The Social Evolution of Human Nature
eBook - PDF

The Social Evolution of Human Nature

From Biology to Language

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

The Social Evolution of Human Nature

From Biology to Language

About this book

This book sheds new light on the problem of how the human mind evolved. Harry Smit argues that current studies of this problem misguidedly try to solve it by using variants of the Cartesian conception of the mind, and shows that combining the Aristotelian conception with Darwin's theory provides us with far more interesting answers. He discusses the core problem of how we can understand language evolution in terms of inclusive fitness theory, and investigates how scientific and conceptual insights can be integrated into one explanatory framework, which he contrasts with the alternative Cartesian-derived framework. He then explores the differences between these explanatory frameworks with reference to co-operation and conflict at different levels of biological organization, the evolution of communicative behaviour, the human mind, language, and moral behaviour. His book will interest advanced students and scholars in a range of subjects including philosophy, biology and psychology.

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Yes, you can access The Social Evolution of Human Nature by Harry Smit in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Philosophy & Philosophy & Ethics in Science. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half title
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Preface and acknowledgments
  8. Chapter 1 The major evolutionary transitions and Homo loquens
  9. Chapter 2 The conceptual foundation of human nature
  10. Chapter 3 Inclusive fitness theory and genomic imprinting
  11. Chapter 4 Evolution, teleology and the argument from design
  12. Chapter 5 Dualism, monism and evolutionary psychology
  13. Chapter 6 Weismann, Wittgenstein and the homunculus fallacy
  14. Chapter 7 Language evolution: doing things with words versus translating thought into language
  15. Chapter 8 Moral behaviour: a conceptual elaboration of Darwin's ideas
  16. Chapter 9 Epilogue
  17. References
  18. Index