The Evolution of Moral Progress
The Evolution of Moral Progress

Author: Allen Buchanan

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-06-08

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 0190868430

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In The Evolution of Moral Progress, Allen Buchanan and Russell Powell resurrect the project of explaining moral progress. They avoid the errors of earlier attempts by drawing on a wide range of disciplines including moral and political philosophy, evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, anthropology, history, and sociology. Their focus is on one especially important type of moral progress: gains in inclusivity. They develop a framework to explain progress in inclusivity to also illuminate moral regression--the return to exclusivist and "tribalistic" moral beliefs and attitudes. Buchanan and Powell argue those tribalistic moral responses are not hard-wired by evolution in human nature. Rather, human beings have an evolved "adaptively plastic" capacity for both inclusion and exclusion, depending on environmental conditions. Moral progress in the dimension of inclusivity is possible, but only to the extent that human beings can create environments conducive to extending moral standing to all human beings and even to some animals. Buchanan and Powell take biological evolution seriously, but with a critical eye, while simultaneously recognizing the crucial role of culture in creating environments in which moral progress can occur. The book avoids both biological and cultural determinism. Unlike earlier theories of moral progress, their theory provides a naturalistic account that is grounded in the best empirical work, and unlike earlier theories it does not present moral progress as inevitable or as occurring in definite stages; but rather it recognizes the highly contingent and fragile character of moral improvement.

The Evolution of Progress
The Evolution of Progress

Author: C. Owen Paepke

Publisher: Random House (NY)

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13:

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Material progress is coming to an end, exhausted by its own success and confronted by the limits of postindustrial capitalism. But poised to replace it, argues the author, is a radical new vision of human progress: the transformation of people themselves through advances in neurobiology, artificial intelligence, and genetic engineering.

Human Evolution, Economic Progress and Evolutionary Failure
Human Evolution, Economic Progress and Evolutionary Failure

Author: Bhanoji Rao

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-04-21

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 1351777769

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Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of tables -- List of boxes -- List of appendices -- Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Prologue -- 1 Introduction and context -- PART I Human evolution -- 2 Synoptic view of human evolution via natural selection -- 3 Human evolution: beyond the physical -- PART II Economic progress -- 4 Population growth and economic progress: pre-industrial through the 1940s -- 5 Progress since 1950 and the emerging challenges -- PART III Understanding and tackling evolutionary failure -- 6 The idea of evolutionary failure -- 7 Addressing evolutionary failure: the way forward -- Epilogue: hope for humanity -- References and further reading -- Index.

History of the Idea of Progress
History of the Idea of Progress

Author: Robert Nisbet

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-12

Total Pages: 594

ISBN-13: 1351515462

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The idea of progress from the Enlightenment to postmodernism is still very much with us. In intellectual discourse, journals, popular magazines, and radio and talk shows, the debate between those who are "progressivists" and those who are "declinists" is as spirited as it was in the late seventeenth century. In History of the Idea of Progress, Robert Nisbet traces the idea of progress from its origins in Greek, Roman, and medieval civilizations to modern times. It is a masterful frame of reference for understanding the present world. Nisbet asserts there are two fundamental building blocks necessary to Western doctrines of human advancement: the idea of growth, and the idea of necessity. He sees Christianity as a key element in both secular and spiritual evolution, for it conveys all the ingredients of the modern idea of progress: the advancement of the human race in time, a single time frame for all the peoples and epochs of the past and present, the conception of time as linear, and the envisagement of the future as having a Utopian end. In his new introduction, Nisbet shows why the idea of progress remains of critical importance to studies of social evolution and natural history. He provides a contemporary basis for many disciplines, including sociology, economics, philosophy, religion, politics, and science. History of the Idea of Progress continues to be a major resource for scholars in all these areas.

Progress Unchained
Progress Unchained

Author: Peter J. Bowler

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-03-04

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 1108842550

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Bowler traces ideas about progress using evolutionary biology to throw light on parallel changes in the understanding of social development.

Monad to Man
Monad to Man

Author: Michael Ruse

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-06-30

Total Pages: 641

ISBN-13: 0674042999

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In interviews with today's major figures in evolutionary biology--including Stephen Jay Gould, E. O. Wilson, Ernst Mayr, and John Maynard Smith--Ruse offers an unparalleled account of evolutionary theory, from popular books to museums to the most complex theorizing, at a time when its status as science is under greater scrutiny than ever before.

The Evolution of Everything
The Evolution of Everything

Author: Matt Ridley

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2015-10-27

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 0062296027

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“Mr. Ridley’s best and most important work to date…there is something profoundly democratic and egalitarian—even anti-elitist—in this bottom-up approach: Everyone can have a role in bringing about change.” —Wall Street Journal The New York Times bestselling author of The Rational Optimist and Genome returns with a fascinating argument for evolution that definitively dispels a dangerous, widespread myth: that we can command and control our world Human society evolves. Change in technology, language, morality, and society is incremental, inexorable, gradual, and spontaneous. It follows a narrative, going from one stage to the next, and it largely happens by trial and error—a version of natural selection. Much of the human world is the result of human action but not of human design: it emerges from the interactions of millions, not from the plans of a few. Drawing on fascinating evidence from science, economics, history, politics, and philosophy, Matt Ridley demolishes conventional assumptions that the great events and trends of our day are dictated by those on high. On the contrary, our most important achievements develop from the bottom up. The Industrial Revolution, cell phones, the rise of Asia, and the Internet were never planned; they happened. Languages emerged and evolved by a form of natural selection, as did common law. Torture, racism, slavery, and pedophilia—all once widely regarded as acceptable—are now seen as immoral despite the decline of religion in recent decades. In this wide-ranging, erudite book, Ridley brilliantly makes the case for evolution, rather than design, as the force that has shaped much of our culture, our technology, our minds, and that even now is shaping our future.

The Evolution of Technology
The Evolution of Technology

Author: George Basalla

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1989-02-24

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 1316101584

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This book presents an evolutionary theory of technological change based upon recent scholarship in the history of technology and upon relevant material drawn from economic history and anthropology. It challenges the popular notion that technology advances by the efforts of a few heroic individuals who produce a series of revolutionary inventions owing little or nothing to the technological past. Therefore, the book's argument is shaped by analogies taken selectively from the theory of organic evolution, and not from the theory and practice of political revolution. Three themes appear, and reappear with variations, throughout the study. The first is diversity: an acknowledgment of the vast numbers of different kinds of made things (artifacts) that have long been available to humanity; the second is necessity: the belief that humans are driven to invent new artifacts in order to meet basic biological requirements such as food, shelter, and defense; and the third is technological evolution: an organic analogy that explains both the emergence of novel artifacts and their subsequent selection by society for incorporation into its material life without invoking either biological necessity or technological progress. Although the book is not intended to provide a strict chronological account of the development of technology, historical examples - including many of the major achievements of Western technology: the waterwheel, the printing press, the steam engine, automobiles and trucks, and the transistor - are used extensively to support its theoretical framework. The Evolution of Techology will be of interest to all readers seeking to learn how and why technology changes, including both students and specialists in the history of technology and science.

Plagues and the Paradox of Progress
Plagues and the Paradox of Progress

Author: Thomas J. Bollyky

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2018-10-09

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 0262038455

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Why the news about the global decline of infectious diseases is not all good. Plagues and parasites have played a central role in world affairs, shaping the evolution of the modern state, the growth of cities, and the disparate fortunes of national economies. This book tells that story, but it is not about the resurgence of pestilence. It is the story of its decline. For the first time in recorded history, virus, bacteria, and other infectious diseases are not the leading cause of death or disability in any region of the world. People are living longer, and fewer mothers are giving birth to many children in the hopes that some might survive. And yet, the news is not all good. Recent reductions in infectious disease have not been accompanied by the same improvements in income, job opportunities, and governance that occurred with these changes in wealthier countries decades ago. There have also been unintended consequences. In this book, Thomas Bollyky explores the paradox in our fight against infectious disease: the world is getting healthier in ways that should make us worry. Bollyky interweaves a grand historical narrative about the rise and fall of plagues in human societies with contemporary case studies of the consequences. Bollyky visits Dhaka—one of the most densely populated places on the planet—to show how low-cost health tools helped enable the phenomenon of poor world megacities. He visits China and Kenya to illustrate how dramatic declines in plagues have affected national economies. Bollyky traces the role of infectious disease in the migrations from Ireland before the potato famine and to Europe from Africa and elsewhere today. Historic health achievements are remaking a world that is both worrisome and full of opportunities. Whether the peril or promise of that progress prevails, Bollyky explains, depends on what we do next. A Council on Foreign Relations Book