Evolutionary Pragmatism and Ethics

Evolutionary Pragmatism and Ethics
Author :
Publisher : Lexington Books
Total Pages : 157
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780739198650
ISBN-13 : 0739198653
Rating : 4/5 (50 Downloads)

Synopsis Evolutionary Pragmatism and Ethics by : Beth L. Eddy

In the late nineteenth century, culture critics who were readers of Darwin’s work on evolution pondered what the implications of natural selection might be for human culture, religion and ethics. American pragmatists, by and large, rejected a social Darwinian spin on ethics, economics, and theology in favor of a less determinate humanist version of the ethical implications that emphasized contingency and meliorism. The early arguments between T. H. Huxley and William Sumner over the issues mirrors the contemporary arguments between Stephen Jay Gould and others against “the New Atheists’” determinate interpretation of cultural implications which largely echo the social Darwinists’ position but in the current language of sociobiology. The work of pragmatists such as William James, George Santayana, Jane Addams, and John Dewey detail an evolutionary perspective that rejects the moral implications of social Darwinism.

Pragmatism's Evolution

Pragmatism's Evolution
Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Total Pages : 380
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780226720081
ISBN-13 : 022672008X
Rating : 4/5 (81 Downloads)

Synopsis Pragmatism's Evolution by : Trevor Pearce

“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

Darwinism and Pragmatism

Darwinism and Pragmatism
Author :
Publisher : Routledge
Total Pages : 214
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781351975810
ISBN-13 : 1351975811
Rating : 4/5 (10 Downloads)

Synopsis Darwinism and Pragmatism by : Lucas McGranahan

Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection challenges our very sense of belonging in the world. Unlike prior evolutionary theories, Darwinism construes species as mutable historical products of a blind process that serves no inherent purpose. It also represents a distinctly modern kind of fallible science that relies on statistical evidence and is not verifiable by simple laboratory experiments. What are human purpose and knowledge if humanity has no pre-given essence and science itself is our finite and fallible product? According to the Received Image of Darwinism, Darwin’s theory signals the triumph of mechanism and reductionism in all science. On this view, the individual virtually disappears at the intersection of (internal) genes and (external) environment. In contrast, William James creatively employs Darwinian concepts to support his core conviction that both knowledge and reality are in the making, with individuals as active participants. In promoting this Pragmatic Image of Darwinism, McGranahan provides a novel reading of James as a philosopher of self-transformation. Like his contemporary Nietzsche, James is concerned first and foremost with the structure and dynamics of the finite purposive individual. This timely volume is suitable for advanced undergraduate, postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers interested in the fields of history of philosophy, history and philosophy of science, history of psychology, American pragmatism and Darwinism.

The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Ethics

The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Ethics
Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Total Pages : 343
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781107132955
ISBN-13 : 1107132959
Rating : 4/5 (55 Downloads)

Synopsis The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Ethics by : Michael Ruse

This book introduces readers to the application of evolutionary ideas to moral thinking and justification, presenting contrasting perspectives on controversial issues.

Jane Addams's Evolutionary Theorizing

Jane Addams's Evolutionary Theorizing
Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Total Pages : 277
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780226631325
ISBN-13 : 022663132X
Rating : 4/5 (25 Downloads)

Synopsis Jane Addams's Evolutionary Theorizing by : Marilyn Fischer

In Jane Addams’s Evolutionary Theorizing, Marilyn Fischer advances the bold and original claim that Addams’s reasoning in her first book, Democracy and Social Ethics, is thoroughly evolutionary. While Democracy and Social Ethics, a foundational text of classical American pragmatism, is praised for advancing a sensitive and sophisticated method of ethical deliberation, Fischer is the first to explore its intellectual roots. Examining essays Addams wrote in the 1890s and showing how they were revised for Democracy and Social Ethics, Fischer draws from philosophy, history, literature, rhetoric, and more to uncover the array of social evolutionary thought Addams engaged with in her texts—from British socialist writings on the evolution of democracy to British and German anthropological accounts of the evolution of morality. By excavating Addams’s evolutionary reasoning and rhetorical strategies, Fischer reveals the depth, subtlety, and richness of Addams’s thought.

Toward a Pragmatist Metaethics

Toward a Pragmatist Metaethics
Author :
Publisher : Routledge
Total Pages : 180
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781317280361
ISBN-13 : 1317280369
Rating : 4/5 (61 Downloads)

Synopsis Toward a Pragmatist Metaethics by : Diana Heney

In our current social landscape, moral questions—about economic disparity, disadvantaging biases, and scarcity—are rightly receiving attention with a sense of urgency. This book argues that classical pragmatism offers a compelling and useful account of our engagement with moral life. The key arguments are first, that a broader reading of the pragmatist tradition than is usually attempted within the context of ethical theory is necessary; and second, that this broad reading offers resources that enable us to move forward in contemporary debates about truth and principles in moral life. The first argument is made by demonstrating that there is an arc of theoretical unity that stretches from two key founders of pragmatism—Charles Sanders Peirce and William James—through the work of John Dewey and Clarence Irving Lewis. The second argument is made by engaging with contemporary debates concerning the truth-status of the judgments and assertions made in ordinary moral discourse, as well as the role and nature of moral principles. Toward a Pragmatist Metaethics will be of interest to scholars of American philosophy, American intellectual history, and moral and political theorists, as well as anyone interested in the contours and demands of shared moral discourse.

Pets, People, and Pragmatism

Pets, People, and Pragmatism
Author :
Publisher : Fordham Univ Press
Total Pages : 265
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780823251148
ISBN-13 : 0823251144
Rating : 4/5 (48 Downloads)

Synopsis Pets, People, and Pragmatism by : Erin McKenna

This book examines human relationships with pets without assuming that such relations are either unnatural and to be avoided, or benign. We need to find ways to relate respectfully. For respectful relationships to be a real possibility, though, humans must make the effort to understand the beings with whom they live, work, and play.

Democracy and Social Ethics

Democracy and Social Ethics
Author :
Publisher :
Total Pages : 306
Release :
ISBN-10 : NYPL:33433069238396
ISBN-13 :
Rating : 4/5 (96 Downloads)

Synopsis Democracy and Social Ethics by : Jane Addams

The Ethical Project

The Ethical Project
Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Total Pages : 433
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780674063075
ISBN-13 : 0674063074
Rating : 4/5 (75 Downloads)

Synopsis The Ethical Project by : Philip Kitcher

Principles of right and wrong guide the lives of almost all human beings, but we often see them as external to ourselves, outside our own control. In a revolutionary approach to the problems of moral philosophy, Philip Kitcher makes a provocative proposal: Instead of conceiving ethical commands as divine revelations or as the discoveries of brilliant thinkers, we should see our ethical practices as evolving over tens of thousands of years, as members of our species have worked out how to live together and prosper. Elaborating this radical new vision, Kitcher shows how the limited altruistic tendencies of our ancestors enabled a fragile social life, how our forebears learned to regulate their interactions with one another, and how human societies eventually grew into forms of previously unimaginable complexity. The most successful of the many millennia-old experiments in how to live, he contends, survive in our values today. Drawing on natural science, social science, and philosophy to develop an approach he calls "pragmatic naturalism," Kitcher reveals the power of an evolving ethics built around a few core principles-including justice and cooperation-but leaving room for a diversity of communities and modes of self-expression. Ethics emerges as a beautifully human phenomenon-permanently unfinished, collectively refined and distorted generation by generation. Our human values, Kitcher shows, can be understood not as a final system but as a project-the ethical project-in which our species has engaged for most of its history, and which has been central to who we are.

Progress and Pragmatism

Progress and Pragmatism
Author :
Publisher : Praeger
Total Pages : 424
Release :
ISBN-10 : UCAL:B3623108
ISBN-13 :
Rating : 4/5 (08 Downloads)

Synopsis Progress and Pragmatism by : David Marcell

They live in a world swirling in mist and darkness¿.Their mission is to tempt, tease, and seduce as they mesmerize us with their promise of taking our desires to the ultimate limit Dark Obsession For three centuries, Benjamin Bartlett¿s desire for blood¿and for the woman who granted him eternity¿has consumed him. But when he discovers a group of four people taking refuge in his home after their van breaks down, he¿s immediately drawn to Star Reid¿and soon she drives him over the edge in a white-hot lust that won¿t be denied Blood Lust Vampire Christopher Marsh has searched for years for the talisman that could make him mortal again and give him the chance to fall in love. On the archeological dig he¿s supervising, beautiful professor Nicole Stephenson reminds him daily of what he wants but can¿t have. But when he abandons all control and gives in to his explosive desires, his quest takes on more urgency¿for he can¿t lose the woman he¿s been waiting so long for