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I loved the conclusions at the end. The "naturalistic fallacy" has been on my mind for quite a while.

by elwell 13y ago

saraid216 13y ago
"The other wrong lesson [the philosopher William James] thought people took from On the Origin of Species is, in effect, the flip side of the first. It is the belief that evolutionary science can lay a foundation for norms–that natural selection serves as a kind of "bottom-line" arbiter of merit. This is the doctrine of "the survival of the fittest," .... It makes the logic of evolution the logic of human values: it suggests that we should pursue policies and honor behavior that are consistent with the survival of characteristics understood to be "adaptive," and it justifies, as "natural," certain kinds of coercion." – Louis Menand, The Metaphysical Club.
- eli_gottlieb 13y ago
  Yes, well, that logic is certainly clear and valid if you actually believe that we can't beat the Darwinian process at its own game. The fallacy, of course, is that yes we can, and in fact, that's exactly what we've been doing with these whole "civilization" and "culture" things since day 1.
novalis78 13y ago
yes, indeed. It's easy to forget the terror and brutality of survival that is a daily given for most animals and a certain percentage of humans when you live in the "developed" world. Amazing how quickly we get accustomed to a safe and routine life when all it takes is a month in a jungle - or Calcutta for that matter - to re-appreciate how far we have come using reason, stepping beyond what could be classified as "natural".
- gurkendoktor 13y ago
  We are safe not just thanks to reason in our social behaviour, but also our hygiene: http://www.amazon.com/Parasite-Rex-Bizarre-Dangerous-Creatures/dp/074320011X http://www.amazon.com/Parasite-Rex-Bizarre-Dangerous-Creatur... I thought that anyone who has raised a cat knows that animals are jerks (playing with bleeding mice for hours and all), but I was shocked by the added layer of terribleness from parasites in almost all species.

I loved the conclusions at the end. The "naturalistic fallacy" has been on my mind for quite a while.

by elwell 13y ago

I loved the conclusions at the end. The "naturalistic fallacy" has been on my mind for quite a while.

"The other wrong lesson [the philosopher William James] thought people took from On the Origin of Species is, in effect, the flip side of the first. It is the belief that evolutionary science can lay a foundation for norms–that natural selection serves as a kind of "bottom-line" arbiter of merit. This is the doctrine of "the survival of the fittest," .... It makes the logic of evolution the logic of human values: it suggests that we should pursue policies and honor behavior that are consistent with the survival of characteristics understood to be "adaptive," and it justifies, as "natural," certain kinds of coercion." – Louis Menand, The Metaphysical Club.

eli_gottlieb 13y ago
Yes, well, that logic is certainly clear and valid if you actually believe that we can't beat the Darwinian process at its own game. The fallacy, of course, is that yes we can, and in fact, that's exactly what we've been doing with these whole "civilization" and "culture" things since day 1.

novalis78 13y ago

yes, indeed. It's easy to forget the terror and brutality of survival that is a daily given for most animals and a certain percentage of humans when you live in the "developed" world. Amazing how quickly we get accustomed to a safe and routine life when all it takes is a month in a jungle - or Calcutta for that matter - to re-appreciate how far we have come using reason, stepping beyond what could be classified as "natural".

gurkendoktor 13y ago
We are safe not just thanks to reason in our social behaviour, but also our hygiene: http://www.amazon.com/Parasite-Rex-Bizarre-Dangerous-Creatures/dp/074320011X http://www.amazon.com/Parasite-Rex-Bizarre-Dangerous-Creatur... I thought that anyone who has raised a cat knows that animals are jerks (playing with bleeding mice for hours and all), but I was shocked by the added layer of terribleness from parasites in almost all species.