The Adaptive Function of Literature and the Other Arts

by Joe Carroll

Massive Modularity vs. Cognitive Flexibility

Evolutionists insist that genes constrain and direct human behavior. Cultural constructivists counter that culture, embodied in the arts, shapes human experience. Both these claims are true, but some evolutionists and some cultural constructivists have mistakenly regarded them as mutually exclusive (D. S. Wilson, “Evolutionary”). Some evolutionists have either ignored the

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June 19th, 2009 | 41 comments - (Comments are closed) | Tags: , , , | Category: current controversies, Humans, Participants

Biopower, Dignity, Synthetic Anthropos

by Paul Rabinow

Whatever the terms “biopower” and “biopolitics” might mean, and they are being used in a growing number of simplistic ways, most of which bear scant relation to how Michel Foucault deployed them. Foucault’s genealogical elaboration of these terms had been conceptual, historical and non-totalizing. Above all, Foucault deployed concepts like “biopower” or “governmentality” in a

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June 8th, 2009 | 7 comments - (Comments are closed) | Tags: | Category: current controversies, Humans, Machines, Participants

On the Human, in the blogosphere

by Gary Comstock

I know many of you are eagerly awaiting this week’s thought-provoking piece by the anthropologist Paul Rabinow. His post should appear later today.

While you’re waiting, you can also take a quick look at what’s being said out in the blogosphere about this nascent blog. We are deeply enjoying the conversations that have already taken

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June 8th, 2009 | One comment - (Comments are closed) | Tags: | Category: News