Beyond Evolution: Human Nature and the Limits of Evolutionary Explanation

by Anthony O'Hear

Overview

Anthony O'Hear takes a stand against the fashion for explaining human behaviour in terms of evolution. He maintains, controversially, 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'.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191519666
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/09/1997
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Lexile:	1550L (what's this?)
File size:	370 KB

About the Author

Anthony O'Hear is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bradford. He is Director of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, Editor of the journal Philosophy, and a member of the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority and of the Teacher Training Authority.

Table of Contents

1. Mind and Nature2. Immanent and Transcendent Dimensions of Reason3. Self-Conscious Belief4. Evolutionary Epistemology5. Evolution and Epistemological Pessimism6. Morality and Politics7. Beauty and the Theory of Evolution8. ConclusionsBibliographyIndex

Editorial Reviews

"O'Hear's wide-ranging discussion clearly characterizes current struggles within the discipline of philosophy and provides, if not a compromise, a resolution to the most central debates. Highly recommended."—Choice

"Anthony O'Hear is a philosophy professor whose book Beyond Evolution seeks to examine 'the extent to which evolutionary accounts of human experience are adequate'"—Evolutionary Anthropology

From the Publisher