Richard Joyce
The Routledge Handbook of Evolution and Philosophy
Edited by Richard Joyce
Routledge, 2017
The cover image is The Merry Jesters (1906) by Henri Rousseau.
This page contains:
dustjack blurb
table of contents
brief reviews
a little background
Dust jacket blurb:
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 30 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.
Table of contents:
Introduction
Richard Joyce
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, & Simona Ginsburg
8. "Genetic, epigenetic, and exogenetic information"
Karola Stotz & 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 & 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, & Nicola Clayton
18. "Is consciousness an adaptation?"
Kari Theurer & 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 & 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 & Johan De Smedt
29. "Evolution and literature: Theory and example"
Brian Boyd
30. "Play and evolution"
Patrick Bateson
Reviews:
"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
Background:
In 2013 Routledge invited me to edit this collection and I said “yes.” Over the next few years I learned the hard way that being sole editor of a huge book with 30 chapters really is many times more work than co-editing a small book with 10 chapters. Who’d have figured?