Download or read book Human Creatures written by Fred Howard and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2001-11-13 with total page 567 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A broad, but easy reading, world-view of realities behind the anciently permanent traits of human behavior which cause simple societies to grow, to flourish in great civilizations throughout the world, and to collapse repeatedly, usually with much loss of the expanded populations. Both democracies and tyrannies follow that universal pattern into autocratic decay of civilized empires. This view leads to a search for critical factors that determine the beginning and course of the typical decays (which have already begun in modern democracies.) Invariably, all those great nations had strong religious and moral practices during their early growth to large numbers of vigorous people, up to the points of beginning the slide into collapse. All had strong leaders who escaped reasonable limits beyond their necessary uses. This book was written before the authors previously published, Headlong Into Quicksand - The Tale of Today in America -, and provided its basis and starting point. Viewing human natures overall adaptations for life-survival necessities in a real world also includes: Family, love, play, arts, psychology, dominances, politics, governments, imperial disasters, death, philosophy, world history, science/knowledges, religion, morality, and balanced democracy. (An alternative evolutionary sociobiology.)
Download or read book Social Creatures written by Clifton P. Flynn and published by Lantern Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In more than thirty essays, Social Animals examines the role of animals in human society. Collected from a wide range of periodicals and books, these important works of scholarship examine such issues as how animal shelter workers view the pets in their care, why some people hoard animals, animals and women who experience domestic abuse, philosophical and feminist analyses of our moral obligations toward animals, and many other topics.
Download or read book Creatures of Cain written by Erika Lorraine Milam and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-03 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How Cold War America came to attribute human evolutionary success to our species' unique capacity for murder After World War II, the question of how to define a universal human nature took on new urgency. Creatures of Cain charts the rise and precipitous fall in Cold War America of a theory that attributed man’s evolutionary success to his unique capacity for murder. Drawing on a wealth of archival materials and in-depth interviews, Erika Lorraine Milam reveals how the scientists who advanced this “killer ape” theory capitalized on an expanding postwar market in intellectual paperbacks and widespread faith in the power of science to solve humanity’s problems, even to answer the most fundamental questions of human identity. The killer ape theory spread quickly from colloquial science publications to late-night television, classrooms, political debates, and Hollywood films. Behind the scenes, however, scientists were sharply divided, their disagreements centering squarely on questions of race and gender. Then, in the 1970s, the theory unraveled altogether when primatologists discovered that chimpanzees also kill members of their own species. While the discovery brought an end to definitions of human exceptionalism delineated by violence, Milam shows how some evolutionists began to argue for a shared chimpanzee-human history of aggression even as other scientists discredited such theories as sloppy popularizations. A wide-ranging account of a compelling episode in American science, Creatures of Cain argues that the legacy of the killer ape persists today in the conviction that science can resolve the essential dilemmas of human nature.
Download or read book Biocultural Creatures written by Samantha Frost and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-19 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Biocultural Creatures, Samantha Frost brings feminist and political theory together with findings in the life sciences to recuperate the category of the human for politics. Challenging the idea of human exceptionalism as well as other theories of subjectivity that rest on a distinction between biology and culture, Frost proposes that humans are biocultural creatures who quite literally are cultured within the material, social, and symbolic worlds they inhabit. Through discussions about carbon, the functions of cell membranes, the activity of genes and proteins, the work of oxygen, and the passage of time, Frost recasts questions about the nature of matter, identity, and embodiment. In doing so, she elucidates the imbrication of the biological and cultural within the corporeal self. In remapping the relation of humans to their habitats and arriving at the idea that humans are biocultural creatures, Frost provides new theoretical resources for responding to political and environmental crises and for thinking about how to transform the ways we live.
Download or read book Creatures written by Crissy Van Meter and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[A] kaleidoscopic narrative . . . Tenacious, wildly original, and full of insight.” —San Francisco Chronicle “An alluring, atmospheric debut.” —People A Belletrist Book Club Pick A Most Anticipated Book of the Year Entertainment Weekly • The Millions • Bustle On the eve of Evangeline’s wedding on Winter Island, the groom may be lost at sea, a dead whale is trapped in the harbor, and Evie’s mostly absent mother has shown up out of the blue. From there, in this mesmerizing, provocative debut, the narrative flows back and forth through time as Evie reckons with her complicated upbringing—a weed-dealing, charming but neglectful father, a wild-child best friend—in this lush land off the coast of Southern California. With wit, love, and bracing flashes of anger, Creatures probes the complexities of family and abandonment, guilt and forgiveness, betrayal and grief—and exerts a pull as strong as the tides.
Download or read book Birds and Other Creatures in Renaissance Literature written by Rebecca Ann Bach and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-08-07 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores how humans in the Renaissance lived with, attended to, and considered the minds, feelings, and sociality of other creatures. It examines how Renaissance literature and natural history display an unequal creaturely world: all creatures were categorized hierarchically. However, post-Cartesian readings of Shakespeare and other Renaissance literature have misunderstood Renaissance hierarchical creaturely relations, including human relations. Using critical animal studies work and new materialist theory, Bach argues that attending closely to creatures and objects in texts by Shakespeare and other writers exposes this unequal world and the use and abuse of creatures, including people. The book also adds significantly to animal studies by showing how central bird sociality and voices were to Renaissance human culture, with many believing that birds were superior to some humans in song, caregiving, and companionship. Bach shows how Descartes, a central figure in the transition to modern ideas about creatures, lived isolated from humans and other creatures and denied ancient knowledge about other creatures’ minds, especially bird minds. As significantly, Bach shows how and why Descartes’ ideas appealed to human grandiosity. Asking how Renaissance categorizations of creatures differ so much from modern classifications, and why those modern classifications have shaped so much animal studies work, this book offers significant new readings of Shakespeare’s and other Renaissance texts. It will contribute to a range of fields, including Renaissance literature, history, animal studies, new materialism, and the environmental humanities.
Download or read book All God s Creatures written by Daniel P. Horan and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The predominant “stewardship model” of creation is the result of an intentional effort to correct approaches that reinforce human sovereignty and the resulting environmental degradation. However, as All God’s Creatures argues, the stewardship model actually does not offer a correction but rather reinscribes many of the very same pitfalls. After close analysis of the stewardship model, this book identifies scriptural, theological, and philosophical sources to support the adoption of a “community of creation” paradigm. Drawing on postcolonial theory, this book proposes the concept of “planetarity” as a framework for conceiving the relationship between human and nonhuman creation, and the Creator, in a new way. This theoretical framework is grounded by a retrieval of the medieval Franciscan theological and philosophical tradition. The result is what can be called a postcolonial Franciscan theology of creation imagined in terms of planetarity, providing a constructive and nonanthropocentric response to the need for a new conceptualization of the doctrine of creation.
Download or read book The Soul of All Living Creatures written by Vint Virga, D.V.M. and published by Crown. This book was released on 2014-07-08 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As profiled in the New York Times Magazine… Based on the author’s twenty-five years of experience as a veterinarian and veterinary behaviorist, The Soul of All Living Creatures delves into the inner lives of animals – from whales, wolves, and leopards to mice, dogs, and cats – and explores the relationships we forge with them. As an emergency room clinician four years out of veterinary school, Dr. Vint Virga had a life-changing experience: he witnessed the power of simple human contact and compassion to affect the recovery of a dog struggling to survive after being hit by a car. Observing firsthand the remarkably strong connection between humans and animals inspired him to explore the world from the viewpoint of animals and taught him to respect the kinship that connects us. With The Soul of All Living Creatures, Virga draws from his decades in veterinary practice to reveal how, by striving to perceive the world as animals do, we can enrich our own appreciation of life, enhance our character, nurture our relationships, improve our communication with others, reorder our values, and deepen our grasp of spirituality. Virga discerningly illuminates basic traits shared by both humans and animals and makes animal behavior meaningful, relevant, and easy to understand. Insightful and eloquent, The Soul of All Living Creatures offers an intimate journey into the lives of our fellow creatures and a thought-provoking promise of what we can learn from spending time with them.
Download or read book What Kind of Creatures Are We written by Noam Chomsky and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2015-12-15 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The renowned philosopher and political theorist presents a summation of his influential work in this series of Columbia University lectures. A pioneer in the fields of modern linguistics and cognitive science, Noam Chomsky is also one of the most avidly read political theorist of our time. In this series of lectures, Chomsky presents more than half a century of philosophical reflection on all three of these areas. In precise yet accessible language, Chomsky elaborates on the scientific study of language, sketching how his own work has implications for the origins of language, the close relations that language bears to thought, its eventual biological basis. He expounds and criticizes many alternative theories, such as those that emphasize the social, the communicative, and the referential aspects of language. He also investigates the apparent scope and limits of human cognitive capacities. Moving from language and mind to society and politics, Chomsky concludes with a philosophical defense of a position he describes as "libertarian socialism," tracing its links to anarchism and the ideas of John Dewey, and even briefly to the ideas of Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill. Demonstrating its conceptual growth out of our historical past, he also shows its urgent relation to our present moment.
Download or read book The Humane Gardener written by Nancy Lawson and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2017-04-18 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.
Download or read book A Treatise on Human Nature written by David Hume and published by . This book was released on 1878 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Midsummer night s Dream written by William Shakespeare and published by . This book was released on 1874 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Inside Ethics written by Alice Crary and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-05 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alice Crary offers a transformative account of moral thought about human beings and animals. Instead of assuming that the world places no demands on our moral imagination, she underscores the urgency of treating the exercise of moral imagination as necessary for arriving at an adequate world-guided understanding of human beings and animals.
Download or read book The Meaning of Human Existence written by Edward O. Wilson and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2014-10-06 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: National Book Award Finalist. How did humanity originate and why does a species like ours exist on this planet? Do we have a special place, even a destiny in the universe? Where are we going, and perhaps, the most difficult question of all, "Why?" In The Meaning of Human Existence, his most philosophical work to date, Pulitzer Prize–winning biologist Edward O. Wilson grapples with these and other existential questions, examining what makes human beings supremely different from all other species. Searching for meaning in what Nietzsche once called "the rainbow colors" around the outer edges of knowledge and imagination, Wilson takes his readers on a journey, in the process bridging science and philosophy to create a twenty-first-century treatise on human existence—from our earliest inception to a provocative look at what the future of mankind portends. Continuing his groundbreaking examination of our "Anthropocene Epoch," which he began with The Social Conquest of Earth, described by the New York Times as "a sweeping account of the human rise to domination of the biosphere," here Wilson posits that we, as a species, now know enough about the universe and ourselves that we can begin to approach questions about our place in the cosmos and the meaning of intelligent life in a systematic, indeed, in a testable way. Once criticized for a purely mechanistic view of human life and an overreliance on genetic predetermination, Wilson presents in The Meaning of Human Existence his most expansive and advanced theories on the sovereignty of human life, recognizing that, even though the human and the spider evolved similarly, the poet's sonnet is wholly different from the spider's web. Whether attempting to explicate "The Riddle of the Human Species," "Free Will," or "Religion"; warning of "The Collapse of Biodiversity"; or even creating a plausible "Portrait of E.T.," Wilson does indeed believe that humanity holds a special position in the known universe. The human epoch that began in biological evolution and passed into pre-, then recorded, history is now more than ever before in our hands. Yet alarmed that we are about to abandon natural selection by redesigning biology and human nature as we wish them, Wilson soberly concludes that advances in science and technology bring us our greatest moral dilemma since God stayed the hand of Abraham.
Download or read book Creation and the Abrahamic Faiths written by Neil Spurway and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2009-05-27 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Creation! How we are here. Not just us, of course, but bluetits and Hereford cattle and cabbages and E. coli and deserts and mountains and suns and nebulae … in fact, all that is. So not only “Why are we here?” but “Why is there a ‘here’ for us to inhabit?”. That is this book’s theme. Inevitably it doesn’t answer the question in a mechanistic sense. A telescope cannot look at itself, and neither can an inhabitant of the Universe say how it came to be. But that does not stop those questions haunting us. So where shall we turn? To cosmology? The concept of an initial event, a “Big Bang”, is now almost universally accepted. But what caused that? Most would feel that this is not a question science can answer. The first two contributors to this book are professional cosmologists, yet cosmology is only a background for this book, not its core theme. That theme is the conviction that the Universe owes its existence to a divine Creator – and the specific formulations of this conviction in the three great monotheistic religions, the “Abrahamic” faiths. The scriptures of all three faiths include the creation-accounts in the first two chapters of Genesis. Later developments moved the expressions of the three faiths considerably apart, but the social and political conditions of the 21st C world make it imperative that every effort should be put into a recovery of understanding between their practitioners. The purpose of this book is to contribute to that understanding. Of thirteen chapters, two are by Jewish authors and three by Moslems; several of the Christian authors also are deeply versed in the other traditions. Together, the chapters show that the attitudes of the three faiths to Creation have far more in common than otherwise. In particular, they are noticeably and encouragingly coming together in their endorsements of 21st C concerns for the environment. The book derives from a conference of the Science and Religion Forum in Sept 2006, but all chapters have been rewritten for publication, and carefully edited with linking commentaries.
Download or read book Fellow Creatures written by Christine Marion Korsgaard and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a compelling new view of our moral relationships to the other animals
Download or read book A HUMAN VENTURE written by V. Virom Coppola and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2009-10-30 with total page 662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
