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Author: Gillian Barker
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231540396
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 177
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Book Description
Beyond Biofatalism is a lively and penetrating response to the idea that evolutionary psychology reveals human beings to be incapable of building a more inclusive, cooperative, and egalitarian society. Considering the pressures of climate change, unsustainable population growth, increasing income inequality, and religious extremism, this attitude promises to stifle the creative action we require before we even try to meet these threats. Beyond Biofatalism provides the perspective we need to understand that better societies are not only possible but actively enabled by human nature. Gillian Barker appreciates the methods and findings of evolutionary psychologists, but she considers their work against a broader background to show human nature is surprisingly open to social change. Like other organisms, we possess an active plasticity that allows us to respond dramatically to certain kinds of environmental variation, and we engage in niche construction, modifying our environment to affect others and ourselves. Barker uses related research in social psychology, developmental biology, ecology, and economics to reinforce this view of evolved human nature, and philosophical exploration to reveal its broader implications. The result is an encouraging foundation on which to build better approaches to social, political, and other institutional changes that could enhance our well-being and chances for survival.
Author: Gillian Barker
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231540396
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 177
Get Book Here
Book Description
Beyond Biofatalism is a lively and penetrating response to the idea that evolutionary psychology reveals human beings to be incapable of building a more inclusive, cooperative, and egalitarian society. Considering the pressures of climate change, unsustainable population growth, increasing income inequality, and religious extremism, this attitude promises to stifle the creative action we require before we even try to meet these threats. Beyond Biofatalism provides the perspective we need to understand that better societies are not only possible but actively enabled by human nature. Gillian Barker appreciates the methods and findings of evolutionary psychologists, but she considers their work against a broader background to show human nature is surprisingly open to social change. Like other organisms, we possess an active plasticity that allows us to respond dramatically to certain kinds of environmental variation, and we engage in niche construction, modifying our environment to affect others and ourselves. Barker uses related research in social psychology, developmental biology, ecology, and economics to reinforce this view of evolved human nature, and philosophical exploration to reveal its broader implications. The result is an encouraging foundation on which to build better approaches to social, political, and other institutional changes that could enhance our well-being and chances for survival.
Author: Karolina Hübner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190876379
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 465
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Book Description
What does it mean to be human? Is there something that makes us distinct from computers, other great apes, Martians, gods? Is there philosophical, ethical, or political value in continuing to think in terms of a common human nature? Or should we rather throw this concept into the dustbin of history? A paradox of the concept of human nature is that it holds both the promise of universal equality--insofar as it takes us all to share a common nature--while all too often rationalizing exploitation, oppression, and even violence against other individuals and other species. Most appallingly, differences in skin color and other physiological traits have been viewed as signs of a lesser humanity, or of outright inhumanity, and used to justify great harms. The volume asks: is the concept of human nature separable from the racist, sexist, and speciest abuse that has been made of it? And is it even possible--or desirable--to articulate a notion of human nature unaffected by race or gender or class, as if it were possible to observe humanity in a pure form? This volume traces the history of the concept human by examining the history of claims about distinctively human properties and capacities, and the ethical and political repercussions of such accounts. Spanning the history of philosophy, political science, religion, medical ethics, the history of art and science fiction, it illuminates how our self-understanding as human evolved across time and place--from ancient Greek, classical Chinese, and medieval Arabic accounts of human nature to contemporary evolutionary theory and the transhumanist movement. It examines problems ranging from the intelligibility of Incarnation (a relationship between divine and human beings) to problems posed by genetic engineering and artificial intelligence. Short pieces, or Reflections, are interspersed among the chapters, which take up topics ranging from Frankenstein to Marx's concept of human nature.
Author: Bruce Parrott
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472055984
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 331
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Book Description
The philosophical, sociological, and psychological dimensions of research
Author: Marco J. Nathan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197699243
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 377
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Book Description
Over the last few decades, biology, psychology, anthropology, and cognate fields have substantially enriched traditional philosophical theories about who we are and where we come from. Nevertheless, the hallowed topic of human nature remains frustratingly elusive. Why have we not been able to crack the mystery? Marco J. Nathan provides an overview and explanation of recent research and argues that human nature is a core scientific concept that is not susceptible to an explanation, scientific or otherwise. He traces the scientific history of human nature to conclude that, as an epistemological indicator, science cannot adequately grasp human nature without dissolving it in the process
Author: Hugh Desmond
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190096187
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 345
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Book Description
Human Success: Evolutionary Origins and Ethical Implications examines human success from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, with contributions from leading paleobiologists, anthropologists, geologists, philosophers of science, and ethicists. It considers how the human species grew in success-linked metrics, such as population size and geographical range, and how it came to dominate ecological systems across the globe. It probes whether the consequences of that dominance, such as human-driven climate change and the destruction of biodiversity, mandate a rethinking of the meaning of human success. The essays in this book urge us to reflect on what has led to our apparent evolutionary successand, most importantly, what this success implies for the future of our species.
Author: Madison Powers
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019775600X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 329
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Book Description
Madison Powers addresses a cluster of causally intertwined ecological crises that threaten our ability to maintain a livable planet, which deplete natural resources, degrade the environment, and destabilize planetary systems. He explains how a targeted human rights approach can counteract global economic conditions that cause or exacerbate these crises. These human rights protect ecological conditions that sustain human life and make possible the satisfaction of basic needs, and they give right-holders more control over their ecological futures. These rights are strategically important for combatting ecologically unsustainable, economically predatory market practices, especially those involving the acquisition, control, and use of land, energy, and water resources.
Author: Lee McIntyre
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1315410087
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 475
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Book Description
37 Why Is There No Philosophy of Political Science?
Author: Tom Malleson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197670393
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 353
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Book Description
In an era of remarkable wealth idolatry, Tom Malleson investigates the ethical justifications of wealth inequality, taking the radical position that we should abolish the billionaires. Stark inequality is a problem the world over, but it has been worsening over the past thirty years, particularly in rich, economically developed countries. To acquire the same amount of wealth as Elon Musk, the average American worker would have to work for more than four and a half million years. Is this inequality morally acceptable and is it feasible to actually reduce inequality in the real world? In Against Inequality, Tom Malleson makes the case for rejecting meritocracy, presenting a strong defense against the claim that individuals "deserve" their wealth. Malleson argues that people, especially rich people, do not morally deserve the bulk of their income because it does not, by and large, come from anything the specific individual does, but is largely due to the vast understructure of other people's labor, in addition to their lucky possession of bodily talents and efforts. Furthermore, the book brings to light extensive historical and comparative evidence to show that raising taxes on both income and wealth is practically feasible and that the costs of doing so are far outweighed by the truly enormous benefits that such taxes could bring in terms of environmental sustainability, democratic equality, equal opportunity, and reduced racism and xenophobia. Unlike previous books on inequality, Against Inequality focuses on the superrich, arguing that they have far too much: a world with billionaires alonside severe deprivation is a world without justice. Malleson's argument is not that billionaires are individually evil, but that a society that allows the existence of the superrich is structurally immoral. In an era of remarkable wealth idolatry, Against Inequality takes the radical position that we should abolish the billionaires.
Author: Lewis Coyne
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350102407
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 249
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Book Description
Hans Jonas (1903–1993) was one of the most important German-Jewish philosophers of the 20th century. A student of Martin Heidegger and close friend of Hannah Arendt, Jonas advanced the fields of phenomenology and practical ethics in ways that are just beginning to be appreciated in the English-speaking world. Drawing here on unpublished and newly translated material, Lewis Coyne brings together for the first time in English Jonas's philosophy of life, ethic of responsibility, political theory, philosophy of technology and bioethics. In Hans Jonas: Life, Technology and the Horizons of Responsibility, Coyne argues that the aim of Jonas's philosophy is to confront three critical issues inherent to modernity: nihilism, the ecological crisis and the transhumanist drive to biotechnologically enhance human beings. While these might at first appear disparate, for Jonas all follow from the materialist turn taken by Western thought from the 17th century onwards, and he therefore seeks to tackle all three issues at their collective point of origin. This book explores how Jonas develops a new categorical imperative of responsibility on the basis of an ontology that does justice to the purposefulness and dignity of life: to act in a way that does not compromise the future of humanity on earth. Reflecting on this, as we face a potential future of ecological and societal collapse, Coyne forcefully demonstrates the urgency of Jonas's demand that humanity accept its newfound responsibility as the 'shepherd of beings'.
Author: Susi Ferrarello
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030656136
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 160
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Book Description
This book offers a unique description of how phenomenology can help professionals from medical, environmental and social fields to explore notions such as interaffectivity, empathy, epoche, reduction, and intersubjective encounter. Written by a group of top scholars, it uniquely covers the relationship between phenomenology and bioethics, and focuses not only on medical cases, but also on the environment and emerging technologies. This variety of themes, whilst including techno-ethics, environmental ethics, animal ethics, and medical ethics, is conducive to appreciating broadly how phenomenology can improve our quality of our life. Despite its difficult themes, the book appeals to an audience of both academics and professionals who are willing to understand how to increase the quality of care in their professional field. Chapter 8 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
