Table Of ContentEVOLUTIONARY NATURALISM
EVOLUTIONARY
NATURALISM
Selected essays
Michael Ruse
London and New York
First published 1995
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
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© 1995 Michael Ruse
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
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invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Ruse, Michael
Evolutionary naturalism: selected essays/Michael Ruse.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
1. Evolution. 2. Evolution (Biology) 3. Ethics. Evolutionary
I. Title
B818.R87 1994
146′.7—dc 20 94–18435
ISBN 0-203-98218-5 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-415-08997-2 (Print Edition)
A tous mes amis français, en particulier Jean
Gayon et Jacques Michaux
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
INTRODUCTION 1
Part I Case studies
Introduction 12
1 OUGHT PHILOSOPHERS CONSIDER 14
SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY?
A Darwinian case study
2 ARE PICTURES REALLY NECESSARY? 33
The case of Sewall Wright’s ‘adaptive landscapes’
3 CONTROVERSY IN PALAEONTOLOGY 69
The theory of punctuated equilibria
Part II Evolutionary epistemology
Introduction 106
4 A THREEFOLD PARALLELISM FOR OUR 109
TIME?
Progressive development in society, science
and the organic world
5 SCIENTIFIC CHANGE IS A FAMILY AFFAIR! 136
6 THE VIEW FROM SOMEWHERE 152
A critical defence of evolutionary epistemology
Part III Evolutionary ethics
Introduction 196
vi
7 EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY AND 199
CULTURAL VALUES
Is it irremediably corrupt?
8 EVOLUTION AND ETHICS 220
The sociobiological approach
9 EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 255
The debate continues
Bibliography 291
Index 313
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As always, my debts are numerous, especially since this is a
collection produced over a number of years. David Hull has been
my chief philosophical friend and critic, Robert J.Richards plays
the same role for history, and Edward O.Wilson in biology
completes the triumvirate. A major influence on my thinking about
naturalism has come through my friendship with the theologian
Philip Hefner. And I simply must say that Richard Stoneman of
Routledge has been my ideal of the academic book editor.
Elliott Sober, with whom I have discussed (and differed about)
naturalism over a number of years, kindly read my Introduction.
He feels, perhaps with justification, that I underestimate the extent
to which Marx certainly saw himself engaged as a naturalistic
philosopher. I still feel, nevertheless, that the deep neo-Hegelian
strain in Marx’s philosophy, that which is the largest single factor
behind the special place given to our own species, owes more to
the Western religious tradition than it does to science.
The paper on punctuated equilibria was given, in a very
incomplete form, at a conference in Naples, in the summer of
1993. Philip Kitcher gave me some useful suggestions for its
improvement, and it is entirely his fault that it is now the length
that it is. In a somewhat different way, I owe an even greater debt
to my support staff at Guelph, specifically my secretary Linda
Jenkins and my research assistant Moira Howes. The latter did a
huge amount of work on the punctuated equilibria paper.
Finally, let me explain that a major reason for my dedication
was that I was able to complete this collection while on leave,
attached to the Laboratory of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the
University of Montpellier in the South of France. As a philosopher
of biology, one of the wonderful things in my life has been the way
in which my subject has widened from the narrow concerns of a
viii
small group of North Americans, to something which is truly
global. For me, intellectually and socially, this has been pure gain.
I have imposed a uniform style on the articles and brought the
references together in one bibliography. Articles 2 and 3 have been
augmented somewhat, Article 5 first appeared in French, and
Article 9 has been written especially for this volume. The other
articles have been left otherwise untouched. I am obliged to the
original publishers for permission to reproduce. ‘Ought
philosophers consider scientific discovery? A Darwinian case-
study’, from T.Nickles (ed.) Scientific Discovery: Case Studies,
Dordrecht: Reidel, 1980, 131–49; ‘Are pictures really necessary?
The case of Sewall Wright’s “adaptive landscape”’, from A.Fine,
M.Forbes and L.Wessels (eds) PSA 1990, East Lansing, Mich.:
Philosophy of Science Association, 1991, 63–77; ‘Controversy in
palaeontology: The theory of punctuated equilibria’ from
P.Machamer (ed.), scientific Controversy, Pittsburgh: University of
Pittsburgh Press, 1995; ‘A threefold parallelism for our time?
Progressive development in society, science, and the organic world’
from M. Nitecki and D.Nitecki (eds), History and Evolution,
Albany, NY: State University of New York University Press, 1992,
149–78; ‘Scientific change is a family affair!’, fromj J.Gayon (ed.),
Filiation, Paris: to be published in 1995; ‘The view from
somewhere: A critical defence of evolutionary epistemology’, from
K. Hahlweg and C.A. Hooker (eds), Issues in Evolutionary
Epistemology, Albany, NY: State University of New York
University Press, 1989, 185–228; ‘Evolutionary biology and
cultural values: Is it irremediably corrupt?’, from R.Ware and
M.Matthen (eds), Science and Values, Alberta: University of
Alberta Press, 1994; ‘Evolution and ethics: The sociobiological
approach’, from L.Pojman (ed.), Ethical Theory (second edn),
Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1994.
INTRODUCTION
If I say that I have taken some care with the title for the collection
now before you, this pretentious-sounding claim should not be
taken to mean that others do not take care with what they call
their books, or that this is a new departure for me. Indeed, I am
rather proud of one or two of my earlier titles. What I mean is that
you should take seriously the thought that, while this is a
collection of articles written independently of each other over the
past decade, it is nevertheless a collection with a strong underlying
connecting theme, a philosophy which I call ‘evolutionary
naturalism’.
I hasten to add that, although I claim this philosophy for myself,
I do not want to say that I alone am an evolutionary naturalist.
There are others who are treading a path similar to my own, and I
have certainly learnt much from them. But as is the nature of these
things, although many may be going in the same direction, it
would be a mistake to think that the position of any one person
was identical to that of any other. Let me therefore spend this
introduction telling you exactly what I mean by and hope for my
philosophy, and what various roles must be played by my articles.
I will begin with ‘naturalism’. This is a term much used today.
Hence be warned that, although I hope you will not think me an
imposter in my usage, I am more interested in giving it a meaning
for myself than in finding some generally acceptable dictionary
definition. For me, ‘naturalism’ is something to do with nature,
meaning the world of experience, and since the most powerfully
successful approach that we have to this world—the only true
approach that we have towards real understanding—is the method
of science, I take a naturalist to be someone who would
understand through the methods and results of science.
