Essential building blocks of human nature
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Essential building blocks of human nature
(The frontiers collection)
Springer, 2011
Available at 3 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
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  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
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
- Our Origins: How and Why We Do and Do Not Differ from Primates
- Peter Kappeler.- Our Children: Parental Decisions - How Much to Invest in Your Offspring
- Mary K. Shenk.- Our Social Roots: How Local Ecology Shapes our Social Structures
- Ruth Mace.- Our Selections and Decisions: Inherent Features of the Nervous System?
- Frank Roesler.- Our Gods: Variation in Supernatural Minds
- Benjamin G. Purzycki and Richard Sosis.- Our Preferences: Why We Like What We Like
- Karl Grammer and Elisabeth Oberzaucher.- Our Appetite for Information: Invented Environment, Non-Transparent Mind, and Evolved Preferences
- Matthias Uhl.- Our Best Shot at Truth: Why Humans Evolved Mathematical Abilities
- Niklas Krebs.- Our Way to Understand the World: Darwin's Controversial Inheritance
- Michael Schmidt-Salomon.- Index.
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