Zusammenfassung
The relationship between pragmatism and Darwinism is complex. On the one hand, pragmatism is the first philosophical tradition to take seriously Darwin’s theory of evolution. On the other hand, how seriously and in what way(s) a pragmatist takes the theory varies significantly. Furthermore, a distinction must be maintained between Darwin’s theory of evolution as a scientific theory and a philosophy based on that theory called Darwinism. As is the case with pragmatism itself, Darwinism does not lend itself to easy characterization. For present purposes, the distinction between Darwin’s scientific theory and the philosophical positions that take the science as foundational will be made explicit. In this overview of Darwin(ism) in the development of pragmatism, from its inception in the Metaphysical Club to the present day, this distinction is made clear and elaborated upon in order to show that the relationship between science and philosophy remains a central question for pragmatism.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Buller, David J.: Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature. Cambridge, Mass. 2005.
Cunningham, Suzanne: Philosophy and the Darwinian Legacy. Rochester, NY 1996.
Deacon, Terrence W.: Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter. New York 2012.
Dennett, Daniel C.: Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life. New York 1995.
Dennett, Daniel C.: From Bacteria to Bach and Back Again: The Evolution of Minds. New York 2017.
Dewey, John: The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy and Other Essays in Contemporary Thought [1910]. Ed. by Larry A. Hickman. Carbondale 2007.
Godfrey-Smith, Peter: Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection. Oxford 2009.
Kauffman, Stuart A.: Humanity in a Creative Universe. New York 2016.
Kitcher, Philip: Science in a Democratic Society. Amherst, NY 2011a.
Kitcher, Philip: The Ethical Project. Cambridge, Mass. 2011b.
Kitcher, Philip: Preludes to Pragmatism: Toward a Reconstruction of Philosophy. New York 2012.
Pappas, Gregory F.: John Dewey’s Ethics: Democracy as Experience. Bloomington 2008.
Peirce, Charles Sanders: The Fixation of Belief [1877]. In: The Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce. Ed. by Charles Hartshorne, Paul Weiss. Cambridge, Mass. 1934, Vol. V.
Peirce, Charles Sanders: Evolutionary Love [1893]. In: The Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce. Ed. by Charles Hartshorne, Paul Weiss. Cambridge, Mass. 1935, Vol. IV.
Popp, Jerome A.: Evolution’s First Philosopher: John Dewey and the Continuity of Nature. Albany 2007.
Rorty, Richard: Philosophy and Social Hope. New York 1999.
Tomasello, Michael. A Natural History of Human Thinking. Cambridge, Mass. 2014.
Wiener, Philip P.: Evolution and the Founders of Pragmatism [1949]. New York 1965.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer-Verlag GmbH Deutschland, ein Teil von Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Solymosi, T. (2018). Darwinism. In: Festl, M. (eds) Handbuch Pragmatismus. J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-04557-7_31
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-04557-7_31
Published:
Publisher Name: J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart
Print ISBN: 978-3-476-04556-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-476-04557-7
eBook Packages: J.B. Metzler Humanities (German Language)