Evolution to Autonomy

Authors

  • Horace Lockwood Fairlamb University of Houston-Victoria

Keywords:

Evolution, Ethics, Freedom, Justice, Complex systems

Abstract

Since both modern moral theory and evolutionary theory arose in the shadow of Newtonian and Humean conceptions of nature, debates about evolutionary ethics have typically been vexed by deeper problems with the nature of evolution itself as well as meta-ethical questions about the link between facts and values. Humean skepticism and mechanistic selectionism have recently coincided in postmodern attacks on essentialism,on meta-narratives of progress, on models of human nature, and on moral collectivism. Against this most recent wave of skepticism, however, contemporary reconstructions of evolution in light of complex systems science suggest useful ways of reinterpreting both evolutionary causation, the biology of human nature, and their implications for ethics.

Author Biography

Horace Lockwood Fairlamb, University of Houston-Victoria

Professor of Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies

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Published

17-08-2007

How to Cite

Fairlamb, H. L. (2007). Evolution to Autonomy. Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, 3(1), 59–92. Retrieved from http://cosmosandhistory.org/index.php/journal/article/view/55

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Articles