Evolution and the good life

Ole Hoeffken (University of Heidelberg)

This talk has pre-reading material, some of which will be assumed in the presentation.

For the pre-reading material, please contact [email protected] for a copy of the working paper.

For the zoom link, please contact Jack Reynolds ([email protected]).

Abstract:

The question of what a ‘good’ or ‘happy’ life, or ‘human flourishing’, consists in, is inextricably connected to the notion of human nature, taking into account that it concerns human life and humanflourishing. In this regard, it seems that there is a lot to learn for philosophy from evolutionary anthropology and psychology, which arguably give us the best available account of human nature. 

I undertake a review of extant accounts of the good life from an evolutionary perspective, with ‘evolution’ meaning here two processes which run in parallel (in different paces), but also intertwine: Natural (or biological, or genetic) and cultural evolution. 

Complementing this relatively young strand of research which has been called ‘positive evolutionary psychology’, philosophy may help to ask the question of the good life in a more profound way. Specifically, what I propose is a combination of current evolutionary anthropology and psychology with a philosophical approach which has been dubbed ‘phenomenological critical theory’. 

This inclusive approach may afford sufficiently universal concepts (derived from an empirically grounded account of human nature) to describe modern societies with the necessary critical distance, while also including the lifewordly first-person experience of the actual subjects in these societies into the normative definition of the notion of a ‘good life’. 

Moreover, the proposed perspective may yield important and new implications for pressing societal and political questions concerning the necessary transition to more equitable resource distributions and more sustainable ways of life.

Bio

Dr Ole Höffken studied history and philosophy at Bonn University, and received his Doctorate in philosophy there in 2022. Since April 2022, he is research assistant at the Philosophical Seminar at Heidelberg University.
His research is on the methodological approach of phenomenology, broadly construed, and possible integrations with other traditions, especially analytic philosophy and pragmatism. He is also interested in the philosophy of science of evolutionary anthropology and psychology, and in applications of the aforementioned topics to the question of the good life, with consequences on an individual and a societal level.