Beyond Evolution: Human Nature and the Limits of Evolutionery Explanation - Couverture rigide

O'Hear, Anthony

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0198242549 ISBN 13 : 9780198242543

Editeur : Clarendon Press, 1997

Synopsis

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'.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Anthony O'Hear is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bradford, and Director of the Royal Institute of Philosophy.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Clarendon Press
• Date d'édition: 1997
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0198242549
• ISBN 13: 9780198242543
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 230
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Oxford University Press; https://corp.oup.com/; ; WMF Platz 1; Geislingen/Steige; Baden-W?rttemberg; 73312; Allemagne