Amazon.co.uk Review
Marx approved of Darwin, up to a point. The Englishman's theories explained biological form scientifically, without recourse to a Creator. But the idea that evolution offered insights into psychology and social behaviour was anathema to the Left, whose belief that human nature was a mere "ensemble of social relations", would have terrible consequences. The Right, meanwhile, was quick to harness "survival of the fittest" to ideas of progress. Economic might was regarded as the overriding agent of social evolution; those disenfranchised in the rush for capital "deserved" to be left behind. Today, evolutionary maths has developed to the point where it can show how co-operation and altruism emerge in nature. Can the Left harness this new thinking to challenge the Right's proprietorial claims on what has been dubbed the single most important idea of the century? Peter Singer's book--part of a series of handsomely packaged essays on recent Darwinian thought--dwells far more on past errors than on the possibilities for a Left-wing future. He seems also to have swallowed rather uncritically some of the more reactionary pronouncements of the evolutionary psychologists. (For a useful corrective, see Lesley Rogers'
Sexing the Brain.) Nevertheless, this little volume--a perfect stocking-filler for broadsheet readers of all political hues--offers much food for thought. "Properly understood, self-interest is broader than economic self- interest," Singer writes. "Public policy does not have to rely on self- interest in this narrow economic sense. It can, instead, appeal to the widespread need to feel wanted, or useful, or belong to a community." Thatcherites take note. --
Simon Ings
Product Description
The application of Darwinian ideas to social and political thinking is one of the most controversial intellectual developments of our time, stirring up fierce debate among a wide range of people including scientists, social scientists, journalists, economists, psychiatrists, philosophers and lawyers. Darwinism Today is a series of short books that introduces readers to the cutting edge of these debates. Written by leading Darwinian scholars, the books show how issues as disparate as the nature of aggression and the definition of female beauty can be illuminated in unexpected ways by recent advances in evolutionary biology, and reveal the implications of such findings for society. In A Darwinian Left Peter Singer looks at why the left-wing is so contemptuous of these biological theories of behaviour. If humans are indeed born cooperators as research suggests, why does the right claim Darwinism as its own? The author traces the history of this intellectual divide and concludes that it is high time the left radically revised its outdated view of human nature. He shows how the insights of modern evolutionary theory can help to set realistic and realizable goals, reinvigorating left-wing thinking for the next millennium. This is a new vision of the political left from one of the leading moral philosophers of our time.
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