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Summary
This volume analyzes the biological and philosophical disagreements in evolutionary ethics and points out difficulties with the interpretations.
The book is divided into four sections. The first is an historical introduction to the origin of evolutionary ethics, showing how different evolutionary ethics was a hundred years ago, and how distant Huxley is from most of us now. The second section argues for a sociobiological interpretation of evolutionary ethics. The third section presents the view opposite to that of the second section and rejects the sociobiological interpretation. The fourth section deals objectively with many complex and fundamental issues from diverse perspectives.
"The authors have a wondrous capacity to recognize problems, to communicate ideas, and to do so with obvious enthusiasm and refined style. In today's jargon, this is a 'good read.' Reader interest is sustained by essays which tease the intellect and by logical argument that coaxes even the most narrowly-read, basic scientist to think about the broader problem." -- David J. Simmons, University of Texas Medical Branch
"With today's general interest in ethics, I think this is timely and important. There are few topics that are as significant as human morality and its basis.
"One of the main strengths here is a balance of traditional thinking and modern insights. There is a real value in 'updating' the work of major scholars from the past and contrasting this with today's thinking." -- Barrie Dale, University of Oslo Matthew H. Nitecki is Curator and Doris V. Nitecki is Associate in the Department of Geology at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. They are the editors of History and Evolution, also published by SUNY Press.
Table of Contents
Preface
Contributors
Introduction
Problematic Worldviews of Evolutionary Ethics
Matthew H. Nitecki
Ethics and the Cosmic Order
Evolution and Ethics
Thomas H. Huxley
Ethics and the Struggle for Existence
Leslie Stephen
Evolution and Ethics
John Dewey
Philosophical Advocacy
Birth, Death, and Resurrection of Evolutionary Ethics
Robert J. Richards
The New Evolutionary
Ethics Michael Ruse
Biological Considerations in the Analysis of Morality
Richard D. Alexander
Philosophical Skepticism
Evolutionary Altruism, Psychological Egoism, and Morality: Disentangling the Phenotypes
Elliott Sober
Mother Nature is a Wicked Old Witch
George C. Williams
Can Beings Whose Ethics Evolved Be Ethical Beings?
Patricia A. Williams
Biosocial Debate
The Moral Career of Vertebrate Values
Andrzej Elzanowski
The Chimpanzee's Mind: How Noble in Reason? How Absent of Ethics?
Daniel J. Povinelli and Laurie R. Godfrey
Evolutionary Origin of Moral Principles
Adam Urbanek
The Complex of Questions Relating Evolution to Ethics
Lawrence Slobodkin
The Kinds of "Individuals" One Finds in Evolutionary Biology
