Beyond Evolution: Human Nature and the Limits of Evolutionary Explanation

O'Hear, Anthony

ISBN 10: 0198242549 / ISBN 13: 9780198242543

Published by Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 1997

About this Item

Book and dust jacket are gently used with only minor wear. Tightly bound copy with clean interior having no markings, writing, underlining, or highlighting in margins or text block. Inv. # 10503.

Seller Inventory # 010503

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Beyond Evolution: Human Nature and the Limits of Evolutionary Explanation
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, New York, NY
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198242549
• ISBN 13: 9780198242543
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

In this controversial new book O'Hear takes a stand against the fashion for explaining human behavior in terms of evolution. He contends that while the theory of evolution is successful in explaining the development of the natural world in general, it is of limited value when applied to the human world. Because of our reflectiveness and our rationality we take on goals and ideals which cannot be justified in terms of survival-promotion or reproductive advantage. O'Hear examines the nature of human self-consciousness, and argues that evolutionary theory cannot give a satisfactory account of such distinctive facets of human life as the quest for knowledge, moral sense, and the appreciation of beauty; in these we transcend our biological origins. It is our rationality that allows each of us to go beyond not only our biological but also our cultural inheritance: as the author says in the Preface, "we are prisoners neither of our genes nor of the ideas we encounter as we each make our personal and individual way through life."

About the Author

Anthony O'Hear is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bradford, and Director of the Royal Institute of Philosophy.