Politics as if Evolution Mattered
Darwin, Ecology, and Social Justice
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The work of Charles Darwin and his successors has shown us that there is no biological basis for the concept of socially repressive dogmas or discrimination on the basis of physical characteristics. Evolutionary theory rebuts the notion of any non-material origin of lf the human species. Evolutionary theory thus carries within in the notion of biocentrism: the functional equality of all living species and the corollary absencee of any biological basis for hierarchy in human social, political and economic relations. Rehabilitating an understanding of evolution as the other side of the ecology coin has practical implications for environmental and social justice advoctes, who sorely need intellectual weapons rather than ideological credos to turn back against corporate greenwashers and biased media. Environmentalists who are accused of being obstructionists, fearmongers and radicals with hidden agendas can more forcefully dispel such charges by understanding and utilizing the tools provided by the scientifically impartial concepts of ecology and evolution.
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About the Book
In this scientifically authoritative essay collection, Salzman, a seasoned and provocative environmentalist, demonstrates how evolutionary theory penetrates nearly all aspects of human society. She faults social justice movements for their short-sighted focus on human needs to the exclusion of nonhuman nature and stresses the potential of evolutionary thought for replacing religious and secular ideologies with an ecological paradigm for broad social change.
Salzman's special concern is the resurgence of irrationality, anti-intellectualism and anti-science attitudes.. She explodes the myth of genetic determinism promoted in popular media, discrediting the belief that natural selection involves violence. In place of the arbitrary "economism" of socialists and the free marketeers' faith in untrammeled economic growth, she envisions a human society modeled on interdependent self-regulating natural systems.
About the Author
Lorna Salzman, a professional environmentalist, formerly worked with Friends of the Earth and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. She co-founded New York’s Green Party and was a Green Party candidate for Congress in 2002 before seeking the Green Party presidential nomination. She and her husband are active birders and mushroom hunters and continue to live in New York.