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40Book Review:Darwinism and Human Affairs Richard D. Alexander (review)Philosophy of Science 48 (4): 627-. 1981.
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13The Possibility of Naturalism: A Philosophical Critique of the Contemporary Human Sciences by Roy Bhaskar (review)Isis 72 493-495. 1981.
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26Grünbaum on psychoanalysis: Where do we go from here?Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9 (2): 256-257. 1986.
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39Response to Williams: Selfishness is not enoughZygon 23 (4): 413-416. 1988.I agree with George Williams's most significant point: both questions and answers about our moral natures lie in our biological origins. He fails, however, to show that nature is morally evil and that therefore we should vigilantly resist it. The products of evolution are morally neutral, but the human moral sense is arguably a positive good. Morality is functional. It does not require ultimate justification in the sense of correspondence with or attack upon reality “out there.” It is an adaptat…Read more
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15Darwin and the philosophersIn Richard Creath & Jane Maienschein (eds.), Biology and epistemology, Cambridge University Press. pp. 3. 1999.
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77The nature of scientific models : Formal V material analogyPhilosophy of the Social Sciences 3 (1): 63-80. 1973.
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37Review of Sober and Wilson, Unto Others: The evolution and psychology of unselfish behavior (review)Ethics 110 (2): 443-445. 2000.
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39Bad arguments about DarwinismThink 3 (8): 41-46. 2004.In Think 7, philosopher Jenny Teichman accused the geneticist Professor Stephen Jones and other contemporary Darwinists of confusion and of overestimating Darwinism's explanatory power. Here, Micheal Ruse explains why he believes it is actually Teichman who is confused
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3The Process of Model-Building in the Behavioral Sciences (review)Theory and Decision 4 (3/4): 401. 1974.
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109Darwinism and atheism: A Marriage made in Heaven?: Ruse Darwinism and atheismThink 2 (6): 51-62. 2004.Richard Dawkins argues both that Darwin's theory made a God-as-the-designer-of-species redundant, and also that the problem of evil provides overwhelming evidence against God's existence. But Michael Ruse suspects Dawkins may be too hasty…
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31Taking Darwin Seriously: A Naturalistic Approach to PhilosophyPrometheus Books. 1986.Brings together traditional philosophy and modern sociobiology to examine evolutionary biology and its relation to the evolution of knowledge and ethics
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34Evolutionary Ethics: Healthy Prospect or Last Infirmity?Canadian Journal of Philosophy 18 (S1): 27-73. 1988.Evolutionary ethics, the idea that the evolutionary process contains the basis for a full and adequate understanding of human moral nature, is an old and disreputable notion. It was popularized in the 19th century by the English general man of science, Herbert Spencer, who began advocating an evolutionary approach to ethical understanding, even before Charles Darwin published hisOrigin of Speciesin 1859 (Spencer 1857, 1892). Although it was never regarded with much enthusiasm by professional phi…Read more
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131Karl Popper's philosophy of biologyPhilosophy of Science 44 (4): 638-661. 1977.In recent years Sir Karl Popper has been turning his attention more and more towards philosophical problems arising from biology, particularly evolutionary biology. Popper suggests that perhaps neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory is better categorized as a metaphysical research program than as a scientific theory. In this paper it is argued that Popper can draw his conclusions only because he is abysmally ignorant of the current status of biological thought and that Popper's criticisms of biology …Read more
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29Cultural evolutionTheory and Decision 5 (4): 413-440. 1974.In this paper I consider the problem of man's evolution - in particular the evolutionary problems raised when we consider man as a cultural animal as well as a biological one. I argue that any adequate cultural evolutionary theory must have the notion of ‘adaptation’ as a central concept, where this must be construed in a fairly literal (biological) sense, that is as something which aids its possessors (i.e. men) to survive and reproduce. I argue against theories which treat adaptation in a meta…Read more
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Teleology and the Biological SciencesIn Nicholas Rescher (ed.), Current Issues in Teleology, University Press of America. pp. 61. 1986.
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28Evolution and the idea of social progressIn Denis Alexander & Ronald L. Numbers (eds.), Biology and Ideology From Descartes to Dawkins, University of Chicago Press. 2010.In evolutionary theory, the idea of organic evolution is linked to the social doctrine or ideology of progress. This chapter explores the relationship between evolution and the idea of social progress by first considering the definitions of evolution, social or cultural progress, and providence. It then comments on the science of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, which it argues was not perfect because Darwin encountered a lot of problems with heredity and with the fossil record. Physicists ar…Read more
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66Why I am an accommodationist and proud of itZygon 50 (2): 361-375. 2015.There is a strong need of a reasoned defense of what was known as the “independence” position of the science–religion relationship but that more recently has been denigrated as the “accommodationist” position, namely that while there are parts of religion—fundamentalist Christianity in particular—that clash with modern science, the essential parts of religion do not and could not clash with science. A case for this position is made on the grounds of the essentially metaphorical nature of science…Read more
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51Natural Selection in "The Origin of Species"Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 1 (4): 311. 1971.
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15Studies in the Philosophy of Biology. Reduction and Related Problems by Franciso José Ayala; Theodosius Dobzhansky (review)Isis 67 479-481. 1976.
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8Do the History of Science and the Philosophy of Science Have Anything to Say to Each Other?PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1992. 1992.
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18The Structure of Biological Theories (review)International Studies in Philosophy 25 (1): 109-110. 1993.
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1Human Sociobiology: A Philosophical PerspectiveEidos: The Canadian Graduate Journal of Philosophy 3 (1): 46-88. 1984.
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Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Religion |
Philosophy of Biology |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Religion |
Philosophy of Biology |