Alas Poor Darwin

Alas Poor Darwin PDF Author: Hilary Rose
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1446412172
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 447

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Book Description
Today, genes are called upon to explain almost every aspect of our lives, from social inequalities to health, sexual preference and criminality. Based on Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection, Evolutionary Psychology with its claim that 'it's all in our genes' has become the most popular scientific theory of the late 20th century. Books such as Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene, Edward O.Wilson's Consilience and Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct have become bestsellers and frame the public debate on human life and development: we can see their influence as soon as we open a Sunday newspaper. In recent years, however, many biologists and social scientists have begun to contest this new biological determinism and shown that Evolutionary Psychology rests on shaky empirical evidence, flawed premises and unexamined political presuppositions. In this provocative and ground-breaking book, Hilary and Steven Rose have gathered together the most eminent and outspoken critics of this fashionable ideology, ranging from Stephen Jay Gould and Patrick Bateson to Mary Midgley, Tim Ingold and Annette Karmiloff-Smith. What emerges is a new perspective on human development which acknowledges the complexity of life by placing at its centre the living organism rather than the gene.

Alas, Poor Darwin

Alas, Poor Darwin PDF Author: Hilary Rose
Publisher: Harmony
ISBN:
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
In recent years, the claims of genetics and evolutionary psychology to explain and indeed legislate on the human condition have been loudly trumpeted in a host of popular books. Genes are said to account for almost every aspect of our lives. Evolution is supposed to explain alleged human universals, from male philandering and female coyness to children's dislike of spinach. There are even claimed to be genes that account for differences between people -- from sexual orientation to drug addiction, aggression, religiosity, and job satisfaction. It appears that Darwin, at least in the hands of his popularizers, has replaced Marx and Freud as the great interpreter of human existence. Biologists, social scientists, and philosophers have begun to rebel against this undisciplined approach to their different understandings of the world, demonstrating that the claims of evolutionary psychology rest on shaky empirical evidence, flawed premises, and unexamined political presuppositions. In this groundbreaking book, Hilary Rose and Steven Rose have gathered the leading and outspoken critics of this fashionable ideology in a shared and uniquely cross-disciplinary project. Contributors range from biologists Stephen Jay Gould, Gabriel Dover, Patrick Bateson, and Anne Fausto-Sterling; to anthropologists and sociologists Dorothy Nelkin, Tim Ingold, Tom Shakespeare, and Ted Benton; to philosopher Mary Midgley and cultural critics Barbara Herrnstein Smith and Charles Jencks. The result of this joint work, Alas Poor Darwin, is a sharply engaged, accessible, and highly entertaining critique of evolutionary psychology's tenets. What emerges is a new perspective that challenges the reductionism of evolutionary psychology and offers a richer understanding of the biosocial nature of the human condition.

Psychology

Psychology PDF Author: Steven J. C. Gaulin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780137599943
Category : Evolution
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
For use in introductory psychology courses. This is the first text to show the relevance of evolutionary thinking to the entire range of psychological phenomena, and it does so at a level appropriate for introductory students. The authors-representing the disciplines of both psychology and anthropology-have taken special care to present their material in a way that parallels the organization of a standard introductory text. After they lay out the fundamentals of modern evolutionary theory, they systematically apply this theory to questions from every domain of psychology: learning, cognition, perception, emotion, development, pathology and more. Appropriate as a core text or supplement for any introductory or upper-division psychology course with an emphasis on evolution.

What Darwin Got Wrong

What Darwin Got Wrong PDF Author: Jerry Fodor
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847651909
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piatelli-Palmarini, a distinguished philosopher and scientist working in tandem, reveal major flaws at the heart of Darwinian evolutionary theory. They do not deny Darwin's status as an outstanding scientist but question the inferences he drew from his observations. Combining the results of cutting-edge work in experimental biology with crystal-clear philosophical argument they mount a devastating critique of the central tenets of Darwin's account of the origin of species. The logic underlying natural selection is the survival of the fittest under changing environmental pressure. This logic, they argue, is mistaken. They back up the claim with evidence of what actually happens in nature. This is a rare achievement - the short book that is likely to make a great deal of difference to a very large subject. What Darwin Got Wrong will be controversial. The authors' arguments will reverberate through the scientific world. At the very least they will transform the debate about evolution.

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin PDF Author: A.N. Wilson
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062433512
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
A radical reappraisal of Charles Darwin from the bestselling author of Victoria: A Life. With the publication of On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin—hailed as the man who "discovered evolution"—was propelled into the pantheon of great scientific thinkers, alongside Galileo, Copernicus, and Newton. Eminent writer A. N. Wilson challenges this long-held assumption. Contextualizing Darwin and his ideas, he offers a groundbreaking critical look at this revered figure in modern science. In this beautifully written, deeply erudite portrait, Wilson argues that Darwin was not an original scientific thinker, but a ruthless and determined self-promoter who did not credit the many great sages whose ideas he advanced in his book. Furthermore, Wilson contends that religion and Darwinism have much more in common than it would seem, for the acceptance of Darwin's theory involves a pretty significant leap of faith. Armed with an extraordinary breadth of knowledge, Wilson explores how Darwin and his theory were very much a product of their place and time. The "Survival of the Fittest" was really the Survival of Middle Class families like the Darwins—members of a relatively new economic strata who benefited from the rising Industrial Revolution at the expense of the working classes. Following Darwin’s theory, the wretched state of the poor was an outcome of nature, not the greed and neglect of the moneyed classes. In a paradigm-shifting conclusion, Wilson suggests that it remains to be seen, as this class dies out, whether the Darwinian idea will survive, or whether it, like other Victorian fads, will become a footnote in our intellectual history. Brilliant, daring, and ambitious, Charles Darwin explores this legendary man as never before, and challenges us to reconsider our understanding of both Darwin and modern science itself.

Genes, Cells and Brains

Genes, Cells and Brains PDF Author: Hilary Rose
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1844679179
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
Our fates lie in our genes and not in the stars, said James Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA. But Watson could not have predicted the scale of the industry now dedicated to this new frontier. Since the launch of the multibillion-dollar Human Genome Project, the biosciences have promised miracle cures and radical new ways of understanding who we are. But where is the new world we were promised? In Genes, Cells, and Brains, feminist sociologist Hilary Rose and neuroscientist Steven Rose take on the bioscience industry and its claims. Examining the rivalries between public and private sequencers,the establishment of biobanks, and the rise of stem cell research, they ask why the promised cornucopia of health benefits has failed to emerge. Has bioethics simply become an enterprise? As bodies become increasingly commodified, perhaps the failure to deliver on these promises lies in genomics itself.

Consilience

Consilience PDF Author: E. O. Wilson
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0804154066
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 485

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "A dazzling journey across the sciences and humanities in search of deep laws to unite them." —The Wall Street Journal One of our greatest scientists—and the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for On Human Nature and The Ants—gives us a work of visionary importance that may be the crowning achievement of his career. In Consilience (a word that originally meant "jumping together"), Edward O. Wilson renews the Enlightenment's search for a unified theory of knowledge in disciplines that range from physics to biology, the social sciences and the humanities. Using the natural sciences as his model, Wilson forges dramatic links between fields. He explores the chemistry of the mind and the genetic bases of culture. He postulates the biological principles underlying works of art from cave-drawings to Lolita. Presenting the latest findings in prose of wonderful clarity and oratorical eloquence, and synthesizing it into a dazzling whole, Consilience is science in the path-clearing traditions of Newton, Einstein, and Richard Feynman.

The Darwin Effect

The Darwin Effect PDF Author: Dr. Jerry Bergman
Publisher: New Leaf Publishing Group
ISBN: 1614584184
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, an imprisoned doctor in the Auschwitz camp, wrote that Nazi doctors hoped studying twins would solve the problem of faster reproduction of superior races. Nazis hoped to have each German mother bear as many twins as possible.What Darwin influenced went far beyond the Nazi death camps: Shocking political, social, and scientific legacies of Darwin and his family Disturbing disclosure of how over 45 million Christians were killed in the 20th century because of their faith Revealing and layman-friendly presentation. This book is the result of 30 years of research and study carefully documenting the common destructive threads that tie some of history’s most murderous dictators, uncaring capitalists, and aggressive social activists to the flawed concepts of Charles Darwin in an effort to change the world — and how they succeeded. The extermination of races considered “lower” than others, the profound lack of empathy for less-advanced cultures, the corrupted atheistic justifications for taking the lives of millions — all done to advance the agendas of social Darwinism at work in the world today. More than mere theoretical discussions, we have seen the horrifying evidence of the practical results when applying these destructive and misleading concepts to society in the last 100 years!

Traditions of Belief

Traditions of Belief PDF Author: Gillian Bennett
Publisher: Penguin Group
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description


Sexing the Brain

Sexing the Brain PDF Author: Lesley J. Rogers
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231120111
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
How much of sexual diversity is the result of nature versus nurture? Prevailing theories today lean heavily toward nature. Now a leading researcher in neuroscience and animal behavior shows how, in recent history, scientific claims about sex and gender differences have reflected the culture of the time. Although the conviction that genetics can explain everything is now widespread, the author demonstrates the interaction of culture and environment in the formation of behavioral traits and so provides an important corrective to popular notions of reductionism. Starting with a summary of sex and gender studies, Rogers explains the error of sex biasing, especially the once-assumed inferiority of women. She then addresses several modern studies and investigations, some of which assert that sex and gender differences are the product of genetic inheritance and hormones. Rogers uses laboratory evidence from studies of animals that help illustrate the biologically fluid properties of sex and gender. Sexing the Brain addresses a variety of topical questions: Are there sex differences in how we think and feel? Is language processed in different parts of the brain in men and women? Do social influences have a stronger influence on sexual behavior than sex hormone levels? Rogers concludes that "our biology does not bind us to remain the same.... We have the ability to change, and the future of sex differences belongs to us."

Theoretical Psychology

Theoretical Psychology PDF Author: International Society for Theoretical Psychology. Conference
Publisher: Captus Press
ISBN: 9781553220558
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description