Beyond Evolution : Human Nature and the Limits of Evolutionary Explanation

Anthony O'Hear

ISBN 10: 0198242549 / ISBN 13: 9780198242543

Published by Clarendon Press/Oxford, 1997

About this Item

Previous owner's name on front end paper and a page of scholarly notes on the back end paper. Binding is tight.

Seller Inventory # 005249

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Beyond Evolution : Human Nature and the Limits of Evolutionary Explanation
• Publisher: Clarendon Press/Oxford
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198242549
• ISBN 13: 9780198242543
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• 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.