Essential Building Blocks of Human Nature

✍ Scribed by Peter Kappeler (auth.), Ulrich J. Frey, Charlotte Störmer, Kai P. Willführ (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 174
• Series: The Frontiers Collection
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

To understand why we humans are as we are, it is necessary to look at the essential building blocks that comprise our nature. The foundations of this structure are our evolutionary origins as primates and our social roots. Upon these rest features such as our emotions, language and aesthetic preferences, with our self-perceptions, self-deceptions and thirst for knowledge right at the top.

The unifying force holding these blocks together is evolutionary theory. Evolution provides a deeper understanding of human nature and, in particular, of the common roots of these different perspectives.

To build a reliable and coherent model of man, leading authors from fields as diverse as primatology, anthropology, neurobiology and philosophy have joined forces to present essays each describing their own expert perspective. Together they provide a convincing and complete picture of our own human nature.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages I-XVII
Our Origins: How and Why We Do and Do Not Differ from Primates....Pages 5-16
Our Children: Parental Decisions — How Much to Invest in Your Offspring....Pages 17-38
Our Social Roots: How Local Ecology Shapes Our Social Structures....Pages 39-54
Our Selections and Decisions: Inherent Features of the Nervous System?....Pages 55-75
Our Gods: Variation in Supernatural Minds....Pages 77-93
Our Preferences: Why We Like What We Like....Pages 95-108
Our Appetite for Information: Invented Environment, Non-Transparent Mind, and Evolved Preferences....Pages 109-121
Our Best Shot at Truth: Why Humans Evolved Mathematical Abilities....Pages 123-141
Our Way to Understand the World: Darwin’s Controversial Inheritance....Pages 143-156
Back Matter....Pages 157-159

✦ Subjects

Evolutionary Biology; Popular Science in Psychology; Epistemology; Cognitive Psychology