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"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 b
by 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 agoYes, 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.