Puzzle Town by Susannah Leigh

Puzzle Town by Susannah Leigh

What, if anything, does biological evolution tell us about the nature of religion, ethical values, or even the meaning and purpose of life? The Moral Meaning of Nature sheds new light on these enduring questions by examining the significance of an earlier--and unjustly neglected--discussion of Darwin in late nineteenth-century Germany.

We start with Friedrich Nietzsche, whose writings staged one of the first confrontations with the Christian tradition using the resources of Darwinian thought. The lebensphilosophie, or life-philosophy, that arose from his engagement with evolutionary ideas drew responses from other influential thinkers, including Franz Overbeck, Georg Simmel, and Heinrich Rickert. These critics all offered cogent challenges to Nietzsche's appropriation of the newly transforming biological sciences, his negotiation between science and religion, and his interpretation of the implications of Darwinian thought. They also each proposed alternative ways of making sense of Nietzsche's unique question concerning the meaning of biological evolution for life. At the heart of the discussion were debates about the relation of facts and values, the place of divine purpose in the understanding of nonhuman and human agency, the concept of life, and the question of whether the sciences could offer resources to satisfy the human urge to discover sources of value in biological processes. The Moral Meaning of Nature focuses on the historical background of these questions, exposing the complex ways in which they recur in contemporary philosophical debate.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780794504380
ISBN 10	0794504388
Title	Puzzle Town
Author	Susannah Leigh
Series	Young Puzzles
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Educational Development Corporation
Year published	2008-01-29
Number of pages	32
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.