Biology and Philosophy 25 (3):361-378 (2010)
Authors |
|
Abstract |
Darwin’s treatment of morality in The Descent of Man has generated a wide variety of responses among moral philosophers. Among these is the dismissal of evolution as irrelevant to ethics by Darwin’s contemporary Henry Sidgwick; the last, and arguably the greatest, of the Nineteenth Century British Utilitarians. This paper offers a re-examination of Sidgwick’s response to evolutionary considerations as irrelevant to ethics and the absence of any engagement with Darwin’s work in Sidgwick’s main ethical treatise, The Methods of Ethics . This assessment of Sidgwick’s response to Darwin’s work is shown to have significance for a number of ongoing controversies in contemporary metaethics.
|
Keywords | Philosophy Evolutionary Biology Philosophy of Biology |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
DOI | 10.1007/s10539-010-9204-8 |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
View all 45 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
Do the Evolutionary Origins of Our Moral Beliefs Undermine Moral Knowledge?Kevin Brosnan - 2011 - Biology and Philosophy 26 (1):51-64.
The Current Status of the Philosophy of Biology.Peter Takacs & Michael Ruse - 2013 - Science & Education 22 (1):5-48.
Animal Cognition, Species Invariantism, and Mathematical Realism.Helen De Cruz - 2019 - In Andrew Aberdein & Matthew Inglis (eds.), Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics. London: Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 39-61.
View all 9 citations / Add more citations
Similar books and articles
Philosophy After Darwin: Classic and Contemporary Readings.Michael Ruse (ed.) - 2009 - Princeton University Press.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2010-03-13
Total views
600 ( #14,092 of 2,518,734 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
28 ( #31,419 of 2,518,734 )
2010-03-13
Total views
600 ( #14,092 of 2,518,734 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
28 ( #31,419 of 2,518,734 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads