ENGLISH

Human Nature and the Limits of Science

By John Dupre

Book information

Publisher
Clarendon Press
Year
2001
ISBN
0199248060, 9780199248063
LCC
BD450 .D87 2001
Open Library ID
OL3581227M
Language
english
Format
EPUB
Filesize
255 kB (260807 bytes)
Edition
First Edition
Pages
218\0
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

John Dupr? warns that our understanding of human nature is being distorted by two faulty and harmful forms of pseudo-scientific thinking. Not just in the academic world but in everyday life, we find one set of experts who seek to explain the ends at which humans aim in terms of evolutionary theory, while the other set uses economic models to give rules of how we act to achieve those ends. Dupr? demonstrates that these theorists' explanations do not work and that, if taken seriously, their theories tend to have dangerous social and political consequences. For these reasons, it is important to resist scientism: an exaggerated conception of what science can be expected to do for us. Dupr? restores sanity to the study of human nature by pointing the way to a proper understanding of humans in the societies that are our natural and necessary environments. Anyone interested in science and human life will enjoy this book--unless they are its targets.

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