Darwin / Tim Lewens.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Lewens, Tim.

Series:

• Routledge philosophers

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882.

Physical Description:

xii, 289 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2007.

Summary:

• Charles Darwin (1809-1882) is best known as a biologist and natural historian rather than a philosopher. However, in this invaluable book, Tim Lewens shows in a clear and accessible manner how important Darwin is for philosophy and how his work has shaped and challenged the very nature of the subject.
• Beginning with an overview of Darwin's life and work, the subsequent chapters discuss the full range of fundamental philosophical topics from a Darwinian perspective. These include natural selection; the origin and nature of species; the role of evidence in scientific enquiry; the theory of intelligent Design; evolutionary approaches to the human mind; the implications of Darwin's work for ethics and epistemology; and the question of how social and political thought needs to be updated in the light of a Darwinian understanding of human nature.
• A concluding chapter assesses the philosophical legacy of Darwin's thought. Darwin is essential reading for anyone in the humanities, social sciences and sciences seeking a philosophical introduction to Darwin, or anyone simply seeking a philosophical companion to Darwin's own writings.

Contents:

• A philosophical naturalist : introduction
• Dial 'M' for 'metaphysics'
• Darwin and darwinism
• Darwin unfolding
• Life
• Pedigree
• From sport to science
• The Beagle voyage
• London, marriage and the notebooks
• Down...
• ...And out
• Selection
• Evolution and natural selection
• The argument for natural selection
• Darwin and Lamarck
• Darwin's dangerous idea
• Natural selection and variation
• Selection and creativity
• Selection and population
• Natural selection then and now
• Species
• Human nature, squid nature, apple nature
• The tree of life
• Butchering nature
• Individuals and kinds
• Population thinking and typological thinking
• Species natures
• Evidence
• Science and God
• Inference to the best explanation
• Herschel and Whewell
• Herschel and the Origin
• Darwin, Whewell and Gemmules
• Natural selection and common ancestry
• The natural selection/intelligent design debate
• Evolution with intelligent design
• Darwin and religion
• Mind
• Squandered riches?
• The three principles of emotional expression
• Common ancestry
• The universality of emotional expression
• Culture and the evolutionary approach
• The Santa Barbara school
• A single human nature?
• The adaptive heuristic
• Darwin and Santa Barbara
• Ethics
• Ethics from the side of natural history
• The origins of the moral sense
• Darwin's normative ethics
• Evolutionary normative ethics
• Evolutionary meta-ethics
• Group selection
• Has evolution made us selfish?
• Knowledge
• What is knowledge?
• Empiricism
• Innate knowledge
• Evolutionary epistemology : James and Popper
• Memes
• Cultural evolution without Memes
• Politics
• Darwin and the right
• Degenerating society
• Social darwinism
• Politics and human nature
• Darwin and the equality of the sexes
• Sex differences today
• Darwin and the left
• Philosophy
• Man's place in nature
• Hubris
• Contingency
• Progress
• Darwinian naturalism.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [272]-281) and index.

ISBN:

• 0415346371
• 041534638X
• 0203597133

OCLC:

68711947

Online:

Publisher description