Robin Headlam Wells, Johnjoe McFadden

Human Nature: Fact and Fiction

Literature, Science and Human Nature

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Human Nature: Fact and Fiction brings together a collection of inspiring, thought-provoking and original perspectives on human nature by ten leading writers, scientists and academics. What do we mean by "human nature"? Is there a genetically determined core of humanity that unites us all as members of a single species? Or is the thing we call human nature a social construct? And how do we explain the mystery of human creativity? Do great writers have an intuitive grasp of what makes human beings tick, or are they merely the mouthpiece of contemporary culture? It has been claimed that "the greatest enterprise of the mind has always been and always will be the attempted linkage of the sciences and humanities" (Edward O. Wilson). This groundbreaking book marks the beginning of a new dialogue between the two. Rather than focusing on the division between them, it shows that the sciences and humanities have much to learn from each other. Points of disagreement remain. Yet there is in this volume a genuine attempt to bridge the gulf that has traditionally separated the sciences and humanities and to reach a better understanding of what it means to be human.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury Academic
• Seitenzahl: 216
• Erscheinungstermin: 30. Mai 2006
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 198mm x 137mm x 22mm
• Gewicht: 308g
• ISBN-13: 9780826485458
• ISBN-10: 0826485456
• Artikelnr.: 21407295

Autorenporträt

Robin Headlam Wells

Inhaltsangabe

Contributors Foreword
AC Grayling Acknowledgements Introduction
Robin Headlam-Wells and Johnjoe McFadden Part I: Is human nature written in our genes or in our books? 1. The biology of fiction
Steven Pinker 2. Literature
science and human nature
Ian McEwan Part II: Can science and literature collaborate to define human nature? 3. Literature and evolution
Joseph Carroll 4. Human nature: one for all and all for one?
Gabriel Dover Part III: What has biology got to do with the imagination? 5. The biology of the imagination: how the brain can both play with truth and survive a predator
Simon Baron Cohen 6. Biology and imagination: The role of culture
Catherine Belsey 7. The limits of imagination
Rita Carter Part IV: Do we need a theory of human nature to tell us how to act? 8. Human nature or human difference?
Ania Loomba 9. What science can and cannot tell us about human nature
Kenan Malik 10. The cat
the chisel
and the grave
Philip Pullman