Joseph Conrad and the Ethics of Darwinism (Routledge Revivals): The Challenges of Science

Joseph Conrad and the Ethics of Darwinism (Routledge Revivals): The Challenges of Science
ISBN-10
1317637968
ISBN-13
9781317637967
Category
Literary Criticism
Pages
260
Language
English
Published
2014-08-01
Publisher
Routledge
Author
Allan Hunter

Description

First published in 1983, this book explores a number of avenues of critical thinking about Joseph Conrad, showing him as an author deeply concerned with humankind’s ethical motivation and its relationship with the ideas of evolution current in his day. Allan Hunter establishes Conrad’s detailed knowledge of the leading evolutionary arguments of the period and the main questions posed: were ethics God-given or were morals merely an evolved attribute? His novels are shown as debates with, and extensions of, the theories of Huxley, Darwin, Carlyle, Spencer, Lombroso and others on the nature of humanity and altruism.

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