Xviii, 269 Pp. Blue Boards, Spine Lettered In Silver. First American Printing, Fine, In Fine Dust Jacket Priced $27.95. Copyright 1993, Title Page Showing 1994, No Additional Printing Showing On Copyright Page. Review Copy With Slip Indicating A Publication Date Of 5/26/94 With A Price Of $24.95 (Although Dust Jacket Shows The Higher Price $27.95, Which Shows That You Can't Trust Anyone At Harvard To Tell The Truth Even About Matters Of Fact. ).

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Bibliographic Details

Title

Darwin Machines And The Nature Of Knowledge (Review Copy)

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Publication Date

1994

Language

English

ISBN 10

067419280X

ISBN 13

9780674192805

Binding

Hardcover

Edition

First American Edition

Condition

Fine

Dust Jacket Condition

Fine

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About this title

Synopsis

Learn and survive. Behind this simple equation lies a revolution in the study of knowledge, which has left the halls of philosophy for the labs of science. This book offers a cogent account of what such a move does to our understanding of the nature of learning, rationality, and intelligence. Bringing together evolutionary biology, psychology, and philosophy, Henry Plotkin presents a new science of knowledge, one that traces an unbreakable link between instinct and our ability to know.
Contrary to the modern liberal idea that knowledge is something derived from experience, this science shows us that what we know is what our nature allows us to know, what our instincts tell us we must know. Since our ability to know our world depends primarily on what we call intelligence, intelligence must be understood as an extension of instinct. Drawing on contemporary evolutionary theory, especially notions of hierarchical structure and universal Darwinism, Plotkin tells us that the capacity for knowledge, which is what makes us human, is deeply rooted in our biology and, in a special sense, is shared by all living things. This leads to a discussion of animal and human intelligence as well as an appraisal of what an instinct-based capacity for knowledge might mean to our understanding of language, reasoning, emotion, and culture.
The result is nothing less than a three-dimensional theory of our nature, in which all knowledge is adaptation and all adaptation is a specific form of knowledge.

About the Author

Henry Plotkin is Professor of Psychobiology and Head of the Department of Psychology at the University College in London.

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Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA
CA, U.S.A.

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