ENGLISH

Human Nature as Capacity: Transcending Discourse and Classification

By Nigel Rapport (editor)

Book information

Publisher
Berghahn Books
Year
2010
ISBN
9781845458157
DOI
10.1515/9781845458157
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
4 MB (3781250 bytes)
Series
Methodology & History in Anthropology; 20
Pages
224\246
Library
degruyter.com
Time added
2023-08-20 04:33:44

Description

What is it to be human? What are our specifically human attributes, our capacities and liabilities? Such questions gave birth to anthropology as an Enlightenment science. This book argues that it is again appropriate to bring “the human” to the fore, to reclaim the singularity of the word as central to the anthropological endeavor, not on the basis of the substance of a human nature – “To be human is to act like this and react like this, to feel this and want this” – but in terms of species-wide capacities: capabilities for action and imagination, liabilities for suffering and cruelty. The contributors approach “the human” with an awareness of these complexities and particularities, rendering this volume unique in its ability to build on anthropology’s ethnographic expertise.

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