The theory of evolution is one of science’s great achievements. Though to those outside science, it may seem that the theory is controversial, within science there is no controversy at all about its basic form. Moreover, the theory of evolution plays a pivotal role in guiding new research. ‘Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution’, Theodosius Dobzhansky famously wrote; the theory of evolution unifies disparate subfields of biology and generates testable predictions for each. The success of the theory and its explanatory fecundity for biology cannot be doubted. But might the theory also be capable of illuminating phenomena outside the direct purview of biology?
The volumes in this series are dedicated to exploring this question. They bring together some of the best writings of the past two decades which explore the relevance of evolution and evolutionarily-inspired thought to arenas of human life beyond the merely biological. Volumes focus on whether it is productive and illuminating to attempt to understand our most distinctive achievements and our most intimate features as evolved phenomena. Is the content of moral systems explained by evolution? To what extent are the processes of selection and reproduction that explain changes in gene frequencies also at work in explaining the reproduction of ideas? Can evolution shed light on why we think as we do, perceive as we do, even feel as we do? Might even our idea of God –and perhaps with it the perennial temptation to reject evolution in the name of religion –be explained by evolutionary thought?
Answering these questions requires not only a detailed grasp of the phenomena we aim to explain –the contours of religious thought, the features of morality, and so on –but also an understanding of the theory we aim to apply to the field. Though the theory of evolution is not itself controversial within science, there are lively controversies about its details. One volume of this theory is devoted to writings which illuminate these controversies and deepen our understanding of the mechanisms of evolution. It is only if we have an appreciation of how evolution works that we can begin to assess attempts to extend its reach to culture, to the mind, to morality and to religion.
The volumes are edited by experts in the philosophy of biology and include sensitive and thoughtful discussions of the material they contain. Naturally, in selecting the papers for inclusion, and given the large amount of high quality thought on the philosophy of biology, and on each of the topics covered by these volumes, it was necessary to make some hard choices. Each editor has chosen to focus on particular controversies within the field covered by their volume; on each topic, a range of views is canvassed (including the views of those who deny that evolution can contribute much to the understanding of non-biological features of human beings).
Evolution is our story; in coming to understand it, we come to understand ourselves. Readers of these volumes should be left with a deepened appreciation for the power and ambition of evolutionary thought, and with a greater understanding of what it means to be an evolved being.
NEIL LEVY
Florey Neuroscience Institutes, Australia and University of Oxford, UK