The Ethical Primate: Humans, Freedom, and MoralityIn her new book, Mary Midgley argues that the unrealistic isolation of mind and body in reductive scientific ideologies still causes painful confusion. Such ideologies present crude pictures which are not good science, since they ignore the manifest importance of the higher human faculties. Neither inside nor outside these crude pictures is there room for any realistic notion of the self. Why should these theories insist on only one kind of answer? There is not just one single legitimate explanation. There are as many answers as there are viewpoints from which questions arise - subjective and objective, practical as well as theoretical. Human morality arises out of human freedom: we are uniquely free beings in that we are aware of our conflicts of motive. But those conflicts and our capacity to resolve them are part of our natural inheritance. Although our selves are in many ways divided, we share the difficult project of wholeness with other organisms. What matters for our freedom is the recognition of our genuine agency, our slight but nevertheless real power to grasp and arbitrate our inner conflicts. |
Contents
INNER DIVISIONS | 3 |
MISGUIDED DEBATES | 13 |
GUIDING VISIONS | 27 |
HOPES OF SIMPLICITY | 43 |
CRUSADES LEGITIMATE AND OTHERWISE | 52 |
CONVERGENT EXPLANATIONS AND THEIR USES | 63 |
TROUBLES OF THE LINEAR PATTERN | 71 |
FATALISM AND PREDICTABILITY | 80 |
THE STRENGTH OF INDIVIDUALISM | 121 |
THE RETREAT FROM THE NATURAL WORLD | 128 |
HOW FAR DOES SOCIABILITY TAKE US? | 136 |
THE USES OF SYMPATHY | 141 |
ON BEING TERRESTRIAL | 157 |
WHAT KIND OF BEINGS ARE FREE? | 169 |
MINDS RESIST STREAMLINING | 177 |
Notes | 185 |
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abstract actually animals approach Arthur Peacocke attitude B.F. Skinner behaviour biology body causal central certainly choice claim clash complex concepts conceptual schemes conflict consciousness course creatures culture Darwin David Hume Descartes develop distinct egoists emotional enquiry ethics evolution evolutionary experience explanation fact feeling Francis Crick Frans de Waal freedom Hume Huxley idea imaginative important individual inner instance intellectual intelligence involved Kant kind language Lewis Wolpert lives London look Mary Midgley matter means metaphor metaphysical mind motives myth never Nietzsche notion objective origin ourselves particular pattern person philosophers physical sciences political possible predict principle problems psychology question reason reduction relation Richard Dawkins Rom Harré scientific scientists seems seen sense simply Skinner Social Contract Social Darwinism Social Darwinist Sociobiology species strong subjective suggest surely T.H. Huxley theorists theory things Thomas Nagel thought topic trying understanding viewpoint whole