Woodford, Peter (Author)
University of Chicago Press
Physical Details: 208 pages
Language: English
What, if anything, does biological evolution tell us about the nature of religion, ethical values, or even the meaning and purpose of life? The Moral Meaning of Nature sheds new light on these enduring questions by examining the significance of an earlier—and unjustly neglected—discussion of Darwin in late nineteenth-century Germany. We start with Friedrich Nietzsche, whose writings staged one of the first confrontations with the Christian tradition using the resources of Darwinian thought. The lebensphilosophie, or “life-philosophy,” that arose from his engagement with evolutionary ideas drew responses from other influential thinkers, including Franz Overbeck, Georg Simmel, and Heinrich Rickert. These critics all offered cogent challenges to Nietzsche’s appropriation of the newly transforming biological sciences, his negotiation between science and religion, and his interpretation of the implications of Darwinian thought. They also each proposed alternative ways of making sense of Nietzsche’s unique question concerning the meaning of biological evolution “for life.” At the heart of the discussion were debates about the relation of facts and values, the place of divine purpose in the understanding of nonhuman and human agency, the concept of life, and the question of whether the sciences could offer resources to satisfy the human urge to discover sources of value in biological processes. The Moral Meaning of Nature focuses on the historical background of these questions, exposing the complex ways in which they recur in contemporary philosophical debate.
...MoreReview Michael Ruse (2019) Review of "The Moral Meaning of Nature: Nietzsche's Darwinian Religion and Its Critics". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 200-201).
Review Michael Ruse (2019) Review of "The Moral Meaning of Nature: Nietzsche's Darwinian Religion and Its Critics". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 200-201).
Similar Citations
Article
Kulak, Avron;
(2011)
The Religious, the Secular, and the Natural Sciences: Nietzsche and the Death of God
(/isis/citation/CBB001212427/)
Article
Tavernier, Johan De;
(2014)
Morality and Nature: Evolutionary Challenges to Christian Ethics
(/isis/citation/CBB001201354/)
Article
Preece, Rod;
(2003)
Darwinism, Christianity, and the Great Vivisection Debate
(/isis/citation/CBB000774479/)
Article
Carvalho, André Luis de Lima;
Waizbort, Ricardo;
(2010)
A dor além dos confins do homem: aproximações preliminares ao debate entre Frances Power Cobbe e os darwinistas a respeito da vivissecção na Inglaterra vitoriana (1863--1904)
(/isis/citation/CBB001420463/)
Book
Stuart Mathieson;
(2020)
Evangelicals and the Philosophy of Science: The Victoria Institute, 1865-1939
(/isis/citation/CBB676582188/)
Book
Elshakry, Marwa;
(2014)
Reading Darwin in Arabic, 1860--1950
(/isis/citation/CBB001451838/)
Article
England, Richard;
(2001)
Natural Selection, Teleology, and the Logos: From Darwin to the Oxford Neo-Darwinists, 1859--1909
(/isis/citation/CBB000671350/)
Book
Engels, Eve-Marie;
Glick, Thomas F.;
(2008)
The Reception of Charles Darwin in Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB001022466/)
Article
Scarpelli, Giacomo;
(1991)
L'aquila e il serpente: Darwinismo, nietzscheanesimo e socialismo
(/isis/citation/CBB000059679/)
Book
Johnson, Dirk R.;
(2010)
Nietzsche's Anti-Darwinism
(/isis/citation/CBB001023122/)
Article
Call, Lewis;
(1998)
Anti-Darwin, anti-Spencer: Friedrich Nietzsche's critique of Darwin and “Darwinism”
(/isis/citation/CBB000077315/)
Article
Hudson, Dale;
(2013)
“Of Course There Are Werewolves and Vampires”: True Blood and the Right to Rights for Other Species
(/isis/citation/CBB001201821/)
Article
Giuseppe Di Giacomo;
(2019)
Nietzsche's Contribution Thought to the Emergence of the Concept of Modern Culture
(/isis/citation/CBB902934429/)
Book
Desmond, Adrian;
Moore, James;
(2009)
Darwin's Sacred Cause: How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin's Views on Human Evolution
(/isis/citation/CBB000951057/)
Book
Solms-Laubach, Franz;
(2007)
Nietzsche and Early German and Austrian Sociology
(/isis/citation/CBB000830120/)
Book
Nicholls, Angus;
Liebscher, Martin;
(2010)
Thinking the Unconscious: Nineteenth-Century German Thought
(/isis/citation/CBB001033279/)
Article
Allhoff, Fritz;
(2003)
Evolutionary Ethics from Darwin to Moore
(/isis/citation/CBB000600335/)
Article
Beregoy, Natalia E.;
(2009)
Charles Darwin, Vivisection and the History of Victorian Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001421097/)
Book
Huxley, Thomas Henry;
(2001)
Collected Essays of T. H. Huxley
(/isis/citation/CBB000102541/)
Thesis
Versen, Christopher R.;
(2006)
Optimistic Liberals: Herbert Spencer, The Brooklyn Ethical Association, andthe Integration of Moral Philosophy and Evolution in the Victorian Trans-Atlantic Community
(/isis/citation/CBB001561616/)
Be the first to comment!