The ascent of man : a philosophy of human nature
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 249-251) and index.

""In an area where there is so much ill-founded speculation, it is good to have such a thoughtful and historically informed discussion of human nature. [ The Ascent of Man] should have a wide readership among philosophers and others interested in our own species."---Michael Ruse, Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor and director of the Program in the History and Philosophy of Science (Bristol University), Florida State University" "Charles Darwin, in "The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex" (1871), developed remarkably accurate conclusions about man's ancestry, based on a review of general comparative anatomy in which he regarded sexual selection as a necessary part of the evolutionary process. The attention of biologists turned to the more general concept of natural selection, in which sexual selection plays a complex role that has been little understood. This volume significantly broadens the scope of modern evolutionary biology by looking at this important and long neglected concept. In this book, leading biologists bring modern genetic theory and behavior observation to bear on the subject. They consider many aspects of sexual selection in many species, including man, within the context of contemporary evolutionary theory and research. It is especially important with the emergence of alternative explanations of human development, under the rubric of creationism and doctrines of intelligent design." "Language and Human Nature exposes a century's worth of flawed thinking about language and suggests a path to recovery. Halpern discusses a wide variety of verbal solecisms, vulgarisms, and infelicities. His objective is not to deplore such things, but to expose the reasons for their existence, the human traits that generate them. A large part of this book contests the claims of academic linguists to be the only experts in the study of language change. Exposing linguists' claims is not an end in itself, but a necessary first step in recovery. The attempt by linguists to treat their subject scientifically makes them view meaning as an irritating complication to be ignored if possible. With words practically stripped of their role as bearers of meaning, it becomes easy to see them as unimportant. Halpern's book is a serious critique of such oversimplified theorizing" "The Ascent of Man develops a comprehensive theory of human nature. Harris sees human nature as an emergent property that supervenes upon the causal nexus that is created by the interactions amongst a cluster of properties. While there is significant overlap between individuals that have human nature and those that are biologically human, the concept of human nature developed in this book is different from what it means to be biologically human. Whether biologically human or not, an individual may be said to possess human nature. This theory of human nature is called the "cluster theory."" "Harris takes as his point of departure Plato's comment that in learning what a thing is we should look to the ways in which it acts upon or is acted upon by other things. In developing this theory, the book commits to a methodological naturalism and draws upon current views from the social and biological sciences. The cluster theory represents one of the very few completely novel theories of human nature developed in the post-Darwin era and will prove most useful in dealing with philosophical questions involving such contemporary issues as cloning, cybernetics, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life." "The fundamental conceptual issue is the question of how plastic and elastic is the nature of human nature. Just how different might we imagine human beings to be and still be human in the sense that we still possess whatever it is that accounts for a unique nature? The theory of human nature developed in this book is a descriptive, dynamic, bottom-up, non-essentialist, naturalist theory. The work is well versed in classical philosophy and contemporary behavioral science. It is written in a graceful, open-ended way that both educates and illuminates the renewed interest in being human."--BOOK JACKET.