Barker, Gillian (Author)
Beyond Biofatalism is a lively and penetrating response to the idea that evolutionary psychology reveals human beings to be incapable of building a more inclusive, cooperative, and egalitarian society. Considering the pressures of climate change, unsustainable population growth, increasing income inequality, and religious extremism, this attitude promises to stifle the creative action we require before we even try to meet these threats. Beyond Biofatalism provides the perspective we need to understand that better societies are not only possible but actively enabled by human nature. Gillian Barker appreciates the methods and findings of evolutionary psychologists, but she considers their work against a broader background to show human nature is surprisingly open to social change. Like other organisms, we possess an active plasticity that allows us to respond dramatically to certain kinds of environmental variation, and we engage in niche construction, modifying our environment to affect others and ourselves. Barker uses related research in social psychology, developmental biology, ecology, and economics to reinforce this view of evolved human nature, and philosophical exploration to reveal its broader implications. The result is an encouraging foundation on which to build better approaches to social, political, and other institutional changes that could enhance our well-being and chances for survival.
...MoreEssay Review Stephen M. Downes (2016) Reform for the Evolutionary Social Sciences or New Theory of Human Nature?. Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 479-485).
Book
Antonella Tramacere;
(2023)
Introduzione alle psicologie evoluzionistiche: L'origine della mente umana tra scienza e filosofia
(/isis/citation/CBB137148303/)
Article
Gildenhuys, Peter;
(2003)
The Evolution of Altruism: The Sober/Wilson Model
(/isis/citation/CBB000410817/)
Chapter
Grene, Marjorie;
(2007)
La vie des sciences et les sciences de la vie
(/isis/citation/CBB001022495/)
Book
Robert, Jason Scott;
(2004)
Embryology, Epigenesis, and Evolution: Taking Development Seriously
(/isis/citation/CBB000770170/)
Book
Love, Alan C.;
(2015)
Conceptual Change in Biology: Scientific And Philosophical Perspectives on Evolution and Development
(/isis/citation/CBB001550598/)
Article
Wimsatt, William;
(2001)
Richard Levins as Philosophical Revolutionary
(/isis/citation/CBB000100683/)
Article
Luca Chiapperino;
Francesco Panese;
(2021)
On the traces of the biosocial: Historicizing “plasticity” in contemporary epigenetics
(/isis/citation/CBB820144208/)
Book
Sarkar, Sahotra;
Plutynski, Anya;
(2008)
A Companion to the Philosophy of Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB000831085/)
Book
Ayala, Francisco José;
Arp, Robert;
(2010)
Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB001032775/)
Thesis
Brigandt, Ingo;
(2006)
A Theory of Conceptual Advance: Explaining Conceptual Change in Evolutionary, Molecular, and Evolutionary Developmental Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB001560506/)
Thesis
Hendrikse, Jesse Love;
(2006)
Explanation and Inheritance
(/isis/citation/CBB001561700/)
Book
Creath, Richard;
Maienschein, Jane;
(2000)
Biology and epistemology
(/isis/citation/CBB000110573/)
Thesis
Robert, Jason Scott;
(2000)
Taking development seriously: Toward a genuinely synthetic biology
(/isis/citation/CBB001562184/)
Book
Dupré, John;
(2002)
Humans and Other Animals
(/isis/citation/CBB000501634/)
Article
Pettitt, Paul B.;
White, Mark J.;
(2011)
Cave Men: Stone Tools, Victorian Science, and the “Primitive Mind” of Deep Time
(/isis/citation/CBB001022767/)
Essay Review
Di Carlo, Christopher;
(2001)
Critical Notice
(/isis/citation/CBB000100685/)
Book
Malik, Kenan;
(2000)
Man, Beast and Zombie: What Science Can and Cannot Tell about Human Nature
(/isis/citation/CBB000600037/)
Article
Mysterud, Iver;
(2003)
Intellectual Tour de Force
(/isis/citation/CBB000340605/)
Book
Buller, David J.;
(2005)
Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature
(/isis/citation/CBB000701292/)
Thesis
Driscoll, Catherine Mary;
(2003)
Darwinizing Human Nature: Methodological Issues in Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology
(/isis/citation/CBB001561977/)
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