Description
Book SynopsisThis book details a pragmatic approach to the ethical and religious implications of a Darwinian perspective, drawing on the work of thinkers both secular and religious. The approach taken by James, Santayana, Addams, and Dewey should be of interest to scholars of religious naturalism and humanistic ethics.
Trade ReviewIn Evolutionary Pragmatism and Ethics Beth L. Eddy does American Pragmatism a service by exploring many of the debates concerning evolutionary science prevalent during the formative years of classical Pragmatism.... Eddy’s concise and readable book focuses mostly on the assimilation of evolutionary theory by John Dewey, Jane Addams, and Pragmatism’s interlocutor and ally, George Santayana. Eddy clearly lays out how evolutionary science, in its infancy, was part of the public and philosophic debate.... Eddy’s book will be of interest not only for those who have an interest in the history of Pragmatism but also for scholars interested in how ideas from the sciences are digested in the complex milieu of society. * Contemporary Pragmatism *
By highlighting the roles of Spencer, Huxley, and others, Eddy provides some much-needed context for pragmatist evolutionary ethics. * Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society *
What are the ethical implications of taking Darwin seriously? Evolutionary Pragmatism and Ethics is a richly informative history of responses to this question. As a scholar, Eddy brilliantly extends the previous generation’s attempt to reconfigure the pragmatist canon. As a writer of elegant prose, she is in the company of Midgley and Menand. If you want to understand how American pragmatists such as Dewey, Addams, and Gould differ from social Darwinians and the so-called new atheists, this is where to start. -- Jeffrey Stout, author of Democracy and Tradition
Beth Eddy’s recovery of the early pragmatists offers a powerful meditation on the ethical implications of pragmatism. The focus is on Chicago, and thus John Dewey and Jane Addams, but the stage is much broader and includes Darwin, T. H. Huxley, Santayana, Spencer, and S. J. Gould. This is intellectual history at its best—full of philosophical rigor, sophisticated in its grasp of the science and religion milieu throughout the twentieth century, and steeped in the moral life and issues that continue well into the twenty-first century. In Chapters 4 and 5 Eddy gives us the most clear and up-to-date account of the remarkable story of Jane Addams that I know of. -- Nancy Frankenberry, John Phillips Professor of Religion Emerita, Dartmouth College
Table of ContentsChapter One Setting the Stage: Darwin and 19th Century Evolutionary Ethics and Theologies Chapter Two T. H. Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics Chapter Three John Dewey in Conversation with Huxley and Santayana on Evolution and Ethics Chapter Four Struggle or Mutual Aid: Jane Addams and the Progressive Encounter with Social Darwinism Chapter Five Jane Addams, John Dewey, and the Evolutionary Tension Points Chapter Six Contemporary Controversies over Chance and Teleology
