show in detail how Kuhn's influence transcended the boundaries of the history and philosophy of science community to reach many others - sociologists, economists, theologians, political scientists, educators, and even policy makers and politicians.
Download or read book Thinking about Evolution written by Rama S. Singh and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 638 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 2001, this is the second of two volumes published by Cambridge University Press in honour of Richard Lewontin. This second volume of essays honours the philosophical, historical and political dimensions of his work. It is fitting that the volume covers such a wide range of perspectives on modern biology, given the range of Lewontin's own contributions. He is not just a very successful practitioner of evolutionary genetics, but a rigorous critic of the practices of genetics and evolutionary biology and an articulate analyst of the social, political and economic contexts and consequences of genetic and evolutionary research. The volume begins with an essay by Lewontin on Natural History and Formalism in Evolutionary Genetics, and includes contributions by former students, post-docs, colleagues and collaborators, which cover issues ranging from the history and conceptual foundations of evolutionary biology and genetics, to the implications of human genetic diversity.
Download or read book The Evolution of Morality written by Richard Joyce and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2007-08-24 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Origin and Evolution of Cultures written by Robert Boyd and published by Evolution and Cognition. This book was released on 2005 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Origin and Evolution of Cultures presents articles based on two notions. That culture is crucial for understanding human behaviour; and that culture is part of biology. Interest in this collection will span anthropology, psychology, economics, philosophy, and political science.
Download or read book First Principles of a New System of Philosophy written by Herbert Spencer and published by Legare Street Press. This book was released on 2022-10-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
