Darwinism in Philosophy, Social Science and Policy
This is a groundbreaking and timely collection of papers by Alexander Rosenberg, the distinguished philosopher of science. The essays cover three broad areas related to Darwinian thought and naturalism: the first deals with the solution of philosophical problems such as reductionism, the second with the development of social theories, and the third with the intersection of evolutionary biology with economics, political philosophy, and public policy. Rosenberg's important writings on a variety of issues are here organized into a coherent philosophical framework that promises to be a significant and controversial contribution to the philosophy of science and the application of evolutionary biology to social science and policy.
- An excellent collection of essays by a prominent philosopher of science
- Rosenberg was winner of the Lakatos prize in 1993
- Darwinism is of interest to many, audience is wider due to attention to social science, economics, and public policy
Reviews & endorsements
"To make Darwinian explanations of human knowledge, values, and social institutions into well-confirmed theories, philosophers and scientists need to work together to develop, reine, and test Darwinian models of human evolution. Rosenberg's book is a valuable contribution toward this effort." Ethics, David B. Resnik, National Institutes of Health
Product details
April 2011Adobe eBook Reader
9780511891571
0 pages
0kg
1 b/w illus.
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- 1. A field guide to recent species of naturalism
- 2. Naturalistic epistemology for eliminative materialists
- 3. Limits to biological knowledge
- 4. Reductionism redux: computing the embryo
- 5. What happens to genetics when holism runs amok?
- 6. The biological justification of ethics: a best-case scenario
- 7. Moral realism and social science
- 8
- Contractarianism and the 'trolley' problem
- 9. Does evolutionary theory give comfort or inspiration to economics?
- 10. The politicial philosophy of biological endowments: some considerations
- 11. Research tactics and economic strategies: the case of the human Genome project
- Bibliography
- Index.