Flowers and Honeybees

Erscheinungsjahr 2020
ISBN: 978-90-04-43096-9
Verlag: World Bank Publications

Buch, Englisch, 232 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 347 g

Reihe: Critical Plant Studies

Can we discover morality in nature? Flowers and Honeybees extends the considerable scientific knowledge of flowers and honeybees through a philosophical discussion of the origins of morality in nature. Flowering plants and honeybees form a social group where each requires the other. They do not intentionally harm each other, both reason, and they do not compete for commonly required resources. They also could not be more different. Flowering plants are rooted in the ground and have no brains. Mobile honeybees can communicate the location of flower resources to other workers. We can learn from a million-year-old social relationship how morality can be constructed and maintained over time.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ketcham, Christopher

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ethik, Moralphilosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

Preface: Introducing the Meadow

Introduction

1 The Question This Study Explores

2 The Shape of This Study

Cited References

1 Optimization, MEP, and Mutualism

1 Introduction

2 Optimization

3 Maximum Entropy Production (MEP)

4 Mutualism

Cited References

2 Emergence of the Flower and Honeybee Mutualism and Flower and Honeybee Ontology and Morphology

1 Introduction

2 Evolution of the Flower Honeybee Mutualism

3 Emergence

4 Angiosperm Morphology

5 Flower Morphology

6 Honeybee Eusociality and Morphology

7 The Moral Honeybee

Cited References

3 Flower and Honeybee Epistemology and Behavior

1 Introduction

2 Angiosperm Epistemology and Behavior

3 Plant Intelligence—a Philosophical Discussion

4 Honeybee Epistemology and Behavior

5 Consciousness in Flowers and Honeybees

6 Moral Elegance

Cited References

4 Epigenetics

1 Epigenetics Defined

2 Promise of Epigenetics

3 Epigenetic Purposes

4 General Implications of Epigenetics

5 Implications of Epigenetics for Flowers and Honeybees

Cited References

5 The Good and the Emergence of Morality in the Flower and Honeybee Mutualism

1 Introduction

2 Asymmetricity

3 Responsibility

4 Reciprocal Responsibility

5 Up from Value

6 Hospitality

7 Pragmatic Naturalism

8 Altruism

9 Singer’s Requirements for Morality to Emerge Applied to Flowers and Honeybees

10 Epigenetic Rules

11 Naturalistic Fallacies and Naturalistic Facts

12 Flower and Honeybee Oughts and Obligates

13 Morality in Nature

Cited References

6 Study Summary and a Critique of Maximization

1 Study Summary

2 A Brief and Preliminary Critique of Maximization

Cited References

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Christopher Ketcham, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Houston Downtown where he taught risk management and ethics. Chris has published in The Journal of Animal Ethics, Space Policy Journal, Marcel Studies, Philosophical Inquiries, and Journal of the Philosophy of Life.