1st Edition
The Routledge Handbook of Evolution and Philosophy
In recent years, the relation between contemporary academic philosophy and evolutionary theory has become ever more active, multifaceted, and productive. The connection is a bustling two-way street. In one direction, philosophers of biology make significant contributions to theoretical discussions about the nature of evolution (such as "What is a species?"; "What is reproductive fitness?"; "Does selection operate primarily on genes?"; and "What is an evolutionary function?"). In the other direction, a broader group of philosophers appeal to Darwinian selection in an attempt to illuminate traditional philosophical puzzles (such as "How could a brain-state have representational content?"; "Are moral judgments justified?"; "Why do we enjoy fiction?"; and "Are humans invariably selfish?"). In grappling with these questions, this interdisciplinary collection includes cutting-edge examples from both directions of traffic. The thirty contributions, written exclusively for this volume, are divided into six sections: The Nature of Selection; Evolution and Information; Human Nature; Evolution and Mind; Evolution and Ethics; and Evolution, Aesthetics, and Art. Many of the contributing philosophers and psychologists are international leaders in their fields.
Contents
List of Contributors
Preface
PART I
The Nature of Selection
1 The nature of selection: An overview
Tim Lewens
2 Multilevel selection and units of selection up and down the biological hierarchy
Elisabeth A. Lloyd
3 Adaptation, multilevel selection, and organismality: A clash of perspectives
Ellen Clarke
4 Fitness maximization
Jonathan Birch
5 Does biology need teleology?
Karen Neander
PART II
Evolution and Information
6 Evolution and information: An overview
Ulrich Stegmann
7 The construction of learned information through selection processes
Nir Fresco, Eva Jablonka, and Simona Ginsburg
8 Genetic, epigenetic, and exogenetic information
Karola Stotz and Paul Griffiths
9 Language: From how-possibly to how-probably?
Kim Sterelny
10 Acquiring knowledge on species-specific biorealities: The applied evolutionary epistemological approach
Nathalie Gontier and Michael Bradie
PART III
Human Nature
11 Human Nature: An overview
Stephen Downes
12 The reality of species: Real phenomena not theoretical objects
John Wilkins
13 Modern essentialism for species and its animadversions
Joseph LaPorte
14 What is human nature (if it is anything at all?)
Louise Barrett
15 The right to ignore: An epistemic defense of the nature/culture divide
Maria Kronfeldner
PART IV
Evolution and Mind
16 Evolution and mind: An overview
Valerie Hardcastle
17 Routes to the convergent evolution of cognition
Edward Legg, Ljerka Ostojić, and Nicola Clayton
18 Is consciousness an adaptation?
Kari Theurer and Thomas Polger
19 Plasticity and modularity
Edouard Machery
20 The prospects for teleosemantics: Can biological functions fix mental content?
Justine Kingsbury
PART V
Evolution and Ethics
21 Evolution and ethics: An overview
Catherine Wilson
22 The evolution of moral intuitions and their feeling of rightness
Christine Clavien and Chloë FitzGerald
23 Are we losing it? Darwin’s moral sense and the importance of early experience
Darcia Narvaez
24 The evolution of morality and the prospects for moral realism
Ben Fraser
25 Moral cheesecake, evolved psychology, and the debunking impulse
Daniel Kelly
PART VI
Evolution, Aesthetics, and Art
26 Evolution, aest
Biography
Richard Joyce is Professor of Philosophy at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is author of The Myth of Morality (2001), The Evolution of Morality (2006), and Essays in Moral Skepticism (2016), as well as many articles on metaethics and moral psychology. He has co-edited A World Without Values (2010) and Cooperation and its Evolution (2013).
"The Routledge Handbook of Evolution and Philosophy is a superb introduction to the field. Particularly impressive are the breadth of topics and the incredibly encouraging range of authors, young and old, male and female, and from so many countries and cultures. This is a book that will last."
--Michael Ruse, Florida State University
