Evolution 2.0 Implications of Darwinism in Philosophy and the Social and Natural Sciences

These essays by leading philosophers and scientists focus on recent ideas at the forefront of modern Darwinism, showcasing and exploring the challenges they raise as well as open problems. This interdisciplinary volume is unique in that it addresses the key notions of evolutionary theory in approaches to the mind, in the philosophy of biology, in the social sciences and humanities; furthermore it considers recent challenges to, and extensions of, Neo-Darwinism. The essays demonstrate that Darwinism is an evolving paradigm, with a sphere of influence far greater than even Darwin is likely to have imagined when he published ‘On the Origin of Species’ in 1859.

Introduction. I. Darwinism in Approaches to the Mind. The Embodiment of Mind.- Depression:  An Evolutionary Adaptation Organised around the Third Ventricle.- Does Depression need an Evolutionary Explanation?  A Darwinian Account of Self and Free Will.- The Problem of Darwinizing Culture (or Memes as the new Phlogiston).- II. Impact of Darwinism in the Social Sciences and Philosophy. Evolutionary Epistemology: Its Aspirations and Limits.- Angraecum Sesquepedale: Darwin’s Great ‘Gamble’.- Darwinian Inferences.- Breaking the Bonds of Biology – Natural Selection in Nelson and Winter’s Evolutionary Economics.- The Ethical Treatment of Animals: the Moral Significance of Darwin’s Theory.- III. Philosophical Aspects of Darwinism in the Life Sciences. Is Human Evolution Over?.- Evolutionary Medicine.-The Struggle for Life and the Conditions of Existence: Two Interpretations of Darwinian Evolution.- Frequency Dependence Arguments For the Co-Evolution of Genes and Culture.- Taking Biology Seriously: Neo-Darwinism and Its Many Challenges.- Implications of Recent Advances in the Understanding of Heritability for Neo-Darwinian Orthodoxy.- 

Martin Brinkworth is a Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Bradford (UK). Inspired by evolutionary science as a Zoology undergraduate, he now studies the transmission of heritable mutation and epigenetic alteration through the male germline, and their implications for human health.

Friedel Weinert is professor of philosophy at the University of Bradford (UK). His research interests focus on the interrelation between philosophy and science.