Is the cultural evolution of morality fairly contingent? Could cultural evolution have easily led humans to moral norms and judgments that are mostly false by our present lights? If so, does it matter philosophically? Yes, or so we argue. We empirically motivate the contingency of cultural evolution and show that it makes two major philosophical contributions. First, it shows that moral objectivists cannot explain the reliability of our moral judgments and thus strengthens moral debunking arguments. Second, it (...) shows that the reliability of our moral judgments is evidence for theism over metaphysical naturalism. (shrink)

Henri Bergson (1859-1941) is one of the truly great philosophers of the modernist period, and there is currently a major renaissance of interest in his unduly neglected texts and ideas amongst philosophers, literary theorists, and social theorists. Creative Evolution (1907) is the text that made Bergson world-famous in his own lifetime; in it Bergson responds to the challenge presented to our habits of thought by modern evolutionary theory, and attempts to show that the theory of knowledge must have its (...) basis in a theory of life. (shrink)

From mitochondria to meerkats, the natural world is full of spectacular examples of social behaviour. In the early 1960s W. D. Hamilton changed the way we think about how such behaviour evolves. He introduced three key innovations - now known as Hamilton's rule, kin selection, and inclusive fitness - and his pioneering work kick-started a research program now known as social evolution theory. This is a book about the philosophical foundations and future prospects of that program. [Note: only the (...) Introduction is available to download.]. (shrink)

Throughout our entire evolutionary history, the physical environment has played a significant role in shaping humans’ subsistence adaptations. As early humans began to colonise novel biomes and construct ecological niches, their behavioural flexibility appeared as an unquestionable fact. During the Late Pleistocene-Holocene transition, the shift from foraging to farming radically altered ecosystem services, resulting in increased exposure to zoonotic pathogens and the emergence of structural inequalities that pervade our current human condition in the Anthropocene epoch. The article seeks to use (...) an anthropological biosocial analysis to explore the diverse evolutionary paths humans have taken, which in turn shape their relationships with the natural world. Given the enigmatic nature of human behavior, it is essential to examine it holistically to understand how different subsistence patterns (e.g., intensive agriculture, foraging, and horticulture) have influenced resilience and adaptation to environmental challenges. (shrink)

Lyman Abbott was an American liberal theologian and a confidant of Theodore Roosevelt. He was a moderate man who sought to re-establish Christian faith among the American people in a period of change. This book, first published in 1893, argued that spiritual experience is always new and therefore every age requires a new expression for it. A believer in the possibility of harmonious coexistence between the Church and evolutionary theory, Abbott proposed a 'more intelligible and credible' religion that endeavoured to (...) sustain faith by expressing it in contemporary terms. He maintained that science and faith were compatible and that both natural and spiritual elements belonged to a shared kingdom governed by the law of progress. Blending faith in historical Christianity with belief in progress and evolutionary theory, Abbott aimed to provide a bridge between religious life and late nineteenth-century philosophical thought. (shrink)

Comment un État constitutionnel peut-il faire face aux menaces terroristes d’une façon qui soit compatible avec son engagement démocratique, les droits fondamentaux et l’état de droit? En pleine opposition tant avec les arguments juridiques avancés par l’administration Bush qu’avec la thèse selon laquelle les menaces et les défis posés par le terrorisme peuvent être gérés dans le cadre constitutionnel et réglementaire actuel, Bruce Ackermann rejette la caractérisation du 11 septembre comme le début d’une « guerre » tout autant que quelque (...) chose qui pourrait être traité comme un crime ordinaire. Sur le terrain prescriptif, Bruce Ackermann appelle à des mesures qui relèvent de la « Constitution d’un état d’urgence ». La loi-cadre qu’il appelle de ses vœux doit garantir que les institutions de l’État soient bien équipées pour faire face à cette menace et que les pouvoirs conférés ne soient pas utilisés pour anéantir les droits fondamentaux et les libertés. Bruce Ackerman pense notamment que le pouvoir du Gouvernement de déclarer l’état d’urgence doit rapidement être endossé par le Congrès mais aussi qu’un système dit d’escalateur supermajoritaire doit rendre de plus en plus difficile de l’obtenir. (shrink)

One of the current problems in microbiology concerns the understanding of fitness in host-symbiont systems. A great deal of research and conceptual work has analysed how the host benefits from such associations; however, very little of this work has attempted to take the microbial perspective. Nevertheless, some scientists have argued that we should conduct more comparative studies of both microorganisms that interact with a host and their free-living counterparts in order to determine whether or not symbiosis is beneficial for these (...) microorganisms. In this paper, by means of analysing heritable symbiosis as a case study, I intend to provide a different perspective on this subject. Mainly, I argue that asking how the fitness of a given microorganism was changed during the evolution of heritable symbiosis may be theoretically unjustified at both the early and late stages of this process. The reason for this, I argue, is that, during the evolution of heritable symbiosis, the fitness of a microorganism becomes incommensurable with that of its free-living counterparts because their contexts become radically different; therefore, comparing their fitness makes little sense. My analysis is driven by the use of the ecological concept of fitness; accordingly, my conclusions are bound to this specific interpretation of fitness. (shrink)

The "tangle" referred to in my title is a special set of problems that arise in understanding the evolution of mental representation. These are problems over and above those involved in reconstructing evolutionary histories in general, over and above those involved in dealing with human evolution, and even over and above those involved in tackling the evolution of other human psychological traits. I am talking about a peculiar and troublesome set of interactions and possibilities, linked to long-standing (...) debates about the status of folk psychology and the nature of semantic properties. (shrink)

The relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and leadership has received considerable research attention in recent decades. While there have been several qualitative reviews, quantitative and systematic reviews of CSR–leadership links remain absent. The current paper seeks to address this gap by using a bibliometric method to analyze and visualize the evolution and research trends within the CSR–leadership domain. Drawing from a sample of 1432 peer-reviewed articles, we map the landscape of the CSR–leadership research domain and identify key developments (...) and patterns over the period 1994–2020. In addition to highlighting a range of publication trends including key theoretical influences, the findings also reveal an acceleration in the volume and breadth of CSR–leadership research. Seven subdomains (or clusters) are further identified (i.e., board characteristics, responsible leadership, emerging country context, team efficacy, CEO pay fairness, shareholder wealth, and cross-sector social partnership) and discussed based on the keywords using the log-likelihood ratio clustering algorithm. The analysis is further divided into three stages: namely, the initial stage (1991–2003), the rapid development stage (2004–2011), and the maturation stage (2012–present). These stages are used to present more fine-grained insights into the research patterns over time. We conclude by discussing implications of the bibliometric analysis and presenting several opportunities for future research. (shrink)

The centrality of glory, contempt, and revengefulness to Leviathan’s account of war is highlighted by three contextual features: Hobbes’s displacement of the traditional conception of glory as intrinsically intersubjective and comparative; his incorporation of the Aristotelian view that revengefulness is provoked by expressions of mere contempt; and the evolution of his account between 1640 and 1651. An archeology of Leviathan’s famous chapter thirteen confirms that Hobbes’s thesis throughout his career was that disagreement is the universal cause of war because (...) prickly, glory-seeking humans view its expression as a sign of contempt: although Leviathan abandons Hobbes’s previous argument that war is primarily rooted in vainglorious individuals pursuing domination, Leviathan’s ‘glory’ argument for war is a descendent of the older ‘comparison’, not ‘vanity’, argument. (shrink)

Human societies are based on cooperation among large numbers of genetically unrelated individuals. This behavior is puzzling from an evolutionary perspective. Because cooperators are..

The aim of this article is to clarify the epistemic status of the Intelligent Design proposal. We can consider it as an updated version of the classical ways of demonstrating the existence of God, in particular of the so-called “fifth way”. As such, it seems to be neither scientific nor properly theological, but rather a proposal at a rational-philosophical level. At the same time, it must also be made clear that the negation of purpose in evolutionary biological processes is similarly (...) a philosophical position, not a scientific one. I propose to acknowledge this state of affairs and to reframe the debate at its proper level. On the argumentative level, it is just as wrong to neglect the controversy as it is to discredit one’s opponent. On the epistemic level, it is a mistake to present Intelligent Design as a scientific replacement for the scientific theory of evolution; it should be considered instead to be a genuine and serious alternative to the quasi-philosophical ideology of evolutionism. (shrink)

A detailed account of human language and evolution, reconciling the apparent dichotomy between humans and all other animals. Focuses on the speculative presence of a Generative Assembly Device, unique to Homo sapiens.

George Herbert Mead's lectures at the University of Chicago are more important to understanding Mead's views on social psychology than some commentators, such as Hans Joas, have emphasized. Mead's 1898-99 lecture series, preserved through the notes of his student H. Heath Bawden, demonstrate his devotion to Hegelianism as a method of thinking and how this influenced his non-reductive approach to functionalist psychology. In addition, Mead's breadth of historical knowledge and his commitments in the natural and social sciences are on display (...) here, culminating in the Darwinian observation that human animals only achieve the degree of control they have over their environment by the achievement of social organization. (shrink)

The questions raised for the study of marine invertebrate larvae have implications for the evolution of development, the life histories of animals, and life in the sea more generally. These questions began to coalesce in the 19th century around two main factors. The first was the discovery of marine larvae. Through careful observation, investigators detected and confirmed that the development of animals exhibited stages surprisingly different from the previously known adults and adult-like juveniles. Famous examples include the demonstration that (...) barnacles were arthropods because of a shared larval form (Thompson 1830), the characterization of bilateral echinoderm larvae by Johannes Müller (summarized in Huxley 1851), and the unexpected chordate affinities of tunicates. Subsequent studies also demonstrated that adults with similar morphological features could have radically different larval forms and life histories. (shrink)

Brackets and tables, circles and maps, 1554-1872 -- Early botanical networks and trees, 1766-1815 -- The first evolutionary tree, 1786-1820 -- Diverse and unusual trees of the early nineteenth century, 1817-1834 -- The rule of five, 1819-1854 -- Pre-Darwinian branching diagrams, 1828-1858 -- Evolution and the trees of Charles Darwin, 1837-1868 -- The trees of Ernst Haeckel, 1866-1905 -- Post-Darwinian nonconformists, 1868-1896 -- More late-nineteenth-century trees, 1874-1897 -- Trees of the early twentieth century, 1901-1930 -- The trees of Alfred (...) Sherwood Romer, 1933-1966 -- Additional trees of the mid-twentieth century, 1931-1943 -- The trees of William King Gregory, 1938-1951 -- Hints of new approaches, 1954-1969 -- Phenograms and cladograms, 1958-1966 -- Early molecular trees, 1962-1987 -- Notable trees of the past four decades, 1970-2010 -- Primeval branches and universal trees of life, 1997-2010. (shrink)

In this paper, I reconstruct and sketch an evolutionary argument against epiphenomenalism in the spirit of William James'. This version of the argument is more charitable to James than the one attributed to him in William Robinson's recent article 'Evolution and Epiphenomenalism' and here I show how it bypasses Robinson's criticisms.

It has already become a commonplace to discuss postbiological evolution in various contexts of futures studies, bioethics, cognitive sciences, philosophical anthropology, or even economics and SETI studies. The assumption is that technological/cultural evolution will soon entirely substitute for the biological processes which underlie human existence – and, by analogy, the existence of other independently evolved intelligent beings, if any. Various modes of postbiological evolution of humans have been envisioned in both fictional and discursive contexts. Little thought has (...) been devoted so far to the question whether these postbiological modes are truly final in both logical and conceptual terms. What lies beyond the postbiological realm? Clearly, only a few radical speculations on the topic can be offered. In this paper, it is argued that in a sufficiently broad subset of scenarios for postbiological evolution there will be a kind of reverse trend: the one of reintegration with the biological universe, by that point understood in a much wider and more inclusive sense. The argument for such reintegration could be understood through the metaphor of expanding Klein bottle as a symbolic image of the post-postbiological evolutionary trajectories. This kind of trajectory will lead to the state in which products of culture are indistinguishable from the natural environment, suggesting practical consequences for our SETI efforts. (shrink)

Mitochondria exist in large numbers per cell. Therefore, the strength of natural selection on individual mtDNAs for their contribution to cellular fitness is weak whereas the strength of selection in favor of mtDNAs that increase their own replication without regard for cellular functions is strong. This problem has been solved for most mitochondrial genes by their transfer to the nucleus but a few critical genes remain encoded by mtDNA. Organisms manage the evolution of mtDNA to prevent mutational decay of (...) essential services mitochondria provide to their hosts. Bottlenecks of mitochondrial numbers in female germlines increase the homogeneity of mtDNAs within cells and allow intraorganismal selection to eliminate cells with low quality mitochondria. Mechanisms of intracellular “quality control” allow direct selection on the competence of individual mtDNAs. These processes maintain the integrity of mtDNAs within the germline but are inadequate to indefinitely maintain mitochondrial function in somatic cells. (shrink)

In this book, Haught chronicles the war over teaching evolution in Florida's schools, from the first shouts of religious persecution and child endangerment in Tallahassee in 1923 to the forced delays and extra public hearings in state-level textbook adoptions today.

The recent sociobiology debate has raised fundamental and previously unresolved conceptual problems. Evolutionary Instability - Logical and Material Aspects of a Unified Theory of Biosocial Evolution - offers ap- proaches for their solution. The scientific applications comprise the dynamics and evolutionary instability of hierarchically organized systems, especially systems of interacting behavioural phenotypes in animals and man. The technical apparatus is thoroughly explained in intuitive terms within the text, and illustrated by numerous familiar examples and graphical representations, supplemented by an (...) informal summary and discussion. The analyses offer new theoretical perspectives to such diverse fields as philosophy of science, evolutionary biology, general system theory and sociology. (shrink)

This paper examines how institutions for managing environmental resources change over time with economic development and the seriousness of environmental problems. Different problems tend to be more serious at different levels of development requiring different approaches. A major point is that traditional systems of management in poorer countries were often effective at managing common good resources, and institutions that replicate their advantages should be encouraged at higher levels of economic development as well.

Recent studies now provide a relatively robust explanation of how moral behavior evolved, perhaps not just in humans. An analysis of current biology textbooks shows that they fail to address this critical topic fully. Here, I survey resources—books, images, and videos—that can guide educators in meeting the challenge of teaching the biology of morality.

In the paper, I discuss the possible gap between the transhumanist perspective of controlling and perfecting human evolution through scientific means and the Darwinian and neo-Darwinian theory of biological evolution. I argue that, due to such gap, the transhumanist programme is flawed and requires a new and better understanding of biological mechanisms in order to attain its goals.

Wakefield doesn't mind my focus on parallels between addiction and love. But love can fall outside the bounds of what evolution intended. So, he claims, comparing addiction with love does not preclude a naturally defined "disorder." I counter with the argument that evolution handed us such highly general response systems, the bounds of normality cannot be defined.

Over forty years have passed since the death of Jean-Paul Sartre, still, his oeuvre stands out as a paramount achievement in existential-phenomenological thought. Among the numerous ideas and challenges he offered to contemporary continental philosophy, the problem of authenticity deserves a special place, for it connects many of existentialism’s key concerns. The ever reforming conceptualization of authenticity had spread from the mid-1930s (La transcendance de l’égo) till Sartre’s posthumously published Cahiers pour une morale that appeared in the early 1980s, and (...) it had a profound impact not only on ethical and literary theories, but also on psychiatry and psychotherapy. The present essay’s undertaking is to closely follow the trajectory of this celebrated concept, to contextualize its development in accordance with Sartre’s shifting philosophical as well as ethical projects over the years, and to point out some of the affinities this concept might have with East Asian thought, and with Buddhism in particular. (shrink)