{"product_id":"from-darwin-to-derrida-isbn-9780262057196","title":"From Darwin to Derrida","description":"\u003cb\u003eHow the meaningless process of natural selection produces purposeful beings who find meaning in the world.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eFrom Darwin to Derrida\u003c\/i\u003e, evolutionary biologist David Haig explains how a physical world of matter in motion gave rise to a living world of purpose and meaning. Natural selection, a process without purpose, gives rise to purposeful beings who find meaning in the world. The key to this, Haig proposes, is the origin of mutable “texts”—genes—that preserve a record of what has worked in the world. These texts become the specifications for the intricate mechanisms of living beings.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHaig draws on a wide range of sources—from Laurence Sterne's \u003ci\u003eTristram Shandy\u003c\/i\u003e to Immanuel Kant's \u003ci\u003eCritique of the Power of Judgment\u003c\/i\u003e to the work of Jacques Derrida to the latest findings on gene transmission, duplication, and expression—to make his argument. Genes and their effects, he explains, are like eggs and chickens. Eggs exist for the sake of becoming chickens and chickens for the sake of laying eggs. A gene's effects have a causal role in determining which genes are copied. A gene (considered as a lineage of material copies) persists if its lineage has been consistently associated with survival and reproduction. Organisms can be understood as interpreters that link information from the environment to meaningful action in the environment. \u003ci\u003eMeaning\u003c\/i\u003e, Haig argues, is the output of a process of interpretation; there is a continuum from the very simplest forms of interpretation, instantiated in single RNA molecules near the origins of life, to the most sophisticated. Life is interpretation—the use of information in choice.Foreword by Daniel C. Dennett xi\u003cbr\u003ePrologue: From the Beginning Was the Word xxi\u003cbr\u003e1 Barren Virgins 1\u003cbr\u003e2 Social Genes 17\u003cbr\u003e3 The \"Gene\" Meme 53\u003cbr\u003e4 Differences That Make a Difference 73\u003cbr\u003e5 Limber Robots and Lumbering Genes 101\u003cbr\u003e6 Intrapersonal Conflict 125\u003cbr\u003e7 Scratching Your Own Back 143\u003cbr\u003e8 Reflexions on Self 165\u003cbr\u003e9 How Come? What For? Why? 183\u003cbr\u003e10 Sameness and Difference 203\u003cbr\u003e11 Fighting the Good Cause 233\u003cbr\u003eInterlude 271\u003cbr\u003e12 Making Sense 281\u003cbr\u003eX \u003ci\u003eVive la differance \u003c\/i\u003e317\u003cbr\u003e13 On the Origin of Meaning 321\u003cbr\u003e14 On the Past and Future of Freedom 347\u003cbr\u003e15 Darwinian Hermeneutics 359\u003cbr\u003eCadenza 379\u003cbr\u003eAppendix (a Vestigial Organ): Words about Words 381\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments 393\u003cbr\u003eReferences 395\u003cbr\u003eSources 435\u003cbr\u003eIndex 437David A. Haig is George Putnam Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDaniel C. Dennett is University Professor Codirector of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eBrainchildren: Essays on Designing Minds\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eSweet Dreams: Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eElbow Room\u003c\/i\u003e: T\u003ci\u003ehe Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eSweet Dreams: Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness \u003c\/i\u003e(all published by the MIT Press),\u003ci\u003e From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Mind\u003c\/i\u003e, and other books.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233181085925,"sku":"NP9780262057196","price":39.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262057196.jpg?v=1767727733","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/from-darwin-to-derrida-isbn-9780262057196","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}