''A Darwinian Left: Politics, Evolution and Cooperation'' is a 1999 book by the philosopher

Peter Singer Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher, currently the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He specialises in applied ethics and approaches ethical issues from a secular, ...

. In the book, Singer argues that the view of human nature provided by evolutionary science, particularly by

evolutionary psychology Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in psychology that examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with regards to the ancestral problems they evolv ...

, is compatible with the ideological framework of the

Left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...

and should be incorporated into it.

Summary

Singer believes that the Left will be better able to achieve its social and economic goals if it incorporates the more accurate view of human nature provided by evolutionary science: "To be blind to the facts about human nature is to risk disaster". For example, Singer argues that the Left's view of human nature as highly malleable, which he identifies with

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

and the

standard social science model The term standard social science model (SSSM) was first introduced by John Tooby and Leda Cosmides in the 1992 edited volume ''The Adapted Mind''. They used SSSM as a reference to social science philosophies related to the blank slate, relativism, ...

, is incorrect. Singer argues that evolutionary psychology suggests that humans naturally tend to be self-interested. He further argues that the evidence that selfish tendencies are natural must not be taken as evidence that selfishness is right. He concludes that

game theory Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions among rational agents. Myerson, Roger B. (1991). ''Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict,'' Harvard University Press, p.&nbs1 Chapter-preview links, ppvii–xi It has appli ...

(the mathematical study of strategy) and experiments in psychology offer hope that self-interested people will make short-term sacrifices for the good of others, if society provides the right conditions. Essentially, Singer claims that although humans possess selfish, competitive tendencies naturally, they have a substantial capacity for

cooperation Cooperation (written as co-operation in British English) is the process of groups of organisms working or acting together for common, mutual, or some underlying benefit, as opposed to working in competition for selfish benefit. Many animal a ...

that has also been selected for during

human evolution Human evolution is the evolutionary process within the history of primates that led to the emergence of ''Homo sapiens'' as a distinct species of the hominid family, which includes the great apes. This process involved the gradual development of ...

Reception

The philosopher

Philip Kitcher Philip Stuart Kitcher (born 20 February 1947) is a British philosopher who is John Dewey Professor Emeritus of philosophy at Columbia University. He specialises in the philosophy of science, the philosophy of biology, the philosophy of mathema ...

has criticised the book's handling of

sociobiology Sociobiology is a field of biology that aims to examine and explain social behavior in terms of evolution. It draws from disciplines including psychology, ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, and population genetics. Within t ...

, saying that it contains "credulous retailing of sociobiological speculations" while noting that "much of this book is admirable in its clarity, directness, and grasp of central points". The philosopher Peter Amato writes that "Singer's characterizations of the Left unfortunately distort and deny its variety and the complexity of the issues Leftists are concerned with", and that his "Darwinist anti-Marxism is based on an ideological oversimplification of both positions".

References

External links

A Darwinian Left for Today and Beyond
Peter Singer Excerpted from ''A Darwinian Left'', pp. 60–63.

Anonymous reviewer. The Complete Review. 1999 non-fiction books American political books Biological evolution Books by Peter Singer English-language books Left-wing politics Politics of science Weidenfeld & Nicolson books Books about evolution {{poli-philo-book-stub

Summary

Reception

See also

References

External links