An edition of Darwin's Incomplete Idea (2015)

Darwin's incomplete idea

Wittgenstein, language, our place in nature and our responsibility for the environment

Darwin's incomplete idea
Gunnar Odhner, Gunnar Odhner
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Last edited by MARC Bot
October 12, 2025 | History
An edition of Darwin's Incomplete Idea (2015)

Darwin's incomplete idea

Wittgenstein, language, our place in nature and our responsibility for the environment

"Why is progress in environmental protection slow and faltering? Is it because we misunderstand our place in nature? This book argues that it is the normative implications of Darwinism and their powerful grip on collective social consciousness that are partly responsible for the tardiness. For all its positive explanatory power and undoubted veracity, the normative implications of Darwinist thinking for our environmental predicament are stark: If we are children of Mother Nature equipped by her with a human nature, the responsibility for the deterioration of nature is partly Hers. This book takes a different standpoint. We are indeed children of Nature, but not primarily of the green nature or animal world but of the nature of language. We can understand how through the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, who states that "Language is a graft on instinctive behavior." In our instinctive use of words we are parts of nature in a way resembling mice, frogs and giraffes. We are not as free as we think when we talk about our "free will", because language uses us when we use it, hence our double roles as victims and instigators. The main thesis of this book is that rather than merely possessing language, we are language. If accepted, this realization may point the way to a more optimistic future for environmental protection and lay the foundations for a new analytical perspective on modern social behavior. "Darwin's Incomplete Idea" was much discussed when first published in Sweden (Bokförlaget Anomali, 2013). The English edition exposes, for the first time, this important work to an international audience. It should be of interest to philosophers of language and social scientists concerned about the environment and our place in it."

Publish Date
Publisher
Vernon Press
Language
English
Pages
171

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Edition Availability
Cover of: Darwin's Incomplete Idea
Darwin's Incomplete Idea
May 01, 2016, Vernon Press
paperback
Cover of: Darwin's incomplete idea

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Book Details


Table of Contents

1.
An increasing concern -- -- 2.
The cornerstone of life -- -- 3.
Homo sapiens moves in -- -- 4.
The magic of language -- -- 5.
Language and society -- -- 6.
A final survey -- -- 7.
Back to nature! -- -- 8.
Elitism and eco-fascism -- -- 9.
Soulless robots -- -- 10.
Political biology -- -- 11.
The function of consciousness -- -- 12.
The invisible 'not' -- -- 13.
The underestimated evolution -- -- 14.
A true model -- -- 15.
A conclusive assumption.

Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references (pages 157-164) and index.

Published in
Wilmington, Delaware
Copyright Date
2015

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
576.801
Library of Congress
QH360.5 .O33 2015, QH540.5.O34 2015

The Physical Object

Pagination
171 pages
Number of pages
171

Edition Identifiers

Open Library
OL44547946M
ISBN 10
1622734742
ISBN 13
9781622734740
LCCN
2014948701
OCLC/WorldCat
923547110

Work Identifiers

Work ID
OL20233175W

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