Neo-Darwinian Conservatism in the United States: A Dissertation by Jon Anstein Olsen

A few months ago, Jon Anstein Olsen successfully defended his dissertation for his Ph.D. at the University of Oslo (Norway), which is entitled Neo-Darwinian Conservatism in the United States. 

This is a fascinating work, and not just because I play a prominent role in it!  It is a thoughtful history and assessment of the argument for a Darwinian conservatism as it has developed in the United States over the past 40 years.  I hope that it will be soon published as a book.

Here is an abbreviated version of the Table of Contents:

1  INTRODUCTION
1.1  Boxed In?  The Grand Claims of Evolutionary Psychology
1.2  Jacks-In-The Box:  The Many Projects of Neo-Darwinian Conservatism

2  THEORY, METHODOLOGY, AND DELIMITATIONS
2.1  Theory and Methodology
2.2  The Study Object
2.3  Literature

3  EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY: AN OVERVIEW
3.1  Introduction
3.2  Darwinian Psychology Prior to World War II
3.3  Neo-Darwinian Evolutionary Psychology
3.4  Criticism of Neo-Darwinian Evolutionary Psychology

4  NEO-DARWINIAN CONSERVATIVE PESSIMISM
4.1  Introduction: The Constrained Vision of Intellectual Conservatism
4.2  Evolutionary Psychology as Buttressing the Constrained Vision?
4.3  Discussion

5  THE MALE AS PROBLEM:  NEO-DARWINIAN CONSERVATISM AND GENDER
5.1  Introduction
5.2  The Problem of Male Sexuality
5.3  The Problems of Male Aggression, Competitiveness, and Status-Seeking
5.4  The Family as Organism:  Extremist Neo-Darwinian Gender Conservatism
5.5  Discussion

6  NEO-DARWINIAN NATURAL RIGHT
6.1  Introduction
6.2  Background: Natural Right and Modern American Conservatism
6.3  The Neo-Darwinian Reconstruction of Straussian Natural Right
6.4  Discussion

7  HUMAN BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATIVE DEFENSES OF RACIAL INEQUALITIES
7.1  Introduction: Race, Conservatism, and American Identity
7.2  Empirical Race Claims and Proposed Evolutionary Explanations
7.3  The Normative Projects: Neo-Darwinian Race Conservatism
7.4  Discussion

8  ANTI-DARWINISM AND THE UTILITY OF RELIGION IN CONSERVATIVE THOUGHT
8.1  Introduction
8.2  God and Darwin
8.3  Consequentialist Aspects of the Conservative Concern with Religion
8.4  Neo-Darwinism and Its Consequences

9  CONCLUSION
9.1  American Neo-Darwinian Conservatism: A Review of the Landscape
9.2  Analysis and Discussion: A Summary
9.3  What Is Left?  What Is Right?
9.4  The Prospects of Neo-Darwinian Conservatism in the United States

Olsen's account of my position comes from his reading of Darwinian Natural Right, Darwinian Conservatism, and some of my articles.  The most obvious weakness in his writing is that he never mentions any of my posts on this blog, although he would have found here many posts answering all of the objections that he makes to my reasoning.

I will be writing a series of posts responding to his criticisms.