Philosophy of Evolution: Scholarship

New Philosophy

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Here we'll list new developments in the philosophy of evolution.  This will assist in continuing to up-date the philosophical information in the dissertation.

Several philosophical and popular journals will be monitored for articles on the philosophy of nature, and specifically on the philosophy of evolution.
 
In June 2007, President Geroge W. Bush vetoed a bill that would have funded research on stem cells harvested from human embryos.  His vision of a moral dilemma caused by scientists and resolved by politicians seems like a characteristic scenario of the conservatives.  The triple knots of science, morality, and politics go back a long way, just as the controversy surrounding  evolution.  "People disagree passionately about science and morality because they care about them, and when their disagreements involve public policy, the forum for resolving them will be politics."  Today neither religion nor science can expect a free pass in the court of public opinion or in the voting booth.  Richard Brookhiser, "History: Matters of Morality," Time Magazine (13 August 2007): 43.
 
KANTS VORSEHUNGSKONZEPT AUF DEM HINTERGRUND DER DEUTSCHEN SCHULPHILOSOPIE UND -THEOLOGIE by Ulrich L. Lehner (Leiden: Brill, 2007).  This book treats Kant and providence.  Providence is important for evolution, since without providence devolution (extinction) might be dominant.  Many philosophers thought that Hume had debunked providence.  Lehner's book shows that the concept of providence is more complex than the standard history of philosophy textbooks would have us believe.  "On reading this detailed and precise study, the reader witnesses the origin of the concept of modern science from the point of view of the dissociation of theological from purely rational methods...Implicitly this book explains the misunderstandings that surround the notions of religion and science, if taken as antagonism...In reality, religious terms had been key to understanding nature up to and including Kant.... One of these terms was providence."  Paul Richard Blum, "Review of 'Kants Vorsehungskonzept'," American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 83, no. 1 (Winter 2009): 161-164.
 
Rome  ---  In early March 2009, a week-long conference of some of the world's leading scientists, philosophers, and theologians met at the Gregorian University in Rome for a conference entitled, "Biological Evolution: Facts and Theories."  The conference was sponsored by the Gregorian University, the Pontifical Council for Culture, and the University of Notre Dame (Indiana).  The welcoming address was given by Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith.  Gennaro Auletta, professor of philosophy at the Gregorian University and conference organizer said the Catholic Church was rich in scientific scholarship and pointed to Cardinal John Henry Newman as a supporter of Darwinism.  Pope John Paul II eagerly encouraged dialogue between religion and science in a 1988 letter to the director of the Vatican Observatory, Jesuit Father George Coyne, and the pope said, "The matter is urgent."  (Sheila Liaugminas in Chicago Catholic New World, 24 May-6 June 2009: 8)

Author: John Edward Mulvihill, S.T.D., D.Min., Ph.D.
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