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"Althought a short book, The Solitary Self is packed with ideas - ranging over political philosophy, philosophical psychology, philosophy of science, and the legacy of Darwin. A central theme of the book is a criticism of the reductionist views in philosophy of science, which Midgley sees as motivating wrongheaded oversimplification. Midgley counters such views, in part, by appealing to what she sees as the richer understanding of animal consciousness found in Darwin. The book is written in an engaging style accessible to readers at all levels. Highly recommended." CHOICE
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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.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Mary Midgley exposes the weaknesses and fallacies in Dawkins' and Dennett's thinking, but from a Darwinian philosophical perspective. This is an excellent book for anyone who is interested in reading a critique of the fallacy of the single cause, in this case a form of biological reductionism that has nothing to do with Darwin's own approach to human beings and the complexity of evolution as further developed by Midgley.
Leslie C
Leslie C
14 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Like the Bourbons, Mary Midgley appears to have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing since her review of Richard Dawkins 'The Selfish Gene' in the journal 'Philosophy', 54, 1979. There is no logical link whatever between evolutionary biology/ psychology and what Bishop Butler called 'the selfish theory of human nature' to be found (he claimed) in Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes matters because Midgley credits (or discredits) evolutionary biologists for propounding a Hobbesian theory of human nature. Betwixt Hobbes and Dawkins (her main target of attack), however, a great gulf is fixed. Perhaps there is occasional, minor slippage in Dawkins' use of 'selfish' but he does not believe or claim in any serious, significant way that the selfish gene produces selfish human behaviour. Indeed, the needs of the selfish gene may be best served by the development of morality and co-operation among human beings; i.e. human beings who exhibit morality and co-operation are more likely to survive as a group and hence to transmit their genes. All in all this is a half-way interesting book about the limitations of interpreting human motivation in purely or predominantly 'selfish' terms. As a critique of evolutionary biology/ psychology it is, for all the author's evident sincerity, a caricature : and a gross caricature at that. Mary Midgley has done good work in moral pyschology. Unfortunately this book is no part of it.
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