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Academic & Professional Books  Evolutionary Biology  Evolution

The Solitary Self Darwin and the Selfish Gene

By: Mary Midgley(Author)
176 pages
Publisher: Routledge
The Solitary Self
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  • The Solitary Self ISBN: 9781844652532 Paperback Sep 2010 Not in stock: Usually dispatched within 1 week
    £37.99
    #216803
Price: £37.99
About this book Contents Customer reviews Biography Related titles

About this book

Renowned philosopher Mary Midgley explores the nature of our moral constitution to challenge the view that reduces human motivation to self-interest. Midgley argues cogently and convincingly that simple, one-sided accounts of human motives, such as the 'selfish gene' tendency in recent neo-Darwinian thought, may be illuminating but are always unrealistic. Such neatness, she shows, cannot be imposed on human psychology. She returns to Darwin's original writings to show how the reductive individualism which is now presented as Darwinism does not derive from Darwin but from a wider, Hobbesian tradition in Enlightenment thinking. She reveals the selfish gene hypothesis as a cultural accretion that is just not seen in nature. Heroic independence is not a realistic aim for Homo sapiens. We are, as Darwin saw, earthly organisms, framed to interact constantly with one another and with the complex ecosystems of which we are a tiny part. For us, bonds are not just restraints but also lifelines.

Contents

Introduction

1. Pseudo-Darwinism and social atomism
2. The background: egoism from Hobbes to R. D. Laing
3. The natural springs of morality
4. Coming to terms with reason
5. Darwin's new broom
6. The self's strange adventures

Conclusion: the wider perspective

Bibliography
Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Mary Midgley is one of the most renowned moral philosophers of her generation and the author of many books, including Beast and Man, Wickedness and The Myths We Live By. Her memoir, The Owl of Minerva (Routledge) was published in 2005.

By: Mary Midgley(Author)
176 pages
Publisher: Routledge
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