The Structural Links Between Ecology, Evolution and Ethics The Virtuous Epistemic Circle

About this book

Evolutionary biology, ecology and ethics: at first glance, three different objects of research, three different worldviews and three different scientific communities. In reality, there are both structural and historical links between these disciplines. First, some topics are obviously common across the board. Second, the emerging need for environmental policy management has gradually but radically changed the relationship between these disciplines. Over the last decades in particular, there has emerged a need for an interconnecting meta-paradigm that integrates more strictly evolutionary studies, biodiversity studies and the ethical frameworks that are most appropriate for allowing a lasting co-evolution between natural and social systems. Today such a need is more than a mere luxury, it is an epistemological and practical necessity.

Contents

List of Figures
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements

1 Ecology, Evolution, Ethics: In Search of a Meta-Paradigm - An Introduction; Donato Bergandi
2 Evolution Versus Creation: A Sibling Rivalry?; Michael Ruse
3 Evolution and Chance; Jean Gayon
4 Some Conceptions of Time in Ecology; Jean-Marc Drouin
5 Facts, Values, and Analogies: A Darwinian Approach to Environmental Choice; Bryan G. Norton
6 Towards EcoEvoEthics; Patrick Blandin
7 Ecology and Moral Ontology; John Baird Callicott
8 Animal Rights and Environmental Ethics; Tom Regan
9 Reconciling Individualist and Deeper Environmentalist Theories? An Exploration; Robin Attfield
10 Two Philosophies of the Environmental Crisis; Catherine Larrere
11 Epilogue: The Epistemic and Practical Circle in an Evolutionary, Ecologically Sustainable Society; Donato Bergandi

Index

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