Issues in Evolution, History and Progress: Working Papers, Number 4

Robin Fox’s provocative essay, ‘Consciousness out of Context,’ is presented here, along with the replies of three scholarly respondents, Richard Handler, George Klosko, and Julian N. Hartt. Fox’s thesis that the human species is biologically constituted in such a way as to make progress beyond a certain stage of organization unrealizable, and that what we regard as the progress of civilization is instead only a kind of oscillation between the two extremes of an impossible situation, is one that overturns many commonplaces of modern thought. Professor Fox has presented the thesis with clarity and vigor, and his respondents have been equally clear in their comments upon it. Co-published with the Committee on the Comparative Study of Individual and Society.