Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. The status of humans; 2. Mechanism versus organicism; 3. Darwinian evolution; 4. Mechanism and human nature; 5. Organicism and human nature; 6. The problem of progress; 7. Morality for the organicist; 8. Morality for the mechanist; Epilogue.

Promotional Information

Considers why humans consider themselves superior to all other animals, and whether they are right to do so.

About the Author

Michael Ruse is the former Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University. Over his fifty-year career he has authored and co-edited over sixty books on topics ranging from the history and philosophy of science, especially evolutionary biology, to the philosophy of religion. They include Can a Darwinian be a Christian? (Cambridge, 2004), The Gaia Hypothesis: Science on a Pagan Planet (2013), and A Meaning to Life (2019).