Human Success

Abstract

Abstract Success is a teleological concept, defined in terms of a particular type of goal or outcome. From a biological point of view, organism-level evolutionary success is typically defined in relation to organismic fitness. At the species level, success might be assessed based on the persistence or proliferation of a particular species. This chapter argues that neither a persistence nor a proliferation approach to human success adequately captures the ethical dimensions of human success, and thus neither is satisfactory as a general conception of human success. For example, biological conceptions of human success that focus on persistence and proliferation of Homo sapiens relative to other species cannot be easily squared with broader conceptions of human success that focus on the ethical value of humans’ coexistence with other species. Prominent biological conceptions of success, though appropriate for certain contexts, can’t account for the diverse ways that human success might reasonably be conceived.