The Routledge Handbook of Evolution and Philosophy

About this book

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 The Routledge Handbook of Evolution and Philosophy, 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 Ostojic, 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, aesthetics, and art: An overview
      Stephen Davies
27 Music and human evolution: Philosophical aspects
      Anton Killin
28 Emotional responses to fiction: An evolutionary perspective
      Helen De Cruz and Johan De Smedt
29 Evolution and literature: Theory and example
      Brian Boyd
30 Play and evolution
      Patrick Bateson

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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).