epistemology – On the Human http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human a project of the National Humanities Center Thu, 14 Sep 2017 16:39:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Common Ancestry and Natural Selection in Darwin’s Origin http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2010/06/common-ancestry-and-natural-selection-in-darwin%e2%80%99s-origin/ http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2010/06/common-ancestry-and-natural-selection-in-darwin%e2%80%99s-origin/#comments Sun, 06 Jun 2010 16:13:24 +0000 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/?p=1104 This is a précis of an argument that I developed in an article called “Did Darwin Write the Origin Backwards?” The article was published in 2009 and may be found on my web set at http://philosophy.wisc.edu/sober/recent.html. An expanded version of the argument is the first chapter of a book that I’m publishing at the end

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]]> http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2010/06/common-ancestry-and-natural-selection-in-darwin%e2%80%99s-origin/feed/ 13 The Disenchanted Naturalist’s Guide to Reality http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/11/the-disenchanted-naturalists-guide-to-reality/ http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/11/the-disenchanted-naturalists-guide-to-reality/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:03:38 +0000 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/?p=595 This is a précis of an argument that naturalism forces upon us a very disillusioned “take” on reality. It is one that most naturalists have sought to avoid, or at least qualify, reinterpret, or recast to avoid its harshest conclusions about the meaning of life, the nature of morality, the significance of our consciousness self-awareness,

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]]> http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/11/the-disenchanted-naturalists-guide-to-reality/feed/ 22 Does Evolution Explain Our Behaviour? http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/09/does-evolution-explain-our-behaviour/ http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/09/does-evolution-explain-our-behaviour/#comments Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:34:32 +0000 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/?p=426 Does evolution explain our behaviour? The short answer is: No. And you may well concur with that answer but ‘out there’ there is an increasing constituency of thinkers claiming quite otherwise. Along with the claims that the brain explains the mind and activity in one bit of brain or another corresponds to love, joy, conscience,

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]]> http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/09/does-evolution-explain-our-behaviour/feed/ 16 The Scope of Human Thought http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/08/the-scope-of-human-thought/ http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/08/the-scope-of-human-thought/#comments Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:39:52 +0000 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/humannature/?p=294 Biologically, we resemble other animals, but mentally, we leave them in the dust. The scope of human thought is vast. Why are we so different?

Animals—including us—live, think, and feel in the here and now. Living, thinking, and feeling are biological events, existing only in the present. When we think about the past or the

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]]> http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/08/the-scope-of-human-thought/feed/ 22 Do You Know what You’re Doing? http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/04/john-doris-do-you-know-what-you%e2%80%99re-doing/ http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/2009/04/john-doris-do-you-know-what-you%e2%80%99re-doing/#comments Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:48:00 +0000 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/on-the-human/humannature/?p=211 Do you know what you’re doing?

Maybe Not.

In a remarkable archival study, Pelham and colleagues (2002: 474) found that “women were about 18% more likely to move to states with names resembling their first names than they should have been based on chance” — 36% more likely for the perfect matches Virginia and

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