Hoy establishes a basis for a naturalistic political theory that can be sustained as a continuity from Aristotle through the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment contributions of David Hume, John Dewey, Evolutionary Biology, and Deep Ecology.

This entails several contentions. First he argues that the contemporary relevance of Aristotelian naturalism can be defended within the context of a pragmatic realism without recourse to a no-longer-tenable metaphysical biology. Second, he calls for an emphasis on a historicized nature--the human capacities for language, sociality, and habituation that are the product of biological-cultural interaction in human evolution. Third, Hoy contends that, while humans are perceived as the apex of other forms of life, a compassionate relation of humans to non-human nature is a logical extension of human community and moral obligation. His final contention is that an integrative framework for a naturalistic political theory can be formulated within the theoretical categories contributed by John Dewey. Scholars and students of political theory, philosophy, evolutionary biology, and deep ecology in particular will find this study of interest.

Terry Hoy seeks to establish the enduring relevance of John Dewey's political philosophy. As Professor Hoy illustrates, Dewey focused on the distortions in American political thought resulting from the Lockean-Utilitarian tradition of classical liberalism; the growing standardization and quantification of American life; the erosion of traditional face-to-face communal public life; the manipulation of public opinion by mass media propaganda; and the ascendancy of capitalist economic priorities. Dewey was convinced that a corrective to such distortions would require a "renascent liberalism" requiring a radical change in the structure of American capitalism in order to achieve a reconciliation of freedom and equality. As Professor Hoy points out, while Dewey can be faulted for an overoptimism regarding political possibilities within the American political tradition, the distinctive merit of his contribution is his pragmatic approach to social reform that encompasses an imaginative vision, rooted in the actual potentialities of human nature, that can be a stimulus to the possibility of creative innovation. This is an important study for scholars and students of American political thought.

In The Resurgence of Evolutionary Biology Terry Hoy charts the intersection between political theory and the intellectual debate over human evolution. The book deals with the contemporary interpretation of Darwinism as an apology for racism, imperialism, and capitalism. Hoy argues that this perspective underlies the contemporary debates between proponents of both genetic and environmental determinants of behavior. In response to several leading thinkers in the field--principally Edward Wilson, Stephen Gould and R. C. Lewontin--Hoy presents the neo-Darwinian synthesis of Edwin Mayr as a mediation between these two schools of thought. This concise work is essential reading for scholars of political theory and philosophy, and anyone interested in seeking to understand the rise and fall--and rise again--of Darwinism and the contemporary political relevance of Aristotelian-Darwinian naturalism.