Ashland
University Symposium on Human Nature
Fall
2003 Resource Guide
Need a symposium brochure? click here
Symposium Program
and Speaker Biographies
The College of Arts and Sciences is sponsoring a symposium on the subject of human nature. During the fall semester four speakers will address this issue from a variety of viewpoints. The schedule of events is as follows:
September 24: Steven Pinker, Harvard University, "The Blank Slate"
Steven Pinker, a native of Montreal, received his PhD in psychology from Harvard in 1979. He is currently Professor of Psychology in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and a MacVicar Faculty Fellow at MIT. His research on visual cognition and on the psychology of language has received the Troland Award from the National Academy of Sciences. He is an associate editor of Cognition and serves on the Scientific Advisory Panel of an 8-hour NOVA television sevies on evolution. His recent books include The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, Words and Rules: the Ingredients of Language, and The Blank Slate.
October 14: Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University, " Darwin's Theory and Human Natures"
Paul Ehrlich is the Bing Professor of Population Studies and Professor of Biological Sciences at Stanford University. He is best known for his efforts to focus public attention on the connection between human population, resource exploration, and the environment. Dr. Ehrlich is the author of 37 books and more than 600 techical and popular articles on subjects ranging from overpopulation and sonsumption in the United States to the population dynamics of checkerspot butterflies in Central California. His books include The Population Bomb; Ecoscience: the Science of Ecology; Population, Resources and the Environment; the Machinery of Nature; Healing the Planet; Betrayal of Science and Reason; and Human Natures.
October 24: Nancey Murphy, Fuller Theological Seminary, "What Ever Happened to the Soul?"
Nancey Murphy is Professor of Christian Philosophy at Fuller Seminary. Her first book, Theology in the Age of Scientific Reasoning, won prizes from both the American Academy of Religion and the Templeton Foundation. She is also co-author with George F.R. Ellis of On the Moral Nature of the Universe : Theology Cosmology, and Ethics. Murphy is a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences and an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethern.
November 11: Richard Schacht, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, "The Future of Human Nature"
Richard Schacht is Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of Illinois. He received his PhD from Princeton. His interests include post Kantian continental philosophy (especially Nietzsche and Hegel), philosophical anthropology, social theory and value theory. He is the Executive Director of the North American Nietzsche Society. Dr. Schacht's publications include: Alienation; Hegel and After; Nietzsche; Classical Modern Philosophers: Descartes to Kant; The Future of Alienation; Making Sense of Nietzsche, and a forthcoming book, On Human Nature; Readings in Philosophical Anthropology.
Recommended Book Lists: AU
Faculty | Readers on Human Nature | Choice
Reviews
Recommended Human Nature Rreadings from AU Faculty
Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics.
Aristotle. Politics.
Aristotle. Metaphysics.
Austen, Jane. Pride & Prejudice.
Barzun, Jacques. From Dawn to Decadence.
Brown, W.S., Murphy, N. and Malony, H.N. eds. Whatever Happened to the Soul: Scientific and Theological Portraits of Human Nature.
Buber, Martin. I and Thou.
Calderon de la Barca, Pedro. Life is a Dream.
Calvin, John. The Institutes of the Christian Religion.
Cervantes, Miguel de. Don Quixote.
Changeux, Jean-Pierre. What Makes Us Think: a Neuroscientist and a Philosopher Argue about Ethics, Human Nature, and the Brain.
Churchland, Paul. (1996) Matter and Consciousness. [MIT Press].
Clark, Mary E. In Search of Human Nature.
Darwin, Charles. The Descent of Man.
Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene.
Degler, Carl. (1992) In Search of Human Nature: The Decline and Revival of Darwinism in American Social Thought. [OxfordUniversity Press].
Dennett, Daniel Clement. Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life.
De Montesquie, Baron Charles. The Spirit of the Laws.
Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (video adaptation)
Doerr, Harriet. (1993) Consider This, Senora. [Harcourt Brace & Co., San Diego]
Dover, Gabriel. Dear Mr. Darwin: Letters on the Evolution of Life and Human Nature.
Ehrlich, Paul. Human Natures
Epictetus. Enchiridion.
Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents.
Fukuyama, Francis. The Great Disruption: Human Nature and the Reconstruction of Social Order.
Gilligan, Carol. , In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development.
Gould, Stephan Jay. The Mismeasure of Man.
Hamilton, Alexander, John Jay, and James Madison, The Federalist Papers.
Heschel, Abraham Joshua. God in Search of Man.
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. (especially Part One, “Of Man”).
Hume, David. Treatise of Human Nature.
Hurston, Zora Nealle. Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis.
Kant, Immanuel. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. [2002 YaleUniversity Press].
Kingsolver, Barbara. (1990) Animal Dreams. [HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., NY]
Kramer, Peter D. Listening to Prozac.
Langton, Jane. (1978) The Memorial Hall Murder. [Harper & Row, NY].
Lem, Stanislaw. Solaris.
Lewis, C.S. The Abolition of Man.
Lewis, C.S. The Four Loves.
Lewontin, R.C. Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA.
Lewontin, R.C. It Ain’t Necessarily So: The Dream of the Human Genome and other Illusions.Locke, John. Some Thoughts Concerning Education
Locke, John. Second Treatise on Civil Government.
Locke, John. Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
MacKay, Donald M. (1979) Human Science and Human Dignity. [Intervarsity Press].
Malik, Kenan. Man, Beast, and Zombie: What science can and cannot tell us about human nature.
Paine, Thomas. Common Sense.
Pangle, Lorraine Smith. (2003), Aristotle and the Philosophy of Friendship. [CambridgeUniversity Press].
Pinker, Steven. The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature.
Plato, Republic.
Plato, Phaedo.
Pope, Alexander. Essay on Man in The complete poetical works of Alexander Pope.
Quartz, Steven R. and Terrence J. Sejnowski. Liars, Lovers, and Heroes.
Ridley, Matt. Nature via Nurture
Ridley, Matt. The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Confessions.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Discourse on the Origins of Inequality.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract.
Sacks, Oliver. The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat.
Sayers, Dorothy L. (1936) Gaudy Night. [Harper & Row, NY]
Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations.
St. Augustine. City of God
St. Augustine. (397AD) Confessions.
St. Paul. Letters to the Romans.
St. Thomas Aquinas. Treatise on Man in Summa Theological.
Stegner, Wallace. Crossing to Safety.
Tempest Williams, Terry. (1991) Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. [Vintage Books].
Unamuno, Miguel de. Saint Manuel Bueno, Martir.
Whitaker, Malachi. (1987) And So Did I.[Collins Publishing Group, London]
Wilson, E.O. On Human Nature.
Wright, Robert. (1994) The Moral Animal: the new science of evolutionary psychology.
Zamyatin, Yevgeny. We.
Readers on Human Nature (collections of writings on Human Nature selected by the compilers)
Abel, Donald C., Theories of human nature: classical and contemorary readings. New York: McGaw Hill, 1992.
Barash, David P. Ideas of Human Nature: from the Bhagavad Gita to Sociobiology. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1998.
Loptson, Peter. (ed) Readings on Human Nature. Ontario: Broadview Press, 1998.
Schacht, Richard. On Human Nature: Readings in Philosophical Anthropology (New York: Prentice Hall, forthcoming),
Stevenson, Leslie. The Study of Human Nature: a Reader. 2d ed. New York: Oxford, 2000.
Stevenson, Leslie. Ten Theories of Human Nature. 3d ed. New York: Oxford, 1998.
Recommended titles from the Editor's of Choice
Reprinted
with permission from CHOICE, copyright by the American Library Association.
| Humanities-Religion | |
| Human nature and the discipline
of economics: personalist anthropology and economic methodology. by Patricia Donohue-White et
al Lexington Books, 2002. 119p bibl index afp ISBN 0-7391-0184-6,
$50.00; ISBN 0-7391-0185-4 pbk, $19.95 . Reviewed in 2002jul CHOICE.
This title has been reviewed jointly with "Beyond Self-Interest," by Gregory R. Beabout et al., and "The Free Person and the Free Economy," by Anthony J. Santelli et al. |
|
| Economic personalism, which seeks to analyze the moral ramifications of economic activity in light of a theological vision of the human person, is the overarching theme of three book-length monographs. The thesis of these works is that the connecting point and ground for dialogue between economics and moral philosophy is that both seek to develop an understanding of the acting person. The first monograph develops outlines of personalism through a synthesis of the work of Ludwig von Mises and Karol Wojtyla (Pope Paul II). Using this concept of personalism, the second work develops a synthesis of theology and economics, which is then further developed in the last monograph, which argues that a truly humane economy requires an adequate understanding of both free persons and free markets. These works provide a needed corrective to Christian thinkers who ignore economics and market theory as unimportant and define wealth creation as inherently evil, as well as to economic theorists who fail to acknowledge people as anything more than individuals acting out of pure self-interest. They provide an excellent overview of the history of economic theory and moral theology and an interesting synthesis of these two fields of thought, which too seldom find a common ground and a common vision. Recommended for general readers, upper-division undergraduates, and above. -- C. L. Hansen, formerly, Midland Lutheran College | |
| Science and Technology-Biology-Not Specified | |
| Malik, Kenan. Man, beast, and zombie: what science can and cannot tell us about human nature. Rutgers, 2002. 470p bibl index ISBN 0-8135-3122-5, $30.00 . Reviewed in 2002dec CHOICE. | |
| Malik (formerly, Sussex Univ.) provides a fresh and comprehensive treatment of humanness, interweaving the realms of the science of human nature, evolutionary biology, and the science of the mind into a thorough analysis of this complicated issue. Historical aspects of sociobiology, psychology, and biology and evolution, along with their leading researchers and theorists, are given extensive attention. Scientific investigations and knowledge must be viewed within cultural and social contexts. The relationships between humans, animals, and machines are considered. The author refutes thinkers and researchers who attempt to singularly view humans as sophisticated animals, or as beasts, and human minds as machines, or humans as zombies. As symbolic creatures with language, self-awareness, and social existence, all closely interconnected, the human experience is unlike any other, as is the human mind. Our consciousness and our rationality are vital for the quest for our scientific knowledge and political conduct. The author encourages us to have greater confidence or nerve to see ourselves more as humans than either beasts or zombies. Chapter notes and references (40 pages); 27 pages of bibliography. Appropriate for upper-division undergraduates through faculty. -- J. N. Muzio, emeritus, CUNY Kingsborough Community College | |
| Humanities-Philosophy | |
| Barbour, Ian G. Nature, human nature, and God. Fortress, 2002. 170p indexes afp ISBN 0-8006-3477-2 pbk, $15.00 . Reviewed in 2003jan CHOICE. | |
| This survey of views on the confrontation of contemporary science with traditional religious belief will be extremely useful for both students and teachers. Barbour (emer., Carleton College) exhibits an unusual mastery of the literature in theology, philosophy, and science that is relevant to general questions concerning nature, God, and humanity. He offers detailed, well-informed summaries of recent scientific research and philosophical speculations in neuroscience, artificial intelligence, information theory, physics, and cosmology. He shows how the relationship between God and nature, as traditionally conceived, can be reconstructed from the perspective of process philosophy. Barbour thus takes on the challenge of showing that the core of traditional religious belief is compatible with contemporary science. His clear and open-minded exploration of questions of deep human concern makes this work a "must" for anyone interested in how science and philosophy relate to religion. All levels. -- H. C. Byerly, emeritus, University of Arizona | |
| Social and Behavioral Sci-Psychology | |
| Pinker, Steven. The blank slate: the modern denial of human nature. Viking, 2002. 509p bibl index afp ISBN 0-670-03151-8, $27.95 . Reviewed in 2003mar CHOICE. | |
| Pinker (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) offers neuroscientific and behavioral evidence to support his argument that individuals are more influenced by nature (biology) than by nurture (experience). In doing so he opposes postmodernism, identity politics, and the soul--acknowledging those points of view but marshaling evidence and logic against them. His conclusion--that there is a common and universal human nature--has ethical and moral implications for freedom, the arts, feminism, violence, and child rearing. Including a great deal of material from many cultures and continents, this book (with its 60 pages of endnotes, references, and index) offers a rewarding reading experience. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, and broadly educated lay readers. -- R. A. Drake, Western State College of Colorado | |
| Social and Behavioral Sci-Psychology | |
| Bjorklund, David F. The origins of human nature: evolutionary developmental psychology. by David F. Bjorklund and Anthony D. Pellegrini American Psychological Association, 2002. 444p bibl indexes ISBN 1-55798-878-1, $39.95 . Reviewed in 2002sep CHOICE. | |
| Humans spend an unusually large proportion of their lives in immaturity and have a high rate of brain growth during that period. These features allow for great plasticity in human developmental trajectories. Until recently, human plasticity has led most developmental psychologists to downplay the role of evolved, innate potentials. Bjorklund and Pellegrini put an end to this unnatural separation. The first half of the book enriches the presentation of human evolutionary psychology, showing the important role of development in linking inherited genes with inherited environments to produce phenotypes. The authors make it clear that immature patterns of behavior not only prepare young organisms for adult adaptations, but also contribute to the young organisms' adaptations to their current environments. In the second part Bjorklund and Pellegrini examine areas usually studied by developmental psychologists--e.g., relations to parents, siblings, peers, and groups--from an evolutionary perspective. Presenting a variety of contexts, they show the reader that developmental flexibility is not at all inconsistent with evolved adaptations. This volume belongs in both undergraduate and graduate libraries of schools that present courses in developmental or evolutionary psychology and in evolutionary biology. -- S. I. Perloe, Haverford College | |
| Humanities-Philosophy | |
| Dupré (Dupre) , John. Human nature and the limits of science. Oxford, 2001. 201p bibl index afp ISBN 0-19-924806-0, $24.95 . Reviewed in 2002sep CHOICE. | |
| This book will please some, provoke others, and interest anyone concerned with the scope and limitations of science in understanding human nature. Dupré (Dupre) assaults the scientism that misapplies science to human nature and human behavior. His major concern is the attempt in evolutionary psychology--as heir to sociobiology--to explain human behavior by appeal to Stone Age humans' adaptations to their environment. He quotes a variety of sources, showing with deft rhetoric that many claims of "scientific imperialists" are banal, implausible, or downright absurd. Dupré (Dupre) reveals the severe limitations of scientism, although he is not quite so clear on setting the limits of proper science. The philosophically sophisticated arguments about the limits of science in explaining human nature raise deep questions concerning innateness, the normative relativity of cultures, and patterns of explanation in the behavioral and social sciences. His The Disorder of Things: Metaphysical Foundations of the Disunity of Science (1993) discusses these questions at greater length. With its incisive presentation of these issues, the present work will be most valuable for those interested in attempts to use science to explain human behavior. Recommended for upper-division undergraduates and above. -- H. C. Byerly, emeritus, University of Arizona | |
| Science and Technology-Biology-Zoology | |
| Stanford, Craig. Significant others: the ape-human continuum and the quest for human nature. Basic Books, 2001. 236p bibl index afp ISBN 0-465-08171-1, $25.00 . Reviewed in 2001dec CHOICE. | |
| The great apes have long fascinated people, their similarity to humans serving both as fodder for scientific inquiry into human evolution and as gasoline on the flames of creationists terrified that their ancestors might have been chimps. We are not derived from apes; the tips of the evolutionary tree are not continuous laterally, but are connected radially through time. Even so, the neural underpinnings of intelligence, emotion, language, and culture are certainly very similar in people and our closest living relatives, the great apes. Stanford (Univ. of Southern California) examines the biology and psychology of great apes (particularly chimpanzees and gorillas) in the context of selective pressures that led to their form and behavior today, and forcefully argues that ape behavior is a window on the evolution of humanity. He is an accomplished field investigator whose fascinating book combines a critical synthesis of his and others' primate research, a healthy dose of philosophizing on the scientific method (and in some circles the lack thereof), and a painful look at the plight of great apes today. Though Stanford's book will undoubtedly raise the ire of some, it is rich food for thought on what it means to be human. General readers; undergraduates through faculty. -- M. S. Grace, Florida Institute of Technology | |
| Science and Technology-Biology-Not Specified | |
| Dover, Gabriel. Dear Mr. Darwin: letters on the evolution of life and human nature. California, 2000. 268p bibl afp ISBN 0-520-22790-5, $27.50 . Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2001may CHOICE. | |
| Dover (Univ. of Leicester) employs a bit of whimsy in discussing the numerous changes that have taken place in biology since the promulgation of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by developing a fanciful present-day correspondence between Darwin and himself. This work is not merely a humorous look at contrasting ideas since the advent of modern biology but is a serious examination of such important concepts as Barbara McClintock's theory of "jumping genes," the "P gene," the "molecular drive theory of evolution"--an idea developed by the author--molecular coevolution, natural selection, and adaptation. Another purpose is to take on biological determinists and their notion of "selfish genes," and the author uses this forum effectively in demolishing their position. He never fails to be provocative or amusing in the discussion of both serious questions and less important ones, perhaps best illustrated when he includes in his hypothetical correspondence with Darwin the matter of how they should address one another, settling ultimately on the salutations of "Charles" and "Gabby." This work has an excellent glossary, thereby enhancing its appeal to professionals concerned with important issues in modern biology and biology students. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals. -- J. S. Schwartz, CUNY College of Staten Island | |
| Social and Behavioral Sci-Sociology | |
| Hewitt, Martin. Welfare and human nature: the human subject in twentieth-century social politics. St. Martin's, 2000. 210p bibl index afp ISBN 0-312-23409-0, $65.00 . Reviewed in 2001feb CHOICE. | |
| Hewitt (Univ. of Hertfordshire) traces the central role of ideas about human need and motivation in the development of modern British social welfare policy. Different views of human nature lead to different approaches to government social intervention, as in the two divergent notions of need and social protection expressed in Social Democracy and by the Radical Right. The former believes that government must protect universal rights to a basic standard of living, and guard against the extremes of inequality which capitalism produces. The Radical Right holds that individual needs are fulfilled in the marketplace; only the few who are unable to meet their own needs require government intervention. Neither approach has been successful in defining social policy; the British have rejected "Radical Right solutions to the presumed inadequacies of Social Democracy...." But as the new Labour government struggles to articulate its social welfare plan, Hewitt is optimistic concerning new ways of thinking about human nature, drawing on notions of mutual cooperation, interdependence, and the politics of difference set forth in both Marxism and feminist theory. American readers will have to consider the implications of these philosophical theories for social policy choices in the US on their own. Graduate students and faculty. -- B. A. Pine, University of Connecticut | |
| Humanities-Philosophy | |
| Changeux, Jean-Pierre. What makes us think?: a neuroscientist and a philosopher argue about ethics, human nature, and the brain. by Jean-Pierre Changeux and Paul Ricoeur; tr. by M.B. DeBevoise Princeton, 2000. 335p bibl index afp ISBN 0-691-00940-6, $29.95 . Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2001mar CHOICE. | |
| Few would expect "comprehensible" to describe a conversation between a neuroscientist specializing in the molecular structure of the brain and a philosopher committed to "reflective philosophy, phenomenology, and hermeneutics." Surprise! This dialogue between neuroscientist Changeux and philosopher Ricoeur really is comprehensible. It works because both authors are well-rounded scholars committed to clarity of expression, and both steer clear of the intellectual trappings often associated with their respective disciplines, namely, scientific positivism and philosophical obscurantism. Moreover, both have obviously read and appreciate each other's work, share an interest in science, and have read the works of some of the same philosophers (especially Spinoza and Descartes). They even agree with one another more often than one would expect. The first half of the book stakes out their respective positions on the philosophy of science, cognitive science in general, the mind-body problem, and reductionism. The second half explores their contrasting views on the relationship between science (facts) and ethics (values)--evolutionary ethics in particular. Ethical issues discussed include religion, evil, violence, solidarity, peace, and beauty. Highly recommended for upper-division, interdisciplinary college courses focusing on the philosophy of science, epistemology, mentality, evolution, and ethics. General readers and professionals who are interested in science and philosophy--including brain surgeons--will also enjoy it. -- R. F. White, College of Mount St. Joseph | |
| Social and Behavioral Sci-Not Specified | |
| Fukuyama, Francis. The great disruption: human nature and the reconstitution of social order. Free Press, 1999. 354p bibl index ISBN 0-684-84530-X, $26.00 . Reviewed in 1999nov CHOICE. | |
| Inspired by Emile Durkheim's sociological analysis of the crisis of modernity, Fukuyama's book examines the fate and possible futures of liberal democratic societies. Fukuyama argues that the escalating pace of economic, technological, and anomic change has resulted in a postindustrial society characterized by the "Great Disruption." Crime, divorce, and illegitimacy have eroded the norms, values, and social bonds of social capital (solidarity). Excessive egoism and moral individualism threaten attachment to social groups outside of the "miniaturization of community." The author devotes much of the book to comparative statistical analyses of social dysfunctions in industrial societies and consideration of the causes of the Great Disruption. He does not understand the historical developments that have transformed family, fertility, divorce, gender, and crime in the US. Thus, the Great Disruption seems to have been precipitously caused by recent economic and technological change. The final section explores societal reconstruction. Fukuyama asserts that human beings have a genetic biological basis for solidarity, which gives rise to individualistic and spontaneous social networks. However, political action, public policy, and religious revitalization--all hierarchial and collective measures--are necessary to "renorm" social groups and respond to the crisis of postmodern societies. The shape of this new moral order is unspecified. General readers; upper-division undergraduates and above. -- J. H. Rubin, Saint Joseph College | |
| Humanities-Philosophy | |
| Arnhart, Larry. Darwinian natural right: the biological
ethics of human nature. State
University of New York, 1998. 331p bibl index afp ISBN 0-7914-3693-4,
$74.50 . Reviewed in 1998oct CHOICE. This title has been reviewed jointly with "Evolution" ed. by A.C. Fabian. |
|
| Evolution in the general sense of adaptive historical change
is the theme of both these books. Fabian's collection of essays
originated in the 1995 Darwin College Lectures. It includes pieces
by some of the finest writers on science: Stephen Jay Gould, Freeman
Dyson, and Jared Diamond. The Darwin lectures give a useful and
succinct survey of the evolutionary themes that have become more
and more prominent in diverse fields of inquiry. Some of the discussions
focus narrowly on the evolution of items such as guns, London, and
the novel; others examine general evolutionary patterns in society
and even the whole universe.
Arnhart's work elaborates a naturalistic ethics grounded in Darwinian evolution. He sees this ethics foreshadowed both by Aristotle and Hume, where "the good is the desirable" and reason is only instrumental to satisfying human desires. He lists 20 basic desires or needs that he finds to be universal to the human species; these include propensities for speech, parental care, sexual identity, justice as reciprocity to health, beauty and wealth. These desires are presumed to derive from the hunting-gathering stage of the evolution of Homo sapiens. Arnhart discusses a broad range of literature relevant to the biological as opposed to cultural or transcendent sources of human rights. His scholarship is imposing. In critically examining the major arguments for and against evolutionary ethics, he exhibits expertise in political theory, evolutionary theory, cognitive psychology, and Aristotelian and Humean ethics. His familiarity with arguments concerning naturalistic ethics in contemporary philosophy is, however, rather weaker than his impressive command of arguments from the social science literature. Both books assume some general background knowledge of biological evolution. There are direct connections between some of the essays in Fabian and Arnhart's project. Gould extols an exploratory pluralism in evolutionary theory and challenges those who, like Arnhart, focus only on natural selection as a source of adaptations to consider alternatives. Arnhart rejects, perhaps too easily, such objections to his project. Tim Ingold questions a hunting and gathering stage of human evolution as the essential source of contemporary human social behavior. The Darwin College Lectures are in general more sensitive to dangers of misapplication of Darwinian metaphors--of seeing patterns of adaptive evolution everywhere at work. Both works are good sources for anyone interested in evolutionary ideas. Recommended for academic readers at all levels. Arnhart has an extensive bibliography from biology, philosophy, and the social sciences. -- H. C. Byerly, emeritus, University of Arizona |
|
| Humanities-Philosophy | |
| O'Hear, Anthony. Beyond evolution: human nature and the limits of evolutionary explanation. Oxford, 1997. 220p bibl index afp ISBN 0-19-824254-9, $29.95 . Reviewed in 1998jun CHOICE. | |
| Postmodernist tenets notoriously clash with the goals of traditional philosophy. While traditional philosophy values the Enlightenment goals of objectivity, rationality, and steady scientific progress, postmodernism cautions against undue optimism in human inquiry and instead advocates a particularist or perspectival approach to the attainment of knowledge. O'Hear (Univ. of Bradford) enters the midst of the debate between these rival philosophies by supporting "the normativity of the mental." The core of O'Hear's argument is that the self-reflective activity characteristic of epistemic, moral, and aesthetic practices necessarily involves transcending the evolutionary basis of materialistic naturalism. In other words, O'Hear concedes that human inquiry is shaped in part by biological and social embodiment, but he suggests that our interest in truth, goodness, and beauty transcends such naturalistic constraints--thus, the title of his book, Beyond Evolution. For O'Hear, human inquiry in the areas of epistemology, morality, and aesthetics cannot be explained solely in terms of Darwinian evolution or any form of postmodern insouciance; rather, a careful examination of Socrates, Kant, and Goethe offers the key to understanding the transcendence O'Hear admires. O'Hear's wide-ranging discussion clearly characterizes current struggles within the discipline of philosophy and provides, if not a compromise, a resolution to the most central debates. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate; graduate; faculty. -- H. Storl, Augustana College (IL) | |
| Humanities-Philosophy | |
| Wilkin, Peter. Noam Chomsky: on power, knowledge and human nature. Macmillan, UK/St. Martin's, 1997. 203p bibl index ISBN 0-312-17477-2, $65.00 . Reviewed in 1997sep CHOICE. | |
| Wilkin defends Chomsky's Enlightenment-inspired rationalism, realism, and naturalism as the middle way between the absolutism of the modernist, positivist naturalists and behaviorists (e.g., Skinner) and the skeptical relativism of postmodernist humanists and communitarians who have taken "the linguistic turn" (e.g., Wittgenstein, Foucault, Rorty). Much in the book is organized around Chomsky's answers to (1) Plato's problem (How can we have so much knowledge after so little experience?); (2) Descartes's problem (How do we know when we are being deceived?); and (3) Orwell's problem (How can we know so little yet have so many sources of information available to us?). Holding that there is a partly knowable human nature, Chomsky opposes and exposes intellectuals who hold that each person is a blank slate on whom the economic and political elite may write whatever lies they choose. It is the abductive power to originate creative hypotheses that makes it safe and necessary for ordinary people to manage their own lives in the anarchic, libertarian socialism that Chomsky favors as the way to the goal of the harmonious development of every person's powers. General; undergraduate; graduate; faculty. -- J. M. Betz, Villanova University | |
| Social and Behavioral Sci-Psychology | |
| Robinson, David L. Brain, mind, and behavior: a new perspective on human nature. Praeger, 1996. 171p bibl index afp ISBN 0-275-95468-4, $55.00 . Reviewed in 1996nov CHOICE. | |
| In living up to a claim to provide a "new perspective on human nature," Robinson summarizes some of the research on individual differences, especially attempts that have been made to assess the link between the anatomy and physiology of the brain with demonstrable individual differences. Although the research is interesting and the model Robinson wants to build is intriguing, the text "feels" incomplete. If Robinson's goal is to convincingly argue that understanding individual differences requires that we cease considering physiology and personality as separate, he achieves that. If, however, his aim is to provide the model by which this can be accomplished, the work is incomplete. There is no doubt that this work will facilitate much needed debate on the complex quality of human nature. The discussions of human brain structures as they relate to pathology are especially interesting. It is intriguing to consider how the interaction between the evolutionary "newer" and "older" parts of the human brain may explain such things as biased information processing. Recommended to researchers/faculty serious about analyzing the physiological-psychological roots of human nature. -- R. E. Osborne, Indiana University East | |
| Science and Technology-Biology-Botany | |
| Lewis, Charles A. Green nature/human nature: the meaning of plants in our lives. Illinois, 1996. 148p index afp ISBN 0-252-02213-0, $32.95; ISBN 0-252-06510-7 pbk, $14.95 . Reviewed in 1996nov CHOICE. | |
| Lewis, a horticulturalist with many years' experience at Chicago's Morton Arboretum, discusses the emotional importance of plants in the human environment. He maintains that human reactions to plants and landscapes are determined by innate mechanisms, evolved prior to the development of agricultural or urban lifestyles, and that this gives plants and wilderness a unique influence on human emotional life. He discusses the use of horticulture and wilderness training in a number of diverse situations: the place of community gardening and urban forestry programs in the renewal of inner-city neighborhoods, the use of horticulture in programs for rehabilitating the disabled and treating people with emotional disturbances, the use of wilderness training in programs for promoting personal development, and the effect of exposure to plants and vegetation on illness and recovery rates in hospitals, prisons, and other institutions. Statistics from controlled studies are occasionally quoted, but most examples are anecdotal. Illustrations are few (eight black-and-white halftones), and minor errors (erroneous facts, misquotation of poetry, etc.) are often distracting. General; lower-division undergraduates. -- A. Whittemore, Missouri Botanical Garden | |
| Humanities-Philosophy | |
| Gorecki, Jan. Justifying ethics: human rights & human nature. Transaction, 1996. 154p bibl index afp ISBN 1-56000-236-0, $32.95 . Reviewed in 1996jul CHOICE. | |
| Gorecki's book is motivated by the continuing importance of the notion of human rights in reinforcing the equal dignity of every human being. The author examines the justification of this notion on two different levels. The first level is that of specific justifications, which depend on "normmaking facts" such as God, a social contract, a necessary dictate of reason, or human nature. All of these are rejected as a justification for one reason or another. But the author finds that because of "a peculiar, empirical characteristic of human nature," which he calls "human polymorphism," human rights can (and presumably should) be implemented, regardless of whether they can be objectively justified (although Gorecki also insists that the continuing search for such justification is an important aspect of human culture). This is a fresh and stimulating treatment of a topic of worldwide practical importance. Upper-division undergraduates and above. -- J. W. Meiland, University of Michigan | |
| Social and Behavioral Sci-Psychology | |
| Kagan, Jerome. Galen's prophecy: temperament in human nature. by Jerome Kagan with Nancy Snidman et al Basic Books, 1994. 376p index ISBN 0-465-08405-2, $27.00 . Reviewed in 1994dec CHOICE. | |
| It is the central tenet of this book that determinants of adult social temperament, extrovert and uninhibited as opposed to introvert and inhibited, are genetically determined physiologic responses that are present and identifiable in early childhood. Graeco-Roman medicine held that the balance of the four body humors (cold, hot, moist, dry), which were related to the four fundamental substances (fire, air, earth, water), determined not only health but also temperament (sanguine, melancholic, choleric, phlegmatic). This archaic concept was most clearly enunciated by Galen. These early ideas of temperament and their evolution through Western thought constitute the first chapter of this book. The remainder of the book is a summary of the background evidence, research methodology, and findings of Kagan (Harvard), that (in over a decade and a half of study) children inherit unique neurochemical traits that affect their threshold of reactivity to novelty, and ultimately determine their temperament as adults. The final two chapters interpret the implications of these findings and the effect of external factors. Thoroughly annotated and quite well written, this is an erudite and thoughtful analysis of the subject. For students of psychology and developmental biology. Upper-division undergraduate through professional. -- G. Eknoyan, Baylor College of Medicine | |
| Humanities-Philosophy | |
| Bock, Kenneth. Human nature mythology. Illinois, 1994. 138p index afp ISBN 0-252-02072-3, $27.95; ISBN 0-252-06365-1 pbk, $12.95 . Reviewed in 1995jan CHOICE. | |
| There is a sense in which the lack of absolute knowledge entails skepticism--in its most serious form, the belief that one can know nothing and at the same time not know that one knows nothing. Skepticism, in turn, often brings with it the view that forces outside of human knowledge and control determine a given individual's action. In a historically sensitive and critically minded approach, this book takes on questions regarding the nature of such "unknowing" selves in society and related questions regarding human autonomy, human dignity, and human activity. Bock frames his discussion of these issues in terms of the myths about the human condition that have been generated by key figures from the Renaissance through modernity. Bock's own assessment of the human condition is offered in the final chapter. According to Bock, the unintended consequences of human intentions and other challenges to human autonomy do not defeat the idea that humans, in the end, are uniquely self-determining beings. The challenges Bock addresses are consistent with concerns raised in Charles Taylor's Sources of the Self (CH, Feb'90), Jerome M. Segal's Agency and Alienation (CH, May'92), and H.J.M. Hermans and H.J.G. Kempen's The Dialogical Self (CH, Mar'94). Upper-division undergraduate. -- H. Storl, Augustana College | |
| Science and Technology-Not Specified | |
| Jackendoff, Ray. Patterns in the mind: language and human nature. Basic Books, 1994. 246p bibl index ISBN 0-465-05461-7, $25.00 . Reviewed in 1994jul CHOICE. | |
| As a follow-up to his Languages of the Mind (CH, Mar'93), Jackendoff's new book is even more engaging and accessible. The arguments concerning a "mental grammar" and "innate knowledge" are presented with care and clarity so that an even wider audience can understand and appreciate them. Important to Jackendoff, more so than other linguists and psycholinguists, e.g., Jerry Fodor, The Modularity of Mind (CH, Dec'83) and Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct (CH, Jul'94), is the evolutional relation between language and other mental activities. The approach is more like Jerome S. Bruner's Acts of Meaning (CH, Jul'91). He discusses the implications of mental grammar and innate knowledge for vision, thinking, social behavior, and, especially, music. The concern is for how evolved predispositions and current experience interact. Once again the either-or approach to nature-nurture is shown to be just wrong. In comparison to Pinker, who covers the same material to draw more dramatic conclusions, Jackendoff is more sympathetic and understanding of potential critics. His style is more cajoling. Both books should be read, but this one should be first. All levels. -- P. L. Derks, College of William and Mary | |
| Social and Behavioral Sci-Anthropology | |
| Kuper, Adam. The chosen primate: human nature and cultural diversity. Harvard, 1994. 269p index afp ISBN 0-674-12825-7, $27.95 . Reviewed in 1994sep CHOICE. | |
| An extremely well-written, clear, and concise treatise on the debates surrounding the issues of human origins, human nature, and human diversity. Kuper provides a historical perspective for contemporary anthropological theory through an epigrammatic account of the major figures shaping the discipline. Beginning with the reluctant genius of Charles Darwin, discussion leads to such diverse topics as fossil evidence for recognizable human culture, primate ethology, ethnography, eugenics, cultural universals, the origins of human society, and the future of humankind (the second millennium). The narrative epitomizes the holistic nature of anthropology by balancing biological and cultural perspectives. This book provides ample food for thought for anyone interested in the history and theory surrounding the biocultural nature of humans. General readers; upper-division undergraduates and above. -- S. D. Stout, University of Missouri--Columbia | |
| Social and Behavioral Sci-Anthropology | |
| Ridley, Matt. The Red Queen: sex and the evolution of humannature. Macmillan, 1994 (c1993). 405p bibl index ISBN 0-02-603340-2, $25.00 . Reviewed in 1994sep CHOICE. | |
| Ridley's book is another entry in the eternal debate on nature, nurture, and the possibility (or not) of a universal human nature. The debate intensified in the 1970s with publication of Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene (CH, May'77) and Edward Wilson's Sociobiology (CH, Nov'75). Ridley argues here that "human nature" (including separate natures for men and women) has been shaped by many millenia of human evolution, entailing the reassortment of genes and differential reproductive success. In 11 chapters written in a lively style, Ridley adduces the evidence for this possibility mainly from studies of animals other than humans. The author, a widely published journalist who writes on economics and finance as well as science, acknowledges (p.vii) that very few of the ideas presented are his own. Examination of the book's extensive references reveals few studies that might complicate the author's thesis. To omit adversarial points of view (for example, those expressed in R.C. Lewontin, Steven Rose, and Leon Kamin's Not in Our Genes, CH, Sep'84; Stephan Jay Gould's The Mismeasure of Man, CH, Apr'82; or any of the works of biologist Ruth Hubbard) is, of course, a legitimate polemical strategy. Like-minded readers will find much here with which to agree. -- F. P. Conant, Hunter College, CUNY | |
| Social and Behavioral Sci-Psychology | |
| Sampson, Edward E. Celebrating the other: a dialogic account of human nature. Westview, 1993. 207p bibl index ISBN 0-8133-1941-2, $55.00; ISBN 0-8133-1942-0 pbk, $19.95 . Reviewed in 1994mar CHOICE. | |
| Sampson demonstrates "otherness" in daily life and illustrates in numerous ways the advantages of a "dialogic approach" to human nature. He develops the concept of "dialogism"--a self and other perspective (as contrasted to "monologism"--a self only perspective) and the advantages of giving equal time and consideration to self and other in social psychological thinking and analysis. The author defines the problem as an overconcern in the writings of social scientists for the self and the power of the self, and thus an undervaluation of the other to human relationships. He focuses on "monologism": concept, practice, pervasiveness, and most importantly, the power imbalances it fosters. Part 3 develops the dialogism, celebrating the other. Sampson endorses a multiple--rather than singular--self-view of humans, discusses the nature of shared (rather than self) ownership, and the way that power concentrates in monologistic but balances in dialogistic relationships. Finally, he treats dialogic ethics, democratization, and human nature. Advanced undergraduate through faculty. -- E. Palola, emeritus, SUNY Empire State College | |
| Humanities-Philosophy | |
| Jahoda, Gustav. Crossroads between culture and mind: continuities and change in theories of human nature. Harvard, 1993 (c1992). 221p bibl indexes ISBN 0-674-17775-4, $29.95 . Reviewed in 1993jul CHOICE. | |
| Jahoda highlights the opposition between two strikingly divergent views pertaining to the relationship of mind (or human nature) to culture: one presuming (as do Thucydides, Machiavelli, and Freud) that human nature, like the nature of any other being, is fixed and remains essentially invariant, irrespective of time and circumstance; the other maintaining (as do Marx and Ortega) that human beings have no fixed nature, but are historically and culturally constituted. Although much of the material presented will be familiar to those who have read, among others, Ernst Cassirer (Logic of the Humanities, 1961; The Problem of Knowledge, 1950; An Essay on Man, 1944); Arthur O. Lovejoy (The Great Chain of Being, 1936; Essays in the History of Ideas, 1948); John H. Randall (The Career of Philosophy, 1962); and M.H. Abrams (The Mirror and the Lamp, 1953; Natural Supernaturalism, CH, Apr'72), Jahoda's little book should serve a very useful function if it manages to call to the attention of mainstream empiricistic and positivistically oriented psychologists the very rich and potent countertradition in which present-day cultural psychology is rooted. It may set the stage for a radical revisioning of the history of the study of mind within the presently constricted discipline of psychology. Advanced undergraduate through faculty. -- B. Kaplan, Clark University | |
Links
to full text journal articles
A
genetic basis for public enlightenment? A personal view of the Dawkins/Pinker
phenomenon
Human
Natures, Nature Conservation, and Environmental Ethics / Paul Ehrlich
Evolutionary
Psychology and the Intellectual Left (comments on Erhlich's Human Natures)
Four
Perspectives on Human Natures: (four reviews of Erhlich's Human Natures)
Nancey
Murphy Profile: Darwin, Social Theory, and the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge
Nancey
Murphy Profile: Shaping the Field of Theology and Science: a Critique of Nancey
Murphy
Nancey
Murphy Profile: Nancey Murphy's Work
Critical
Reviews: a Nietzche Round-up (review of Schacht's Making Sense of Nietzche)
Bloom
and His Critics: Nietzsche, Nihilism, and the Aims of Education (from the
abstract: "Richard
Schacht, citing Nietzsche, asserts that nihilism, while fruitless in and of
itself, is a necessary prerequisite to something higher")
Human Nature from the
Library Reference Shelf
Encyclopedia of the Enlightment Ref. B802 .E53 2003. vol. 2, pp. 224-232 "Human Nature"
Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. Ref. CB361 .E52 1999. vol. 3, pp. 233-235 "Humanity, Concept of"
International Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Ref B52 .R68 1998 vol. 4, pp 521-526
Oxford Reference Online (results of search on "human nature")
Enter the Essay Contest
The “What is Human Nature?”Essay Contest
The College of Arts and Sciences and the Friends of the Library at Ashland University invite entries for the “What is Human Nature?” essay contest. The essay must be on the following topic: Can human nature be defined? If so, what are its characteristics? If not, why not? The length of entries should be between 1,500 and 2,000 words. Essays must be typewritten and accompanied by a completed entry form (pdf).
Only current Ashland University students are eligible.A $350 prize will be awarded to the best undergraduate and graduate essay writer.The winning essays will be announced and published in the Friends of the AU Library Newsletter and on the AU web page.All entries must be received by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, December 12, 2003 and must be delivered to Bill Weiss, Ashland University Library Director. Essays will be judged anonymously by a panel of judges selected from the College of Arts and Sciences.
More about the competition theme
The competition is being held in conjunction with the College of Arts and Sciences fall symposium entitled: “Against Indifference: A Symposium on Human Nature.” The competition is intended to encourage original thinking on the concept of human nature.Why are we like we are? Why do we do what we do? With six billion of us living on earth it is easy to recognize our differences. What, if anything, makes us alike?Can we define human nature? If so, what are its characteristics?
The four symposium speakers will present their own theories on these
questions. The essay contest is intended to encourage you to develop your
own theory of human nature. This is to be an essay; not a research paper. The presentation and organization of your own original
thinking, compared to and contrasted with other theories on human nature will
be highly regarded by the judges.
By submitting an essay, each entrant is deemed to assign to Ashland University the copyright in any and all media in the essay and agrees that he/she will at the request of Ashland University enter into such documents as may be required to perfect or secure such rights. Each entrant undertakes and warrants to Ashland University that (a) he/she is the author of the essay, that it is original and has not been copied from any other work in which copyright subsists and, (b) information included in the essay is true, complete and accurate and will not be libelous or obscene and (c) he/she has the right to assign the copyright as described above. After the announcement of the winning entries, copyright in non-winning entries will automatically revert to the original author. Permission will normally be granted, upon written request by the authors, for the subsequent publication of winning entries in other publications.
Notable quotes on the topic of human nature
There are many wonders,
but none more wonderous than human beings
(Sophocles,
Antigone)
The one thing of value, in the world, is the active soul (Emerson)
Human nature will find itself only when it fully realizes that to be human it has to cease to be beastly or brutal (Mohandas Gandhi, in Harijan, 8 October 1938)
You don't have to teach people how to be human. You have to teach them to stop being inhuman. (Eldridge Cleaver, 1976)
To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men, -- that is genius ... Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is that they set as naught books and tradition, and spoke not what men thought but what they thought. (Emerson - "Self Reliance")
To understand political power right, and derive if from its original, we must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is , a state of perfect freedom, to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man. (John Locke - "Second Treatise of Government")
A person is a human being regardless of nationality. (Iraqi lawyer Mohammed, on why he risked hislife to provide information that let to the rescue of injured Pfc. Jessica Lynch, Newsweek April 14, 2003, p.21)
Each human is uniquely different. Like snowflakes, the human pattern is never cast twice. (Alcie Childress, "A Candle in a Gale Wind in Evans," ed. Black Women Writers, 1984)
Only the spirit of rebellion craves for happiness in this life. What right have we human beings to happiness? (Henrik Ibsen, Ghosts)
The most frightful idea that has ever corroded human nature—the idea of eternal punishment.(John, Viscount Morley, Vauvenargues)
To conduct great matters and never commit a fault is above the force of human nature.(Plutarch's Life of Fabius).
The Republican form of government is the highest form of government: but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature—a type nowhere at present existing.(Herbert Spencer,The Americans.)
Human Nature from the Circulating Shelves
AU Library Catalog records with " human nature" in the title
AU
Library Catalog records with "
human beings" as a subject heading (sorted by date)
AU Library Catalog records with "
philosophical anthropology" as a subject heading
Sites related to Nancey Murphy
Audio clips of Nancey Murphy from the PBS faith and reason website
Text,
video and audio clips of Nancey Murphy from the Meta Library
More
of Nancey Murphy from the Meta Library
A Brief Examination of Nancey Murphy's Nonreductive Physicalism
The
Problem of Mental Causation (lecture on Nov. 8, 2001)
Discussion following the Nov. 8, 2001 lecture
Miscellaneous Sites
The
American Ethical Union
American
Association for the Advancement of Science
Human Nature Review
Google Groups provides links to online discussions on countless topics. Here you may find specific discussion groups on philosophical, religious and social questions concerning human nature. Exercise caution here as posting to discussion groups is open to one and all and the quality of discussions is unpredictable. Quotation marks used in a search term assures that the words will be searched as a phrase which helps to narrow the results to more useful postings. You might begin by searching these terms.
"Steven Pinker"
pinker and human
nature
ehrlich and human nature
"Paul Ehrlich"
"Nancey
Murphy"
Richard Schacht"
"what is human nature"
"nature
vs. nurture"
This page is a service of the Ashland University
Library
Bill Weiss, Library Director
Updated: October 8, 2003
URL: http://www.ashland.edu/library/depts/hns.html
Ashland University Library
College
Avenue
Ashland, OH 44805