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  • 1
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Deleting the Subject: A Feminist Reading of Epistemology in Artificial Intelligence (2000)
    Springer
    Minds and machines 10 (2000), S. 231-253 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8641
    Keywords: epistemology ; feminist epistemology ; symbolic AI
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Computer Science , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract This paper argues that AI follows classical versions of epistemology in assuming that the identity of the knowing subject is not important. In other words this serves to `delete the subject'. This disguises an implicit hierarchy of knowers involved in the representation of knowledge in AI which privileges the perspective of those who design and build the systems over alternative perspectives. The privileged position reflects Western, professional masculinity. Alternative perspectives, denied a voice, belong to less powerful groups including women. Feminist epistemology can be used to approach this from new directions, in particular, to show how women's knowledge may be left out of consideration by AI's focus on masculine subjects. The paper uncovers the tacitly assumed Western professional male subjects in two flagship AI systems, Cyc and Soar.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1008306015799
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  • 2
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Epistemology Culturalized (2000)
    Springer
    Journal for general philosophy of science 31 (2000), S. 75-107 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8587
    Keywords: agency ; culturalism ; epistemology ; mind-body problem ; naturalism ; normativity
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Philosophy , Nature of Science, Research, Systems of Higher Education, Museum Science
    Notes: Abstract The anti-metaphysical intentions of naturalism can be respected without abandoning the project of a normative epistemology. The central assumptions of naturalism imply that (1.) the distinction between action and behaviour is spurious, and (2.) epistemology cannot continue to be a normative project. Difficulties with the second implication have been adressed by Normative Naturalism, but without violating the naturalistic consensus, it can only appreciate means-end-rationality. However, this does not suffice to justify its own implicit normative pretensions. According to our diagnosis, naturalism succumbs to the lure of an absolute observer's stance and thereby neglects the need for participation in communal practice. By contrast, methodical culturalism ties down the concepts of epistemology to the success of such practice. Only from this perspective, the normative force of epistemology can be appreciated. Also, the mind-body problem loosens its hold and the distinction between action and behaviour is reestablished. In the last section, the mutual relation between philosophy andscience is reconsidered.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1008361223224
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  • 3
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Why we Believe (1999)
    Springer
    Journal for general philosophy of science 30 (1999), S. 317-339 
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    ISSN: 1572-8587
    Keywords: knowledge ; full belief ; epistemology ; radicalprobabilism ; instrumentalism ; pragmatism ; bayesianism
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Philosophy , Nature of Science, Research, Systems of Higher Education, Museum Science
    Notes: Abstract The radical probabilist counsels the prudent never to put away uncertainty, and hence always to balance judgment with probabilities of various sizes. Against this counsel I shall advise in favor of the practice of full belief — at least for some occasions. This advice rests on the fact that it is sometimes in a person's interests to accept certain propositions as a means of bringing it about that others recognize oneself as having accepted those propositions. With the pragmatists, therefore, I shall reject the view that belief formation must in every instance be a truth-directed affair. Unlike the pragmatists, however, I shall conclude that the enterprise of belief formation is not directed exclusively, or even primarily, at attaining knowledge. In other words, pursuit of that which it profits to believe, on the one hand, and pursuit of knowledge on the other, are distinct enterprises, which overlap (when they do) only accidentally.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1008394130995
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  • 4
    Electronic Resource
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    From Biological Inhibitions to Cultural Prohibitions, or How Not to Refute Edward Westermarck (1998)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 13 (1998), S. 413-426 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: insect taboos ; Westermarck ; natural selection ; sociobiology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract My aim in this paper is to take a closer look at an influential argument that purports to prove that the existence of cultural prohibitions could never be explained by biological inhibitions. The argument is two-pronged. The first prong reduces to the claim: inhibitions cannot cause prohibitions simply because inhibitions undermine the raison dêtre of prohibitions. The second strategy consists in arguing that inhibitions cannot cause prohibitions because the two differ importantly in their contents. I try to show that both claims fail.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1006545130874
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  • 5
    Electronic Resource
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    Similarities and Varieties: A Brief Sketch on the Reception of Darwinism and Sociobiology in Japan (1998)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 13 (1998), S. 341-357 
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    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: theory reception ; Darwinism ; sociobiology ; cultural studies ; evolutionary biology in Japan
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract This paper discusses the reception of Darwinian evolutionary theory and sociobiology in Japan. Darwinism was introduced into Japan in the late 19th century and Japanese people readily accepted the concept of evolution because, lacking Christianity, there was no religious opposition. However, the theory of evolution was treated as a kind of social scientific tool, i.e., social Spencerism and eugenics. Although evolutionary biology was developed during the late 19th and the early 20th century, orthodox Darwinian theory was neglected for a long time. In the mid 1980s, sociobiology was introduced but it was ignored and criticized by a large part of the ecologist-evolutionist community in Japan. This hostile attitude was due to the absence of Darwinism among these scientists. Compared with the reception of sociobiology in English-speaking countries, there were both similarities and differences in Japan.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1006504623820
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  • 6
    Electronic Resource
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    Human Pugnacity and War: Some Anticipations of Sociobiology, 1880–1919 (1998)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 13 (1998), S. 263-288 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Darwinism ; aggression ; instinct ; sociobiology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Almost all of the themes contained in E.O.Wilson's sociobiological writing on war and human aggression were prefigured in Anglo-American bio-social discourse, c. 1880–1919. Instinct theory – stemming from animal psychology and the genetics revolution – encouraged the belief that pugnacity had been programmed into the ancient part of the human brain as a result of evolutionary pressures dating from prehistory. War was seen to be instinct-driven, and genocidal fighting postulated as a eugenic force in early human evolution. War was explained in distinctly modern sociobiological terms as adaptive behaviour springing from territorial urges, crowding, competition for resources and reproductive advantage, ethnocentrism and pseudo-speciation.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1006586919613
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  • 7
    Electronic Resource
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    Towards a Philosophy of Chemistry. A short extract of this paper was first read at the 10th International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Florence, August 19–25, 1995. (1997)
    Springer
    Journal for general philosophy of science 28 (1997), S. 307-336 
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    ISSN: 1572-8587
    Keywords: philosophy of chemistry ; epistemology ; experiment ; classification ; reference ; prediction ; technology ; matter ; material properties
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Philosophy , Nature of Science, Research, Systems of Higher Education, Museum Science
    Notes: Abstract The paper shows epistemological, methodological and ontological peculiarities of chemistry taken as a classificatory science of materials using experimental methods. Without succumbing to standard interpretations of physical science, chemical methods of experimental investigation, classification, reference, theorizing, prediction and production of new entities are developed one by one as first steps towards a philosophy of chemistry. Chemistry challenges traditional concepts of empirical object, empirical predicate, reference frame and theory, but also the distinction commonly drawn between natural science and technology. Due to its many peculiarities, I propose to treat chemistry philosophically as a special type of science, apart from other sciences.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1008206719087
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  • 8
    Electronic Resource
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    “Just-so” stories about “inner cognitive Africa”: some doubts about Sorensen's evolutionary epistemology of thought experiments (1997)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 12 (1997), S. 207-224 
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    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: evolution ; epistemology ; evolutionary epistemology ; naturalized epistemology ; thought experiments ; modality ; utility ; fitness ; adaptation ; reliability ; possible worlds
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Roy Sorensen advances an evolutionary explanation of our capacity for thought experiments which doubles as a naturalized epistemological justification. I argue Sorensen”s explanation fails to satisfy key elements of environmental-selectionist explanations and so fails to carry epistemic force. I then argue that even if Sorensen succeeds in showing the adaptive utility of our capacity, he still fails to establish its reliability and hence epistemic utility. I conclude Sorensen”s account comes to little more than a “just-so story”.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1017986908266
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  • 9
    Electronic Resource
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    What Rationality Adds to Animal Morality (1997)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 12 (1997), S. 341-356 
    Details
    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: care ethics ; evolutionary ethics ; sociobiology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Philosophical tradition demands rational reflection as a condition for genuine moral acts. But the grounds for that requirement are untenable, and when the requirement is dropped morality comes into clearer view as a naturally developing phenomenon that is not confined to human beings and does not require higher-level rational reflective processes. Rational consideration of rules and duties can enhance and extend moral behavior, but rationality is not necessary for morality and (contrary to the Kantian tradition represented by Thomas Nagel) morality cannot transcend its biological roots. Recognizing this helps forge a complementary rather than competitive relation between feminist care-based ethics and rationalistic duty-based ethics.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1006559328418
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  • 10
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    Animal Consciousness and Ethics in Asia and the Pacific (1997)
    Springer
    Journal of agricultural and environmental ethics 10 (1997), S. 249-267 
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    ISSN: 1573-322X
    Keywords: Animals ; Asia ; consciousness ; Australia ; Hong Kong ; India ; Israel ; Japan ; New Zealand ; The Philippines ; Russia ; Singapore ; Thailand
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Fishery, Domestic Science, Nutrition , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract The interactions between humans, animals and the environment have shaped human values and ethics, not only the genes that we are made of. The animal rights movement challenges human beings to reconsider interactions between humans and other animals, and maybe connected to the environmental movement that begs us to recognize the fact that there are symbiotic relationships between humans and all other organisms. The first part of this paper looks at types of bioethics, the implications of autonomy and the value of being alive. Then the level of consciousness of these relationships are explored in survey results from Asia and the Pacific, especially in the 1993 International Bioethics Survey conducted in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, The Philippines, Russia, Singapore and Thailand. Very few mentioned animal consciousness in the survey, but there were more biocentric comments in Australia and Japan; and more comments with the idea of harmony including humans in Thailand. Comparisons between questions and surveys will also be made, in an attempt to describe what people imagine animal consciousness to be, and whether this relates to human ethics of the relationships.
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    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1007774409131
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  • 11
    Electronic Resource
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    Prima facie and seeming duties (1996)
    Springer
    Studia logica 57 (1996), S. 47-71 
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    ISSN: 1572-8730
    Keywords: prima facie duties ; defeasible reasoning ; practical reasoning ; epistemology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Mathematics , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Sir David Ross introduced prima facie duties, or acts with a tendency to be duties proper. He also spoke of general prima facie principles, wwhich attribute to acts having some feature the tendency to be a duty proper. Like Utilitarians from Mill to Hare, he saw a role for such principles in the epistemology of duty: in the process by means of which, in any given situation, a moral code can help us to find out what we ought to do. After formalizing general prima facie principles as universally quantified conditionals I will show how seeming duties can be detached from them. There will be examples involving lies, burnt offerings and the question of whether to have a napkin on your lap while eating asparagus. They will illustrate the defeasibility of this detachment, how it can lead into dilemmas, and how general prima facie principles are overridden by more specific ones.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00370669
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  • 12
    Electronic Resource
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    Ontological aspects of information modeling (1996)
    Springer
    Minds and machines 6 (1996), S. 287-394 
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    ISSN: 1572-8641
    Keywords: Information modeling ; information vs. data ; knowledge vs. information ; information systems development ; semantic data modeling ; the relational data model ; the object-oriented paradigm ; data vs. reality ; analytic philosophy ; ontology ; epistemology ; views ; statements ; entities ; events ; attributes ; actions ; relationships ; categories and kinds
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Computer Science , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Information modeling (also known as conceptual modeling or semantic data modeling) may be characterized as the formulation of a model in which information aspects of objective and subjective reality are presented (“the application”), independent of datasets and processes by which they may be realized (“the system”). A methodology for information modeling should incorporate a number of concepts which have appeared in the literature, but should also be formulated in terms of constructs which are understandable to and expressible by the system user as well as the system developer. This is particularly desirable in connection with certain “intimate” relationships, such as being the same as or being a part of. The conceptual basis for such a methodology, as conventionally approached, seems flavored with notions arising in the systems arena to an inappropriate degree. To counter this tendency it is useful to turn to a discipline not hitherto much involved in technology, namely analytic philosophy.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00729802
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  • 13
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    Pseudoscience as structurally flawed practice: A reply to A.A. Derksen (1995)
    Springer
    Journal for general philosophy of science 26 (1995), S. 323-326 
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    ISSN: 1572-8587
    Keywords: pseudoscience ; A. A. Derksen ; epistemology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Philosophy , Nature of Science, Research, Systems of Higher Education, Museum Science
    Notes: Summary I respond to two criticisms levelled by A. A. Derksen in a recent issue of this journal against characterizing pseudoscience as structurally flawed practice: I argue that he surreptitiously invokes this conception, his official view that we should concentrate on pseudoscientists' pretensions rather than their practices notwithstanding; and I critically examine his contention that judgements of scientificity (and pseudoscientificity) cannot properly be made independently of a consideration of whether the relevant theories and practices are empirically well-confirmed.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00766732
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  • 14
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    Why are there no objective values? (1995)
    Springer
    Journal for general philosophy of science 26 (1995), S. 35-62 
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    ISSN: 1572-8587
    Keywords: ethics ; intuitionism ; epistemology ; objectivism ; moral knowledge ; moral values
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Philosophy , Nature of Science, Research, Systems of Higher Education, Museum Science
    Notes: Summary Using the mathematical frameworks of economic preference ranking, subjective probability, and rational learning through empirical evidence, the epistemological implications of teleological ethical intuitionism are pointed out to the extent to which the latter is based on cognitivist and objectivist concepts of value. The notions of objective value and objective norm are critically analysed with reference to epistemological criteria of intersubjectively shared valuative experience. It is concluded that one cannot meaningfully postulate general material theories of morality that could be tested, confirmed or refuted by intersubjective empirical evidence of preferences and values, however loosely the empirical evidence of values may be interpreted. This situation is explained with reference to the ways in which preceived values become systematically influenced by the concomitants of individual valuative experience, but which have nothing to do with contingent subjective interests.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01130925
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  • 15
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    Heuristics, justification, and defeasible reasoning (1995)
    Springer
    Minds and machines 5 (1995), S. 467-487 
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    ISSN: 1572-8641
    Keywords: Heuristics ; epistemology ; problem-solving ; justification ; defeasible reasoning
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Computer Science , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Heuristics can be regarded as justifying the actions and beliefs of problem-solving agents. I use an analysis of heuristics to argue that a symbiotic relationship exists between traditional epistemology and contemporary artificial intelligence. On one hand, the study of models of problem-solving agents usingquantitative heuristics, for example computer programs, can reveal insight into the understanding of human patterns of epistemic justification by evaluating these models' performance against human problem-solving. On the other hand,qualitative heuristics embody the justifying ability of defeasible rules, the understanding of which is provided by traditional epistemology.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00974978
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  • 16
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    Bioaltruism reconsidered (1994)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 9 (1994), S. 75-84 
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    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Altruism ; ethics ; ethology ; evolution ; sociobiology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Altruistic behavior is often regarded as sociobiology's most central theoretical problem, but is it? Altruism in biology, bioaltruism, has many meanings, which can be grouped into two categories. The first I will callcommon bioaltruism. It is primarily of ethological relevance. The second,evolutionary bioaltruism, is a special category in evolutionary respects in that it may indeed pose a problem for evolutionary theory. These categories are logically independent. Moreover, both of them are logically different from altruism in its everyday psychological or moral sense. Sociobiological examples of bioaltruistic behavior concern bioaltruism in the first sense only, so the theoretical problem ‘altruism’ is supposed to pose, is indeed nothing but a theoretical problem and the bioaltruism that actually occurs has no evolutionary relevance. Nevertheless, evolutionary theory is relevant to our understanding of the possibility of common bioaltruism, and that possibility — even though bioaltruism is conceptually different from ethical altruism — is relevant for ethicists: it sheds light on what we can ask people to do or not to do.
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    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00849915
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  • 17
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    Darwin's language may seem teleological, but his thinking is another matter (1994)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 9 (1994), S. 489-492 
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    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Darwin ; teleology ; teleonomy ; function ; morphology ; anatomy ; epistemology ; metaphor
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Darwin's biology was “teleological” only if the term “teleology” is defined in a manner that fails to recognize his contribution to the metaphysics and epistemology of modern science. His use of teleological metaphors in a strictly teleonomic context is irrelevant to the meaning of his discourse. The myth of Darwin's alleged teleology is partly due to misinterpretations of discussions about whether morphology should be a purely formal science. Merely rejecting such notions as special creation and vitalism does not prevent the pernicious effects of teleological reasoning, even at the present time.
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    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00850377
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  • 18
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    Evolutionary naturalism and the objectivity of morality (1993)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 8 (1993), S. 47-60 
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    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Ethics ; morality ; naturalism ; sociobiology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract We propose an objective and justifiable ethics that is contingent on the truth of evolutionary theory. We do not argue for the truth of this position, which depends on the empirical question of whether moral functions form a natural class, but for its cogency and possibility. The position we propose combines the advantages of Kantian objectivity with the explanatory and motivational advantages of moral naturalism. It avoids problems with the epistemological inaccessibility of transcendent values, while avoiding the relativism or subjectivism often associated with moral naturalism. Our position emerges out of criticisms of the contemporary sociobiological views of morality found in the writings of Richard Alexander, Michael Ruse, and Robert Richards.
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    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00868505
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  • 19
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    An intellectual legacy of the past: The reception of sociobiology in the East-European countries (1993)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 8 (1993), S. 399-407 
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    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: German anthropology ; Lysenko ; Marx ; sociobiology ; Stalin
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Sociobiology has not been well received in Eastern Europe. Reasons for this are listed and discussed. It is suggested that times are changing and that sociobiology will have more success in the future.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00857686
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  • 20
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    Radikaler Konstruktivismus und Konstruktionismus (1992)
    Springer
    Journal for general philosophy of science 23 (1992), S. 323-352 
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    ISSN: 1572-8587
    Keywords: constructivism ; naturalism ; epistemology ; realism ; idealism
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Philosophy , Nature of Science, Research, Systems of Higher Education, Museum Science
    Notes: Summary Both radical constructivism and constructionism are naturalized approaches to epistemology. They try to fertilize results from biology and psychology for epistemological aims. They both refuse epistemological realism as unsustainable metaphysics. This raises the problem of the range of the naturalistic approach to epistemology. Constructivism, in both forms, turns out to be untenable because it runs in an aporia: it must borrow from realism either, or it must qualify its own position as a metaphysical one. But therewith, constructivism would be blamed to be metaphysical itself.
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    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01801456
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  • 21
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    Biology intersects religion and morality (1992)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 7 (1992), S. 77-88 
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    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Morality ; Arthur Peacocke ; reductionism ; Michael Ruse ; science and religion ; sociobiology ; theology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Michael Ruse's writings explore what sociobiology says about morality. Further, he claims that sociobiology undermines the base for Christian morality. After responding to criticisms of Ruse, especially those of Arthur Peacocke, I lay a base for meeting his challenge.
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    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00130166
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  • 22
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    Evolution, altruism, and the prisoner's dilemma (1992)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 7 (1992), S. 161-175 
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    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Altruism ; evolution ; Prisoner's Dilemma ; sociobiology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract I first argue against Peter Singer's exciting thesis that the Prisoner's Dilemma explains why there could be an evolutionary advantage in making reciprocal exchanges that are ultimately motivated by genuine altruism over making such exchanges on the basis of enlightened long-term self-interest. I then show that an alternative to Singer's thesis — one that is also meant to corroborate the view that natural selection favors genuine altruism, recently defended by Gregory Kavka, fails as well. Finally, I show that even granting Singer's and Kavka's claim about the selective advantage of altruism proper, it is doubtful whether that type of claim can be used in a particular sort of sociobiological argument against psychological egoism.
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    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00129881
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  • 23
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    Moral and nonmoral innate constraints (1992)
    Springer
    Biology and philosophy 7 (1992), S. 189-202 
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    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Epigenetic rule ; ethics ; human behavioral ecology ; innate constraint ; morality ; sociobiology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Charles J. Lumsden and E.O. Wilson, in their writings together and individually, have proposed that human behaviors, whether moral or nonmoral, are governed by innate constraints (which they have termed “epigenetic rules”). I propose that if a genetic component of moral behavior is to be discovered, some sorting out of specifically moral from nonmoral innate constraints will be necessary. That some specifically moral innate constraits exist is evidenced by virtuous behaviors exhibited in nonhuman mammals, whose behavior is usually granted to be importantly governed by genetic factors. Propensities for such virtuous behaviors may have been passed to humans as highly conserved mammalian genes and continue to influence us. I propose that these constitute at least a “rudimentary morality” and may account in part for the moral intuitions. But other innate constraints which are nonmoral in nature interact with the specifically moral innate constraints and with culture to yield human moral decisions and actions. Any model which aims to identify the genetic component of moral behaviors or behaviors with moral import must provide not only a delineation of cultural causes but must also distinguish between those genetic causes which may have their origin in innate moral constraints from others which are fundamentally nonmoral because the critical faculty necessary to higher level human morality itself arises in part from innate constraints of a nonmoral type; i.e., the processes of inductive reasoning common to both ethics and science. Finally, humans who could bring the nonmoral evaluative capacities to bear upon whatever moral intuitions might be genetically conserved in mammalian heritage would have an advantage over similar beings who could not.
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    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00129883
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  • 24
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    The hierarchies of knowledge and the mathematics of discovery (1991)
    Springer
    Minds and machines 1 (1991), S. 75-95 
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    ISSN: 1572-8641
    Keywords: Learning ; induction ; logic ; relativism ; epistemology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Computer Science , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Rather than attempting to characterize a relation of confirmation between evidence and theory, epistemology might better consider which methods of forming conjectures from evidence, or of altering beliefs in the light of evidence, are most reliable for getting to the truth. A logical framework for such a study was constructed in the early 1960s by E. Mark Gold and Hilary Putnam. This essay describes some of the results that have been obtained in that framework and their significance for philosophy of science, artificial intelligence, and for normative epistemology when truth is relative.
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    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00360580
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    The epistemic basis of defeasible reasoning (1991)
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    Minds and machines 1 (1991), S. 437-458 
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    ISSN: 1572-8641
    Keywords: Defeasible reasoning ; default reasoning ; nonmonotonic reasoning ; epistemology ; closed world assumption
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Computer Science , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract This article argues that: (i) Defeasible reasoning is the use of distinctive procedures for belief revision when new evidence or new authoritative judgment is interpolated into a system of beliefs about an application domain. (ii) These procedures can be explicated and implemented using standard higher-order logic combined with epistemic assumptions about the system of beliefs. The procedures mentioned in (i) depend on the explication in (ii), which is largely described in terms of a Prolog program, EVID, which implements a system for interactive, defeasible reasoning when combined with an application knowledge base. It is shown that defeasible reasoning depends on a meta-level Closed World Assumption applied to the relationship between supporting evidence and a defeasible conclusion based on this evidence. Thesis (i) is then further defended by showing that the EVID explication of defeasible reasoning has sufficient representational power to cover a wide variety of practical applications of defeasible reasoning, especially in the context of decision making.
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    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00352919
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    Holism and reduction in sociobiology: Lessons from the ants and human culture (1991)
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    Biology and philosophy 6 (1991), S. 401-412 
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    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Ants ; behavior ; culture ; Holism ; human ; meaning ; reduction ; sociobiology ; symbol
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Most research in the natural sciences passes through repeated cycles of a analytic reduction to the next lower level of organization, then resynthesis to the original level, then new analyticareduction, and so on. A residue of unexplained phenomena at the original level appears at first to require a “holistic” description independent of the lower level, but the residue shrinks as knowledge increases. This principle is well illustrated by recent studies from the social organization of insects, several examples of which are cited here. In theory it should also apply to human social organization. Culture is biological: meaning in culture can be approached as the outcome of mechanism-based causation, because culture stems from individual cognition, which has a biological basis. It would seem to follow that the most effective way to study culture is across all levels of organization from gene to society, passing repetitively through a cycle of reduction and synthesis in the manner of the natural sciences. Reductionistic analysis is favored by the tendency of semantic memory and culture to occur in discrete units that are arranged hierarchically.
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    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00128710
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    Really taking Darwin seriously: An alternative to Michael Ruse's Darwinian metaethics (1990)
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    Biology and philosophy 5 (1990), S. 149-173 
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    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Darwinian ethics ; ethics ; evolution ; evolutionary ethics ; M. Ruse ; naturalistic fallacy ; sociobiology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Michael Ruse has proposed in his recent book Taking Darwin Seriously and elsewhere a new Darwinian ethics distinct from traditional evolutionary ethics, one that avoids the latter's inadequate accounts of the nature of morality and its failed attempts to provide a naturalistic justification of morality. Ruse argues for a sociobiologically based account of moral sentiments, and an evolutionary based casual explanation of their function, rejecting the possibility of ultimate ethical justification. We find that Ruse's proposal distorts, overextends and weakens both Darwinism and naturalism. So we propose an alternative Darwinian metaethics that both remedies the problems in Ruse's proposal and shows how a Darwinian naturalistic account of the moral good in terms of human fitness avoids the naturalistic fallacy and can provide genuine, even if limited, justifications for substantive ethical claims. Thus, we propose to really take Darwin seriously.
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    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00127485
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    Causes, proximate and ultimate (1990)
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    Biology and philosophy 5 (1990), S. 401-415 
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    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Proximate cause ; ultimate cause ; function ; functionalism ; structuralism ; adaptation ; sociobiology ; behavioral ecology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Within evolutionary biology a distinction is frequently made between proximate and ultimate causes. One apparently plausible interpretation of this dichotomy is that proximate causes concern processes occurring during the life of an organism while ultimate causes refer to those processes (particularly natural selection) that shaped its genome. But “ultimate causes” are not sought through historical investigations of an organisms lineage. Rather, explanations referring to ultimate causes typically emerge from functional analyses. But these functional analyses do not identify causes of any kind, much less ultimate ones. So-called “ultimate explanations” are not about causes in any sense resembling those of proximate explanations. The attitude, implicit in the term “ultimate cause”, that these functional analyses are somehow superordinate to those involving “proximate causes” is unfounded. “Ultimate causes” are neither ultimate nor causes.
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    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02207379
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    Evolution, explanation, and the fact/value distinction (1988)
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    Biology and philosophy 3 (1988), S. 317-348 
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    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Ethics ; sociobiology ; Hume ; ethical naturalism ; reductionism ; naturalistic fallacy
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Though modern non-cognitivists in ethics characteristically believe that values are irreducible to facts, they nevertheless believe that values are determined by facts, viz., those specified in functionalist, explanatory theories of the evolutionary origin of morality. The present paper probes the consistency of this position. The conventionalist theories of Hume and Harman are examined, and are seen not to establish a tight determinative reduction of values to facts. This result is illustrated by reference to recent theories of the sociobiological mechanisms involved in moral evolution. Though explanatory theories have linguistic implications,exaggerated in Harman's linguistic form of social relativism, there is also failure to establish the semantic reductionism which non-cognitivists reject under the rubric of ethical naturalism. It is concluded that explanatory forms of naturalism, the best of which is a functionalist-utilitarian account, are compatible with the fact/value distinction.
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    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00053658
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    “Clever beasts who invented knowing”: Nietzsche's evolutionary biology of knowledge (1987)
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    Biology and philosophy 2 (1987), S. 65-91 
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    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Nietzsche ; Darwin ; evolution ; epistemology ; sociobiology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Nietzsche was a philosopher, not a biologist, Nevertheless his philosophical thought was deeply influenced by ideas emerging from the evolutionary biology of the nineteenth century. His relationship to the Darwinism of his time is difficult to disentangle. It is argued that he was in a sense an unwitting Darwinist. It follows that his philosophical thought is of considerable interest to those concerned to develop an evolutionary biology of mankind. His approach can be likened to that of an extraterrestrial sociobiologist studying “clever beasts... in some out of the way corner of the universe ...” It is shown how be uses this viewpoint to account for the origin of the central psychobiology of humankind: for dualistic philosophies, such as that of Descartes (which Ryle famously called ‘the official doctrine’), for human notions of ‘truth’ and ‘falsehood’, ‘being’ and ‘becoming’, and for other fundamental concepts of Western philosophy and science. All these, he argues, are no more and no less than the necessary adaptations of a zoological species, Homo sapiens, in its ‘struggle for life’ in a Darwinian world. It is concluded that Nietzsche was the first philosopher to accept and use in their full depth the philosophical implications of nineteeth-century evolutionism, implications which are still resisted to this day. It is also argued that this interpretation of Nietzsche's aphoristic writings provides them with an organic consistency.
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    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00127565
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    No norms and no nature — The moral relevance of evolutionary biology (1987)
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    Biology and philosophy 2 (1987), S. 253-270 
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    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Ethics ; evolution ; sociobiology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Many think that evolutionary biology has relevance to ethics, but how far that relevance extends is a matter of debate. It is easy to show that “pop” sociobiological approaches to ethics all commit some type of naturalistic fallacy. More sophisticated attempts, like Donald Campbell's, or, more recently, Robert Richards', are not so easily refuted, but I will show that they too reason fallaciously from facts to values. What remains is the possibility of an evolutionary search for human nature. Unfortunately, evolutionary theory itself seems to imply that the quest for human nature will not be very promising. As far as there is such a thing as human nature, we will have to know it before we can meaningfully talk about its evolution. Anthropological data suggest that we differ widely in our normative judgments. And even where we seem to agree, there is good reason to doubt that we really do so.
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    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00128832
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    Colleagues in conflict: An ‘in vivo’ analysis of the sociobiology controversy (1986)
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    Biology and philosophy 1 (1986), S. 53-87 
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    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: E. O. Wilson ; R. C. Lewontin ; sociobiology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Edward O. Wilson's forays into human sociobiology have been the target of persistent, vehement attack by his Harvard colleague in evolutionary biology, Richard C. Lewontin. Through examination of existing “documents in the case”, together with in-depth personal interviews of Wilson, Lewontin, and other biologists, the reasons for Wilson's stance and Lewontin's criticisms are uncovered. It is argued that the dispute is not primarily personally or politically motivated, but involves a conflict between long-term scientific-cum-moral agendas, with the “reductionist program” as a key issue. It is concluded that it is in the interest of both disputants to keep the controversy alive.
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    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00127089
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    Genes or culture? A Marxist perspective on humankind (1986)
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    Biology and philosophy 1 (1986), S. 89-107 
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    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Marx ; E. O. Wilson ; sociobiology
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract Intense interest has long been shown in the nature of humankind. Are we the products of genes? Are we the products of culture? Or are we something in between? The Marxist position, stressing the dominant significance of social methods for studying humans, is sketched. Then, a number of Western, biologically influenced views are discussed and criticised. Although there are important insights in the writings of the holders of these views, ultimately they produce only a “semiscience”.
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    Assessing evolutionary epistemology (1986)
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    Biology and philosophy 1 (1986), S. 401-459 
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    ISSN: 1572-8404
    Keywords: Evolution ; epistemology ; selection ; analogy ; metaphor ; norms
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology , Philosophy
    Notes: Abstract There are two interrelated but distinct programs which go by the name “evolutionary epistemology.” One attempts to account for the characteristics of cognitive mechanisms in animals and humans by a straightforward extension of the biological theory of evolution to those aspects or traits of animals which are the biological substrates of cognitive activity, e.g., their brains, sensory systems, motor systems, etc. (EEM program). The other program attempts to account for the evaluation of ideas, scientific theories and culture in general by using models and metaphors drawn from evolutionary biology (EET program). The paper begins by distinguishing the two programs and discussing the relationship between them. The next section addresses the metaphorical and analogical relationship between evolutionary epistemology and evolutionary biology. Section IV treats the question of the locus of the epistemological problem in the light of an evolutionary analysis. The key questions here involve the relationship between evolutionary epistemology and traditional epistemology and the legitimacy of evolutionary epistemology as epistemology. Section V examines the underlying ontological presuppositions and implications of evolutionary epistemology. Finally, section VI, which is merely the sketch of a problem, addresses the parallel between evolutionary epistemology and evolutionary ethics.
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    URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00140962
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