The Routledge Handbook of Evolution and Philosophy

In recent years, the relation between contemporary academic philosophy and evolutionary theory has become ever more active, multifaceted, and productive. The connection is a bustling two-way street. In one direction, philosophers of biology make significant contributions to theoretical discussions about the nature of evolution (such as "What is a species?"; "What is reproductive fitness?"; "Does selection operate primarily on genes?"; and "What is an evolutionary function?"). In the other direction, a broader group of philosophers appeal to Darwinian selection in an attempt to illuminate traditional philosophical puzzles (such as "How could a brain-state have representational content?"; "Are moral judgments justified?"; "Why do we enjoy fiction?"; and "Are humans invariably selfish?"). In grappling with these questions, this interdisciplinary collection includes cutting-edge examples from both directions of traffic. The thirty contributions, written exclusively for this volume, are divided into six sections: The Nature of Selection; Evolution and Information; Human Nature; Evolution and Mind; Evolution and Ethics; and Evolution, Aesthetics, and Art. Many of the contributing philosophers and psychologists are international leaders in their fields.

Richard Joyce is Professor of Philosophy at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is author of The Myth of Morality (2001), The Evolution of Morality (2006), and Essays in Moral Skepticism (2016), as well as many articles on metaethics and moral psychology. He has co-edited A World Without Values (2010) and Cooperation and its Evolution (2013).

Contents List of Contributors Preface PART I The Nature of Selection 1 The nature of selection: An overview Tim Lewens 2 Multilevel selection and units of selection up and down the biological hierarchy Elisabeth A. Lloyd 3 Adaptation, multilevel selection, and organismality: A clash of perspectives Ellen Clarke 4 Fitness maximization Jonathan Birch 5 Does biology need teleology? Karen Neander PART II Evolution and Information 6 Evolution and information: An overview Ulrich Stegmann 7 The construction of learned information through selection processes Nir Fresco, Eva Jablonka, and Simona Ginsburg 8 Genetic, epigenetic, and exogenetic information Karola Stotz and Paul Griffiths 9 Language: From how-possibly to how-probably? Kim Sterelny 10 Acquiring knowledge on species-specific biorealities: The applied evolutionary epistemological approach Nathalie Gontier and Michael Bradie PART III Human Nature 11 Human Nature: An overview Stephen Downes 12 The reality of species: Real phenomena not theoretical objects John Wilkins 13 Modern essentialism for species and its animadversions Joseph LaPorte 14 What is human nature (if it is anything at all?) Louise Barrett 15 The right to ignore: An epistemic defense of the nature/culture divide Maria Kronfeldner PART IV Evolution and Mind 16 Evolution and mind: An overview Valerie Hardcastle 17 Routes to the convergent evolution of cognition Edward Legg, Ljerka Ostojic, and Nicola Clayton 18 Is consciousness an adaptation? Kari Theurer and Thomas Polger 19 Plasticity and modularity Edouard Machery 20 The prospects for teleosemantics: Can biological functions fix mental content? Justine Kingsbury PART V Evolution and Ethics 21 Evolution and ethics: An overview Catherine Wilson 22 The evolution of moral intuitions and their feeling of rightness Christine Clavien and Chloë FitzGerald 23 Are we losing it? Darwin's moral sense and the importance of early experience Darcia Narvaez 24 The evolution of morality and the prospects for moral realism Ben Fraser 25 Moral cheesecake, evolved psychology, and the debunking impulse Daniel Kelly PART VI Evolution, Aesthetics, and Art 26 Evolution, aesthetics, and art: An overview Stephen Davies 27 Music and human evolution: Philosophical aspects Anton Killin 28 Emotional responses to fiction: An evolutionary perspective Helen De Cruz and Johan De Smedt 29 Evolution and literature: Theory and example Brian Boyd 30 Play and evolution Patrick Bateson