Despite the radical change inaugurated by Darwin’s theory of evolution, philosophers have long ignored the theory’s implications for philosophy. According to University of Bristol professor and Lakotos Award winner, Samir Okasha, this is a profound mistake. If human beings are products of natural selection, then our ethical intuitions, political institutions, and cognitive faculties themselves also have evolutionary histories. With an evolutionary lens, he illuminates age-old debates about altruism and cooperation, the objectivity of ethics, and whether human reason is designed to track truth or simply to enhance survival.
Part One: Morality and Cooperation: Is Ethics an Evolutionary Adaptation?
Part Two: Reason and Reality: Can an Evolved Mind Discover Objective Truth?
