Carlos Castrodeza facts for kids
Carlos Castrodeza Ruíz de la Cuesta (born 1945, died April 2012) was a Spanish scientist and thinker. He was a biologist and a philosopher. He taught about the philosophy of science at Complutense University in Madrid, Spain.
Biography
His Ideas
Carlos Castrodeza was an expert on Charles Darwin and his ideas about evolution. He focused on how we understand life and the world around us. He looked at problems in bioethics (the study of right and wrong in biology and medicine) from an ethological point of view. Ethology is the study of animal behavior, including human behavior.
He also explored scientific ideas (called epistemological problems, which means how we gain knowledge) and different ways of thinking about the world. He believed that our natural ways of behaving and thinking, which come from our evolution, greatly influence how we build our world and try to survive.
Castrodeza wrote a series of three books about Darwin's ideas, sometimes called his "Darwinian trilogy." These books were Razón biológica (Biological Reason), Nihilismo y supervivencia (Nihilism and Survival), and La darwinización del mundo (The Darwinization of the World). In these books, he explored how much control we really have over our future. He suggested that even though we worry a lot about the past, we might have less control over what comes next than we think.
He believed that our natural ways of acting and thinking, which are part of our survival plan, might not always be the best way to survive in the long run. He thought that our wishes and plans might not always lead to the best outcomes. We act based on our experiences, but this doesn't guarantee our survival.
Books
- La darwinización del mundo, Barcelona, Herder, 2009, ISBN: 978-84-254-2580-6
- El flujo de la historia y el sentido de la vida. La retórica irresistible de la selección natural, Barcelona, Herder, 2013, ISBN: 978-84-254-2945-3
- Nihilismo y supervivencia: una expresión naturalista de lo inefable, Madrid, Trotta, 2007, ISBN: 978-84-8164-916-1
- Los límites de la historia natural: hacia una nueva biología del conocimiento, Madrid (Tres Cantos), Akal, 2003, ISBN: 84-460-1881-0
- La marsopa de Heidegger: el lugar de la ciencia en la cultura actual, Madrid, Dykinson, 2003, ISBN: 84-9772-022-9
- Razón biológica: la base evolucionista del pensamiento, Madrid, Minerva, 1999, ISBN: 84-88123-20-5
- Teoría histórica de la selección natural, Madrid, Alhambra, 1988, ISBN: 84-205-1740-2
- Ortodoxia darwiniana y progreso biológico, Madrid, Alianza Editorial, 1988, ISBN: 84-206-2521-3
See also
In Spanish: Carlos Castrodeza para niños
