The Quest For Human Nature PDF Download
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Author | : David J. Buller |
Publisher | : MIT Press |
Total Pages | : 565 |
Release | : 2006-02-17 |
Genre | : Psychology |
ISBN | : 0262524600 |
Download Adapting Minds Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
Was human nature designed by natural selection in the Pleistocene epoch? The dominant view in evolutionary psychology holds that it was—that our psychological adaptations were designed tens of thousands of years ago to solve problems faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors. In this provocative and lively book, David Buller examines in detail the major claims of evolutionary psychology—the paradigm popularized by Steven Pinker in The Blank Slate and by David Buss in The Evolution of Desire—and rejects them all. This does not mean that we cannot apply evolutionary theory to human psychology, says Buller, but that the conventional wisdom in evolutionary psychology is misguided. Evolutionary psychology employs a kind of reverse engineering to explain the evolved design of the mind, figuring out the adaptive problems our ancestors faced and then inferring the psychological adaptations that evolved to solve them. In the carefully argued central chapters of Adapting Minds, Buller scrutinizes several of evolutionary psychology's most highly publicized "discoveries," including "discriminative parental solicitude" (the idea that stepparents abuse their stepchildren at a higher rate than genetic parents abuse their biological children). Drawing on a wide range of empirical research, including his own large-scale study of child abuse, he shows that none is actually supported by the evidence. Buller argues that our minds are not adapted to the Pleistocene, but, like the immune system, are continually adapting, over both evolutionary time and individual lifetimes. We must move beyond the reigning orthodoxy of evolutionary psychology to reach an accurate understanding of how human psychology is influenced by evolution. When we do, Buller claims, we will abandon not only the quest for human nature but the very idea of human nature itself.
Author | : John Dupré |
Publisher | : Oxford University Press |
Total Pages | : 212 |
Release | : 2001 |
Genre | : Science |
ISBN | : 0199248060 |
Download Human Nature and the Limits of Science Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
Dupré warns that our understanding of human nature is being distorted by two faulty and harmful forms of pseudo-scientific thinking. He claims it is important to resist scientism - an exaggerated conception of what science can be expected to do.
Author | : Philip Kitcher |
Publisher | : Mit Press |
Total Pages | : 456 |
Release | : 1987-01 |
Genre | : Science |
ISBN | : 9780262610490 |
Download Vaulting Ambition Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
Provides a critical analysis of the evidence for the sociobiologists' theories that the basis of human behavior is biological and genetic
Author | : Marco J. Nathan |
Publisher | : Oxford University Press |
Total Pages | : 377 |
Release | : 2024 |
Genre | : Philosophy |
ISBN | : 0197699243 |
Download The Quest for Human Nature Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
Over the last few decades, biology, psychology, anthropology, and cognate fields have substantially enriched traditional philosophical theories about who we are and where we come from. Nevertheless, the hallowed topic of human nature remains frustratingly elusive. Why have we not been able to crack the mystery? Marco J. Nathan provides an overview and explanation of recent research and argues that human nature is a core scientific concept that is not susceptible to an explanation, scientific or otherwise. He traces the scientific history of human nature to conclude that, as an epistemological indicator, science cannot adequately grasp human nature without dissolving it in the process
Author | : James Trefil |
Publisher | : St. Martin's Press |
Total Pages | : 276 |
Release | : 2005-05 |
Genre | : Nature |
ISBN | : 9780805078480 |
Download Human Nature Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
"Uncommon and refreshing. Moreover, Trefil is right." -Michael Ruse, The New York Times Book Review As a prizewinning theoretical physicist and bestselling author, James Trefil has long been the public's guide to a better understanding of the world. Now, in this provocative and engaging book, Trefil looks squarely at our environmental future and finds-contrary to popular wisdom-reason to celebrate. For too long, Trefil argues, humans have treated nature as something separate from themselves-pristine wilderness to be saved or material resources to be exploited. What we need instead is a scientific approach to the environment. In Human Nature, Trefil exposes the benefits of genetically modified species, uncovers vital facts about droughts and global warming, and shows why putting humans first is the best path ahead. By taking advantage of explosive advances in the sciences, we can fruitfully manage the planet, if we rise to the challenge. Human Nature promises to awaken a new state of environmentalism and our relationship to the planet-and is filled with optimism, rather than alarm.
Author | : John M. Gowdy |
Publisher | : Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | : 287 |
Release | : 2021-08-26 |
Genre | : Business & Economics |
ISBN | : 110883826X |
Download Ultrasocial Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
Society is an ultrasocial superorganism whose requirements take precedence over individuals. What does this mean for humanity's future?
Author | : Harold W. Baillie |
Publisher | : MIT Press |
Total Pages | : 442 |
Release | : 2005 |
Genre | : Electronic books |
ISBN | : 9780262524285 |
Download Is Human Nature Obsolete? Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
An interdisciplinary exploration of whether modern genetics and bioengineering are leading us to a posthuman future.
Author | : Thomas Boston |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 470 |
Release | : 1787 |
Genre | : Salvation |
ISBN | : |
Download Human Nature in Its Fourfold State Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
Author | : Clare W. Graves |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 541 |
Release | : 2005-11-01 |
Genre | : Developmental psychology |
ISBN | : 9780972474214 |
Download The Never Ending Quest Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
Author | : Anthony O'Hear |
Publisher | : Clarendon Press |
Total Pages | : 231 |
Release | : 1997-10-09 |
Genre | : Science |
ISBN | : 0191519669 |
Download Beyond Evolution Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
Anthony O'Hear takes a stand against the fashion for explaining human behaviour in terms of evolution. He maintains, controversially, that while the theory of evolution is successful in explaining the development of the natural world in general, it is of limited value when applied to the human world. Because of our reflectiveness and our rationality we take on goals and ideals which cannot be justified in terms of survival-promotion or reproductive advantage. O'Hear examines the nature of human self-consciousness, and argues that evolutionary theory cannot give a satisfactory account of such distinctive facets of human life as the quest for knowledge, moral sense, and the appreciation of beauty; in these we transcend our biological origins. It is our rationality that allows each of us to go beyond not only our biological but also our cultural inheritance: as the author says in the Preface, 'we are prisoners neither of our genes nor of the ideas we encounter as we each make our personal and individual way through life'.