What's Left of Human Nature?: A Post-Essentialist, Pluralist, and Interactive Account of a Contested Concept
- ISBN-10
- 0262347970
- ISBN-13
- 9780262347976
- Category
- Philosophy
- Pages
- 336
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2018-10-16
- Publisher
- MIT Press
- Author
- Maria Kronfeldner
Description
A philosophical account of human nature that defends the concept against dehumanization, Darwinian, and developmentalist challenges. Human nature has always been a foundational issue for philosophy. What does it mean to have a human nature? Is the concept the relic of a bygone age? What is the use of such a concept? What are the epistemic and ontological commitments people make when they use the concept? In What's Left of Human Nature? Maria Kronfeldner offers a philosophical account of human nature that defends the concept against contemporary criticism. In particular, she takes on challenges related to social misuse of the concept that dehumanizes those regarded as lacking human nature (the dehumanization challenge); the conflict between Darwinian thinking and essentialist concepts of human nature (the Darwinian challenge); and the consensus that evolution, heredity, and ontogenetic development result from nurture and nature. After answering each of these challenges, Kronfeldner presents a revisionist account of human nature that minimizes dehumanization and does not fall back on outdated biological ideas. Her account is post-essentialist because it eliminates the concept of an essence of being human; pluralist in that it argues that there are different things in the world that correspond to three different post-essentialist concepts of human nature; and interactive because it understands nature and nurture as interacting at the developmental, epigenetic, and evolutionary levels. On the basis of this, she introduces a dialectical concept of an ever-changing and “looping” human nature. Finally, noting the essentially contested character of the concept and the ambiguity and redundancy of the terminology, she wonders if we should simply eliminate the term “human nature” altogether.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2018-10-16
- 335 pages
- Paperback
- MIT Press
Similar books
-
The Laws of Human Nature
By Robert GreeneNew York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. Smith, David Livingstone. The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2007. Stewart, James B. Disney War. New York: Simon Schuster Paperbacks, 2006.
-
Perfectionism
By Thomas Hurka Professor of Philosophy University of CalgaryThis book gives an account of perfectionism, first in the narrower sense, analyzing its central concepts and defending a theory of human nature in which rationality plays a central role.
-
Conversations on Human Nature
By Aku Visala, Agustín FuentesThe book-outlines the basic scientific, philosophical and theological issues involved in understanding human nature;-organizes material from the various disciplines under four broad headings: (1) evolution, brains and human nature; (2) ...
-
Human Nature and the Limits of Science
By John DupréTooby and Cosmides begin their long introduction to The Adapted Mind (Barkow, Cosmides, and Tooby, 1992) with a section entitled 'The Unity of Science'. In philosophical discourse the doctrine of the unity of science has been associated ...
-
Suite for Human Nature
By Diane Charlotte LampertFrom the legendary songwriter Diane Lampert, based on a musical piece she wrote with Pulitzer Prize and nine-time Grammy–winning jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, comes an exquisitely illustrated folktale about how we humans got some of ...
-
Why We Disagree About Human Nature
By Tim Lewens, Elizabeth HannonThe diverse perspectives articulated in this book help to explain why we disagree about human nature, and what, if anything, might resolve that disagreement.
-
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
By Steven Pinker... 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada),90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2RORL, ...
-
The Good Book of Human Nature: An Evolutionary Reading of the Bible
By Carel van Schaik, Kai MichelIn The Good Book of Human Nature, evolutionary anthropologist Carel van Schaik and historian Kai Michel advance a new view of Homo sapiens' cultural evolution.
-
Beyond Human Nature: How Culture and Experience Shape Our Lives
By Jesse J. PrinzHe examines all aspects of our behaviour, looking at everything from our intellects and emotions, to love and sex, morality and even madness. This book seeks to go beyond traditional debates of nature and nurture.
-
Human Nature and Suffering
By Paul GilbertOnce we begin to recognise that a whole array of events can sensitise the defence system (reduce the sense of safety), then it becomes easier to see how depression and a multitude of anxiety difficulties can often coexist (Tyrer 1986).