[PDF] The Origins Of Human Nature eBook

Author : Carel P. Van Schaik
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 546 pages
File Size : 29,36 MB
Release : 2016-01-26
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0470147636

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The Primate Origins of Human Nature (Volume 3 in The Foundations of Human Biology series) blends several elements from evolutionary biology as applied to primate behavioral ecology and primate psychology, classical physical anthropology and evolutionary psychology of humans. However, unlike similar books, it strives to define the human species relative to our living and extinct relatives, and thus highlights uniquely derived human features. The book features a truly multi-disciplinary, multi-theory, and comparative species approach to subjects not usually presented in textbooks focused on humans, such as the evolution of culture, life history, parenting, and social organization.

Author : David F. Bjorklund
Publisher : Amer Psychological Assn
Page : 444 pages
File Size : 22,46 MB
Release : 2002
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9781557988782

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The origins of human nature offers readers the first book-length attempt to define the field of evolutionary developmental psychology -- the application of the principle of natural selection to explain contemporary human development. The authors point out that an evolutionary -- developmental perspective allows one to view gene -- environment interactions, the significance of individual differences, and the role of behavior and development in evolution in much greater depth. The authors also focus on how an evolutionary perspective can foster a better understanding of human development and how developmental processes may have influenced the course of human evolution. Of particular interest are chapters that explore factors influencing parenting and other aspects of family life; the role of play; and the interacting roles of an extended juvenile period, a big brain, and a complex social structure in human cognitive evolution. The authors present a hybrid approach to evolution and development, pointing out that though underlying assumptions held by evolutionary and developmental psychologists have been at odds, each field has much to offer the other.

Author : Stephen Sanderson
Publisher : Westview Press
Page : 466 pages
File Size : 38,6 MB
Release : 2014-02-04
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0813349362

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Drawing on evolutionary psychology, sociobiology, and human behavioral ecology, this introduction to human behavior and the organization of social life explores the evolutionary dynamics underlying social life.

Author : Donald E. Brown
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
Page : 406 pages
File Size : 11,23 MB
Release : 1988
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780816510603

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"Here is a book that I can strongly recommend for a variety of reasons. It is well written, it is scholarly, but its greatest appeal lies in the posing of an important question and in the offering of a satisfying (to this reviewer, at least) answer."ÑJournal of Historical Geography "This is an intriguing and stimulating study of historical differences in the indigenous historiography of parts of Asia, the Middle East, and Europe."ÑAmerican Anthropologist."

Author : Harry Smit
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 241 pages
File Size : 33,96 MB
Release : 2014-04-03
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1107055199

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Harry Smit examines the elements of current evolutionary theory and how they bear on the evolution of the human mind.

Author : Anthony O'Hear
Publisher : Clarendon Press
Page : 231 pages
File Size : 40,55 MB
Release : 1997-10-09
Category : Science
ISBN : 0191519669

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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'.

Author : Carel van Schaik
Publisher :
Page : 482 pages
File Size : 31,43 MB
Release : 2016-05-24
Category : Science
ISBN : 0465074707

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"In The Good Book of Human Nature, evolutionary anthropologist Carel van Schaik and historian Kai Michel advance a new view of Homo sapiens' cultural evolution. The Bible, they argue, was written to make sense of the single greatest change in history: the transition from egalitarian hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies. Religion arose as a strategy to cope with the unprecedented levels of epidemic disease, violence, inequality, and injustice that confronted us when we abandoned the bush--and which still confront us today, "--Amazon.com.

Author : Paul R. Ehrlich
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 545 pages
File Size : 50,87 MB
Release : 2001-12-31
Category : Science
ISBN : 0142000531

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Why do we behave the way we do? Biologist Paul Ehrlich suggests that although people share a common genetic code, these genes "do not shout commands at us...at the very most, they whisper suggestions." He argues that human nature is not so much result of genetic coding; rather, it is heavily influenced by cultural conditioning and environmental factors. With personal anecdotes, a well-written narrative, and clear examples, Human Natures is a major work of synthesis and scholarship as well as a valuable primer on genetics and evolution that makes complex scientific concepts accessible to lay readers.

Author : Agustín Fuentes
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 326 pages
File Size : 36,1 MB
Release : 2016-07
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1315431521

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Based on interviews with twenty leading scholars, Conversations on Human Nature probes the question of what it means to be human from evolutionary, biological, philosophical, cultural, and theological points of view.

Author : Justin E. H. Smith
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 309 pages
File Size : 10,29 MB
Release : 2017-03-14
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0691176345

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People have always been xenophobic, but an explicit philosophical and scientific view of human racial difference only began to emerge during the modern period. Why and how did this happen? Surveying a range of philosophical and natural-scientific texts, dating from the Spanish Renaissance to the German Enlightenment, Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference charts the evolution of the modern concept of race and shows that natural philosophy, particularly efforts to taxonomize and to order nature, played a crucial role. Smith demonstrates how the denial of moral equality between Europeans and non-Europeans resulted from converging philosophical and scientific developments, including a declining belief in human nature's universality and the rise of biological classification. The racial typing of human beings grew from the need to understand humanity within an all-encompassing system of nature, alongside plants, minerals, primates, and other animals. While racial difference as seen through science did not arise in order to justify the enslavement of people, it became a rationalization and buttress for the practices of trans-Atlantic slavery. From the work of François Bernier to G. W. Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, and others, Smith delves into philosophy's part in the legacy and damages of modern racism. With a broad narrative stretching over two centuries, Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference takes a critical historical look at how the racial categories that we divide ourselves into came into being.