Evolutionary Ethics: Volume III
Darwin's Nihilistic Idea: Evolution and the Meaninglessness of Life
Publication
, Chapter
Sommers, T; Rosenberg, A
January 1, 2017
No one has expressed the destructive power of Darwinian theory more effectively than Daniel Dennett. Others have recognized that the theory of evolution offers us a universal acid. but Dennett, bless his heart, coined the term. Many have appreciated that the mechanism of random variation and natural selection is a substrate-neutral algorithm that operates at every level of organization from the macromolecular to the mental, at every time scale from the geological epoch to the nanosecond. But it took Dennett to express the idea in a polysyllable or two. These two features of Darwinism undermine more wishful thinking about the way the world is than any other brace of notions since mechanism was vindicated in physics.
Duke Scholars
DOI
ISBN
9780754627586
Publication Date
January 1, 2017
Volume
3
Start / End Page
169 / 184
Citation
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Sommers, T., & Rosenberg, A. (2017). Darwin's Nihilistic Idea: Evolution and the Meaninglessness of Life. In Evolutionary Ethics: Volume III (Vol. 3, pp. 169–184). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315255767-19
Sommers, T., and A. Rosenberg. “Darwin's Nihilistic Idea: Evolution and the Meaninglessness of Life.” In Evolutionary Ethics: Volume III, 3:169–84, 2017. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315255767-19.
Sommers T, Rosenberg A. Darwin's Nihilistic Idea: Evolution and the Meaninglessness of Life. In: Evolutionary Ethics: Volume III. 2017. p. 169–84.
Sommers, T., and A. Rosenberg. “Darwin's Nihilistic Idea: Evolution and the Meaninglessness of Life.” Evolutionary Ethics: Volume III, vol. 3, 2017, pp. 169–84. Scopus, doi:10.4324/9781315255767-19.
Sommers T, Rosenberg A. Darwin's Nihilistic Idea: Evolution and the Meaninglessness of Life. Evolutionary Ethics: Volume III. 2017. p. 169–184.
DOI
ISBN
9780754627586
Publication Date
January 1, 2017
Volume
3
Start / End Page
169 / 184