The Ethical Primate: Humans, Freedom and Morality

The Ethical Primate: Humans, Freedom and Morality

by Mary Midgley (Author)

Synopsis

In The Ethical Primate, Mary Midgley, 'one of the sharpest critical pens in the West' according to the Times Literary Supplement, addresses the fundamental question of human freedom. Scientists and philosophers have found it difficult to understand how each human-being can be a living part of the natural world and still be free. Midgley explores their responses to this seeming paradox and argues that our evolutionary origin explains both why and how human freedom and morality have come about.

$152.91

Quantity

5 in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 203
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 13 Oct 1994

ISBN 10: 0415095301
ISBN 13: 9780415095303

Media Reviews
... arduous and instructive....
- Ethics & Medicine, 1998
Clearly and gracefully written, it should prove very interesting and accessible to a wide audience..
- Choice
Although her account hardly answers all the perplexities concerning relations of mind to body or how we can act freely, her honest and informed probing provides a highly sensible perspective. As a brief work not attempting to survey the literature (it has no bibliography), but it does exhibit knowledge of a fair range of relevant biological and philosophical literature. Clearly and gracefully written, it should prover very interesting and accessible to a wide audience. Undergraduate through professional Choice, April, 1995.
The Ethical Primate raises basic and profound questions about what it means to be human and proposes some provocative answers.
- Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society
The book is especially good incriticizing egoistic explanations of morality...blends philosophy and science in a conversational, rather than technical or rigorous, style.
- Ethics