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  1. Home
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  3. The Solitary Self
  • This book is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core
  • Cited by 38
Publisher:
Acumen Publishing
Online publication date:
February 2013
Print publication year:
2010
Online ISBN:
9781844654833
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/UPO9781844654833
Subjects:
Ethics, Philosophy
Series:
Heretics
Information

Book description

Renowned philosopher, Mary Midgley explores the nature of our moral constitution to challenge the view that reduces human motivation to self-interest. Midgley argues cogently and convincingly that simple, one-sided accounts of human motives, such as the “selfish gene” tendency in recent neo-Darwinian thought, may be illuminating but are always unrealistic. Such neatness, she shows, cannot be imposed on human psychology. She returns to Darwin’s original writings to show how the reductive individualism which is now presented as Darwinism does not derive from Darwin but from a wider, Hobbesian tradition in Enlightenment thinking. She reveals the selfish gene hypothesis as a cultural accretion that is just not seen in nature. Heroic independence is not a realistic aim for Homo sapiens. We are, as Darwin saw, earthly organisms, framed to interact constantly with one another and with the complex ecosystems of which we are a tiny part. For us, bonds are not just restraints but also lifelines.

Reviews

"Midgley's bracing polemic is highly readable and persuasive."

Anthony Kenny

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