Abstract

Most of the issues in the philosophy of mind were formulated long before Charles Darwin produced a scientific theory of biological evolution. That theory had an immediate impact on issues in many areas. But on the philosophy of mind its impact was delayed, and discussions continued for some time as though Darwin had never existed. Even today this is largely true. Yet a theory whose consequences are so far-reaching, and which has radically altered ideas about living things, was bound, sooner or later, to affect discussions of mental phenomena. The pragmatists were the first group of philosophers to work out in detail a philosophy of mind based on evolutionary principles. Moreover, since they were familiar with classical ideas in the field, they were able to assess the kinds of changes in those ideas which evolutionary principles required. My aim in this paper is to review the main features of their enterprise, and to offer some assessment of it.