Human Nature After Darwin: A Philosophical Introduction Book

Currently a Reader in Bioethics at the University College London Janet Radcliffe-Richards' Human Nature After Darwin is an introduction to both philosophy and Darwinism. It matters little whether one sees it as "a substantive thesis about the implications of Darwinism with a subsidiary methodological thesis", or a "philosophical introduction to Darwinism". On any reading it is first-rate.What makes the book extremely useful in negotiating a path through the Darwin warzone is that it introduces basic techniques of philosophical argument and analysis into the debate and each chapter has a number of exercises for the student to work and think through for themselves. In this sense it is similar to Anthony Thouless' classic Straight and Crooked Thinking and Anthony Flew's Thinking About Thinking in that it helps clear up a lot of unnecessary confusion and befuddled argument by encouraging good general habits of logical hygiene.The philosophical topics include scepticism and relativism as well as problems concerning freewill, determinism, responsibility and ethics which characterise debates within Darwinism. Radcliffe-Richards' book is not concerned with the question of which school of Darwinism most accurately represents the truth; instead it focuses mainly on questions about what follows if a particular view is true. To the extent that disputes about Darwinism are motivated by anxieties about implications it is clearly important that followers of the debates are able to judge for themselves whether the different views really do have the implications they are supposed to have. Radcliffe-Richards' substantive thesis is that the claims of sociobiologists do not have the unwelcome cultural/political implications attributed to them.If Stephen and Hilary Roses' recent Alas Poor Darwin represents the case for the prosecution against evolutionary psychology Philosophy After Darwin is not so much a defence (though Radcliffe-Richards is certainly concerned with refuting charges against evolutionary psychology) as it is an object lesson in analytical thinking. Absolutely essential reading for left-leaning opponents of EP and for specialists and students of the Darwin Wars. --Larry BrownRead More