Evolutionary Pragmatism and Ethics

In the late nineteenth century, culture critics who were readers of Darwin’s work on evolution pondered what the implications of natural selection might be for human culture, religion and ethics. American pragmatists, by and large, rejected a social Darwinian spin on ethics, economics, and theology in favor of a less determinate humanist version of the ethical implications that emphasized contingency and meliorism. The early arguments between T. H. Huxley and William Sumner over the issues mirrors the contemporary arguments between Stephen Jay Gould and others against “the New Atheists’” determinate interpretation of cultural implications which largely echo the social Darwinists’ position but in the current language of sociobiology. The work of pragmatists such as William James, George Santayana, Jane Addams, and John Dewey detail an evolutionary perspective that rejects the moral implications of social Darwinism.

Table of Contents:
Chapter One Setting the Stage: Darwin and 19th Century Evolutionary Ethics and Theologies Chapter Two T. H. Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics Chapter Three John Dewey in Conversation with Huxley and Santayana on Evolution and Ethics Chapter Four Struggle or Mutual Aid: Jane Addams and the Progressive Encounter with Social Darwinism Chapter Five Jane Addams, John Dewey, and the Evolutionary Tension Points Chapter Six Contemporary Controversies over Chance and Teleology

About the Author :
Beth Eddy is associate professor of philosophy and religion at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Review :
In Evolutionary Pragmatism and Ethics Beth L. Eddy does American Pragmatism a service by exploring many of the debates concerning evolutionary science prevalent during the formative years of classical Pragmatism.... Eddy’s concise and readable book focuses mostly on the assimilation of evolutionary theory by John Dewey, Jane Addams, and Pragmatism’s interlocutor and ally, George Santayana. Eddy clearly lays out how evolutionary science, in its infancy, was part of the public and philosophic debate.... Eddy’s book will be of interest not only for those who have an interest in the history of Pragmatism but also for scholars interested in how ideas from the sciences are digested in the complex milieu of society. By highlighting the roles of Spencer, Huxley, and others, Eddy provides some much-needed context for pragmatist evolutionary ethics. Thank God someone wrote this book. . . Eddy proves an excellent guide through the diversity of evolutionary theory itself, and the diversity of responses to it. . . . Eddy has reminded us that there's still ethical work to be done. . . and that we're the only ones to do it. Eddy's book is a succinct and informative introduction to a fascinating field of study. Evolutionary Pragmatism and Ethics will be of interest to students and scholars of pragmatism, ethics, and religious studies, and to those interested in evolutionary theories and their intersection with philosophy. What are the ethical implications of taking Darwin seriously? Evolutionary Pragmatism and Ethics is a richly informative history of responses to this question. As a scholar, Eddy brilliantly extends the previous generation’s attempt to reconfigure the pragmatist canon. As a writer of elegant prose, she is in the company of Midgley and Menand. If you want to understand how American pragmatists such as Dewey, Addams, and Gould differ from social Darwinians and the so-called new atheists, this is where to start. Beth Eddy’s recovery of the early pragmatists offers a powerful meditation on the ethical implications of pragmatism. The focus is on Chicago, and thus John Dewey and Jane Addams, but the stage is much broader and includes Darwin, T. H. Huxley, Santayana, Spencer, and S. J. Gould. This is intellectual history at its best—full of philosophical rigor, sophisticated in its grasp of the science and religion milieu throughout the twentieth century, and steeped in the moral life and issues that continue well into the twenty-first century. In Chapters 4 and 5 Eddy gives us the most clear and up-to-date account of the remarkable story of Jane Addams that I know of.