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1

Poglądy teologiczne Darwina

100%
Jodkowski K.
Lectiones & Acroases Philosophicae
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2010
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vol. 3
59-84
EN
According to the Author, Darwin's views on religion were of essential significance for his deeds as a scientist. Darwin's views evolved from the orthodox christianity during his studies at Cambridge University, through the deistic phase, through agnosticism and atheism at the end of his life. As a result of his mature standpoint, he introduced the so-called principle of methodological naturalism to science.
2

Prawdziwie darwinowska etyka

100%
Elżanowski A.
Lectiones & Acroases Philosophicae
|
2010
|
vol. 3
13-57
EN
Darwin’s model for the evolution of morality as presented in Descent of Man (1871) is shown to comprise three major stages that are here referred to as empathic premorality, tribal morality, and universalizing morality. Empathy, the key component of Darwin’s “social instincts” that started moral evolution, is here recognized as the principal cognitive device that conveys epistemic credibility to moral agency. The two constitutive elements of the tribal morality are conscience that Darwin conceived of as a conflict between a lasting social motive and an immediate selfish impulse, and true altruism that evolved as a result of group (community) selection. Darwin’s genius recognized the uniqueness of group selection in human evolution as being dependent on mental faculties and speech that facilitated habit formation through praise and blame form other group members, with empathy as a gauge of others’ emotional reactions. Contrary to repeated claims, Darwin did not derive morality from reciprocity that he (and his contemporaries) considered to be “a low motive”, and adduced it only as a mechanism of habit formation. The universalizing morality was brought about by the increasing powers of intellect that led to respecting individual lives (rather than group interests only) and extending humane concerns beyond one’s group, ultimately to all sentient beings, which places Darwin among the spiritual fathers of modern humanitarianism. In terms of substantive ethics, Darwin’s views support moral individualism (Rachels, 1993) that requires to treat each subject according to his/her individual characteristics rather than any group membership. Darwin’s moral individualism and universalism have been elaborated by Peter Singer as the principle of equal consideration of interests and the expanding circle of ethics, respectively. Darwin’s model of moral evolution, which starts with intuitive but epistemically reliable moral agency and then allows for its rational improvement, provides a way out of the moral subjectivism of evolutionary ethics that reduces morality to an adaptation to social life. The primary or core morality that relies on empathy and implements reciprocity supports welfare (wellbeing) of a group and its members. Welfare (which has been defined by Darwin) is a basic “terminal” (ultimate) value that constitutes an objective, measurable fact. Since the primary morality supports welfare, it is objectively good, which justifies an ethical reasoning that such morality ought to be extended (with appropriate adjustments) to all sentient beings. Confusion over the status of morality is largely due to the lack of appreciation of its complexity: not only had its motivational apparatus (known as the moral agency) evolved by superposition of many emotional and pure cognitive mechanisms, but it has subsequently been co-opted to implement prudential, religious and possibly other norms that are accidental and sometimes contrary to its original social function. Those secondary morality norms are now enforced by the moral agency but lack moral objectivity and thus may support the perception of moral subjectivism and relativism. In short, true Darwinian ethics is based on the scientific axiology that recognizes evolutionary origins of all values, requires respecting all values that are experienced by each and every subject according to its individual characteristics, and calls for a critical assessment of each and every received morality.
3

Spisek Darwina

100%
Jodkowski K.
Lectiones & Acroases Philosophicae
|
2010
|
vol. 3
265-277
EN
The Author analyzes Roy Davies' account of Darwin's practice of borrowing the achievements of other scientists and scholars without giving them the proper credit.
4

Korzenie współczesnego antyewolucjonizmu

100%
Borczyk B.
Lectiones & Acroases Philosophicae
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2010
|
vol. 3
86-107
EN
In the first part of the paper I am presenting a short introduction to the conflict between materialistic science and religious believes. The three most popular attempts to neutralize this conflict are presented as follows: (1) the acceptance of naturalistic science with all consequences concerning evolution with the exception of the God’s occasional intervention (e.g. man presented with a soul by God); (2) separation of science and religion (the concept of Non Overlapping Magisteria); (3) negation of naturalistic science in favor of particular religious believes. The introduction is followed by a short review of the history of the creationism movement from the early Paley’s arguments from design, through the dawn of biblical creationism, emergence of scientific creationism, and its recent transformation into theory of Intelligent Design. Although advocates of the latter try to distance themselves from scientific and biblical creationists and got support from few non-creationists, like quasi-religious Raelians, it is shown that this movement emerged from traditional creationism, and its core is constituted by the same religious agenda. The growing popularity of the creationistic movements is due to several factors, including early religious indoctrination, opinion making activity, lack of or poor scientific knowledge among society and in some cases contestation and bounty against the scientific establishment.
5
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HISTORY OF LITERATURE EMBRACED BY DARWIN

100%
SKÓRCZEWSKI D.
Colloquia Litteraria
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2018
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issue 3
21-41
EN
The paper adumbrates Joseph Carroll’s evolutionist literary theory positioning it against the developments in literary studies and humanities after postmodernism. The author discusses the ambivalence present in Carroll’s neo-darwinian project, its possible power to revert the decline of literary studies through a return to tangibility and certainty after the dominance of postmodern speculative theories, but also its reductionist and anti-axiological- stance being a peril to the advancement of literary studies. The paper invites further discussion on the prospects of trans-disciplinary alliance between humanities and biological sciences in relation to the aesthetic specificity of literature.
6

Piękno i obowiązek. Etyka ewolucyjna a estetyka darwinowska

88%
Chmielewski A.
Lectiones & Acroases Philosophicae
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2010
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vol. 3
175-201
EN
Metaphysics, or the knowledge of what there is, has been traditionally placed at the pinnacle of philosophical hierarchy. It was followed by theory of knowledge, or epistemology. Practical knowledge of proper modes of conduct, ethics, came third, followed by aesthetics, treated usually in a marginal way as having to do only with the perception of the beautiful. The hierarchy of philosophical disciplines has recently undergone a substantial transformation. As a result, ethics has assumed a central role. The aim of this paper is to suggest that the hierarchy of philosophical disciplines is not yet complete and that one further step needs to be taken. According to the claim advocated here, it is not metaphysics, epistemology or ethics, but aesthetics that is the first and foremost of all philosophical disciplines. This claim is argued for by references to findings of evolutionary aesthetics, especially to Charles Darwin’s idea of sexual selection as elaborated in The Descent of Man. I also argue that Darwinian approach to morality is, and should be, derivable from an Darwinian aesthetics which lies at the core of his conception of sexual selection.
7
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Evolution: The Computer Systems Engineer Designing Minds

51%
Sloman A.
Avant
|
2011
|
vol. 2
|
issue 2
EN
What we have learnt in the last six or seven decades about virtual machinery, as a result of a great deal of science and technology, enables us to offer Darwin a new defence against critics who argued that only physical form, not mental capabilities and consciousness could be products of evolution by natural selection. The defence compares the mental phenomena mentioned by Darwin’s opponents with contents of virtual machinery in computing systems. Objects, states, events, and processes in virtual machinery which we have only recently learnt how to design and build, and could not even have been thought about in Darwin’s time, can interact with the physical machinery in which they are implemented, without being identical with their physical implementation, nor mere aggregates of physical structures and processes. The existence of various kinds of virtual machinery (including both “platform” virtual machines that can host other virtual machines, e.g. operating systems, and “application” virtual machines, e.g. spelling checkers, and computer games) depends on complex webs of causal connections involving hardware and software structures, events and processes, where the specification of such causal webs requires concepts that cannot be defined in terms of concepts of the physical sciences. That indefinability, plus the possibility of various kinds of self-monitoring within virtual machinery, seems to explain some of the allegedly mysterious and irreducible features of consciousness that motivated Darwin’s critics and also more recent philosophers criticising AI. There are consequences for philosophy, psychology, neuroscience and robotics.
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