The Believing Primate

Author : Jeffrey Schloss,Michael Murray
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2010-10-07
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780191615801

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The Believing Primate by Jeffrey Schloss,Michael Murray Pdf

Over the last two decades, scientific accounts of religion have received a great deal of scholarly and popular attention both because of their intrinsic interest and because they are widely seen as potentially constituting a threat to the religion they analyse. The Believing Primate aims to describe and discuss these scientific accounts as well as to assess their implications. The volume begins with essays by leading scientists in the field, describing these accounts and discussing evidence in their favour. Philosophical and theological reflections on these accounts follow, offered by leading philosophers, theologians, and scientists. This diverse group of scholars address some fascinating underlying questions: Do scientific accounts of religion undermine the justification of religious belief? Do such accounts show religion to be an accidental by-product of our evolutionary development? And, whilst we seem naturally disposed toward religion, would we fare better or worse without it? Bringing together dissenting perspectives, this provocative collection will serve to freshly illuminate ongoing debate on these perennial questions.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:1120479272

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The Believing Primate by Anonim Pdf

Author : Fraser Watts,Léon P. Turner
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2014-03-20
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780191512445

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Evolution, Religion, and Cognitive Science by Fraser Watts,Léon P. Turner Pdf

The cognitive science of religion is an inherently heterogeneous subject, incorporating theory and data from anthropology, psychology, sociology, evolutionary biology, and philosophy of mind amongst other subjects. One increasingly influential area of research in this field is concerned specifically with exploring the relationship between the evolution of the human mind, the evolution of culture in general, and the origins and subsequent development of religion. This research has exerted a strong influence on many areas of religious studies over the last twenty years, but, for some, the so-called 'evolutionary cognitive science of religion' remains a deeply problematic enterprise. This book's primary aim is to engage critically and constructively with this complex and diverse body of research from a wide range of perspectives. To these ends, the book brings together authors from a variety of relevant disciplines, in the thorough exploration of many of the key debates in the field. These include, for example: can certain aspects of religion be considered adaptive, or are they evolutionary by-products? Is the evolutionary cognitive science of religion compatible with theism? Is the evolutionary cognitive approach compatible with other, more traditional approaches to the study of religion? To what extent is religion shaped by cultural evolutionary processes? Is the evolutionary account of the mind that underpins the evolutionary cognitive approach the best or only available account? Written in accessible language, with an introductory chapter by Ilkka Pyssiäinen, a leading scholar in the field, this book is a valuable resource for specialists, undergraduate and graduate students, and newcomers to the evolutionary cognitive science of religion.

Author : Frans de Waal
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2013-03-25
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780393089196

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The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates by Frans de Waal Pdf

In this lively and illuminating discussion of his landmark research, esteemed primatologist Frans de Waal argues that human morality is not imposed from above but instead comes from within. Moral behavior does not begin and end with religion but is in fact a product of evolution. For many years, de Waal has observed chimpanzees soothe distressed neighbors and bonobos share their food. Now he delivers fascinating fresh evidence for the seeds of ethical behavior in primate societies that further cements the case for the biological origins of human fairness. Interweaving vivid tales from the animal kingdom with thoughtful philosophical analysis, de Waal seeks a bottom-up explanation of morality that emphasizes our connection with animals. In doing so, de Waal explores for the first time the implications of his work for our understanding of modern religion. Whatever the role of religious moral imperatives, he sees it as a “Johnny-come-lately” role that emerged only as an addition to our natural instincts for cooperation and empathy. But unlike the dogmatic neo-atheist of his book’s title, de Waal does not scorn religion per se. Instead, he draws on the long tradition of humanism exemplified by the painter Hieronymus Bosch and asks reflective readers to consider these issues from a positive perspective: What role, if any, does religion play for a well-functioning society today? And where can believers and nonbelievers alike find the inspiration to lead a good life? Rich with cultural references and anecdotes of primate behavior, The Bonobo and the Atheist engagingly builds a unique argument grounded in evolutionary biology and moral philosophy. Ever a pioneering thinker, de Waal delivers a heartening and inclusive new perspective on human nature and our struggle to find purpose in our lives.

Author : Vybarr Cregan-Reid
Publisher : Cassell
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2019-09-03
Category : History
ISBN : 178840128X

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Primate Change by Vybarr Cregan-Reid Pdf

This is the road from climate change to primate change. IF YOU THINK YOU ARE YOU, THINK AGAIN. PRIMATE CHANGE is a wide-ranging, polemical look at how and why the human body has changed since humankind first got up on two feet. Spanning the entirety of human history - from primate to transhuman - Vybarr Cregan-Reid's book investigates where we came from, who we are today and how modern technology will change us beyond recognition. In the last two hundred years, humans have made such a tremendous impact on the world that our geological epoch is about to be declared the 'Anthropocene', or the Age of Man. But while we have been busy changing the shape of the world we inhabit, the ways of living that we have been building have, as if under the cover of darkness, been transforming our bodies and altering the expression of our DNA, too. PRIMATE CHANGE beautifully unscrambles the complex architecture of our modern human bodies, built over millions of years and only starting to give up on us now. 'Our bodies are in a shock. Modern living is as bracing to the human body as jumping through a hole in the ice. Our bodies do not know what century they were born into and they are defending and deforming themselves in response'

Author : Agustín Fuentes,Linda D. Wolfe
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2002-01-17
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781139441476

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Primates Face to Face by Agustín Fuentes,Linda D. Wolfe Pdf

As our closest evolutionary relatives, nonhuman primates are integral elements in our mythologies, diets and scientific paradigms, yet most species now face an uncertain future through exploitation for the pet and bushmeat trades as well as progressive habitat loss. New information about disease transmission, dietary and economic linkage, and the continuing international focus on conservation and primate research have created a surge of interest in primates, and focus on the diverse interaction of human and nonhuman primates has become an important component in primatological and ethnographic studies. By examining the diverse and fascinating range of relationships between humans and other primates, and how this plays a critical role in conservation practice and programs, Primates Face to Face disseminates the information gained from the anthropological study of nonhuman primates to the wider academic and non-academic world.

Author : Agustin Fuentes
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2019-09-24
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780300249255

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Why We Believe by Agustin Fuentes Pdf

A wide-ranging argument by a renowned anthropologist that the capacity to believe is what makes us human Why are so many humans religious? Why do we daydream, imagine, and hope? Philosophers, theologians, social scientists, and historians have offered explanations for centuries, but their accounts often ignore or even avoid human evolution. Evolutionary scientists answer with proposals for why ritual, religion, and faith make sense as adaptations to past challenges or as by-products of our hyper-complex cognitive capacities. But what if the focus on religion is too narrow? Renowned anthropologist Agustín Fuentes argues that the capacity to be religious is actually a small part of a larger and deeper human capacity to believe. Why believe in religion, economies, love? A fascinating intervention into some of the most common misconceptions about human nature, this book employs evolutionary, neurobiological, and anthropological evidence to argue that belief—the ability to commit passionately and wholeheartedly to an idea—is central to the human way of being in the world.

Author : Henry John PYE
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 172 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 1870
Category : Electronic
ISBN : BL:A0018887988

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Why do we believe? A consideration of the claims of the Roman Catholic Church, etc by Henry John PYE Pdf

Author : John P. Gluck
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 350 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2016-10-26
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780226375656

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Voracious Science and Vulnerable Animals by John P. Gluck Pdf

Presents an account of how the author, trained as a behavioral scientist in the 1960s, came to grapple with the uncomfortable justifications offered for the use of primates in research labs, and became one of the scientists at the forefront of the movement to end research experiments on primates.

Author : Dario Maestripieri
Publisher : Basic Books (AZ)
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2012-04-10
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780465020782

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Games Primates Play by Dario Maestripieri Pdf

A primatologist examines unspoken social customs, from jilting a lover to being competitive on the job, to explain how behavioral complexities are linked to humans' primate heritage.

Author : Melville Y. Stewart
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 570 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Religion and science
ISBN : STANFORD:36105215092102

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Science and Religion in Dialogue by Melville Y. Stewart Pdf

Author : Charles Voysey
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 436 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 1874
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OXFORD:555048576

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Sermons preached (at St. George's hall, Langham place) during 1873 by Charles Voysey Pdf

Author : Alfred L. Rosenberger
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2020-09-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780691189512

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New World Monkeys by Alfred L. Rosenberger Pdf

A comprehensive account of the origins, evolution, and behavior of South and Central American primates New World Monkeys brings to life the beauty of evolution and biodiversity in action among South and Central American primates, who are now at risk. These tree-dwelling rainforest inhabitants display an unparalleled variety in size, shape, hands, feet, tails, brains, locomotion, feeding, social systems, forms of communication, and mating strategies. Primatologist Alfred Rosenberger, one of the foremost experts on these mammals, explains their fascinating adaptations and how they came about. New World Monkeys provides a dramatic picture of the sixteen living genera of New World monkeys and a fossil record that shows that their ancestors have lived in the same ecological niches for up to 20 million years—only to now find themselves imperiled by the extinction crisis. Rosenberger also challenges the argument that these primates originally came to South America from Africa by floating across the Atlantic on a raft of vegetation some 45 million years ago. He explains that they are more likely to have crossed via a land bridge that once connected Western Europe and Canada at a time when many tropical mammals transferred between the northern continents. Based on the most current findings, New World Monkeys offers the first synthesis of decades of fieldwork and laboratory and museum research conducted by hundreds of scientists.

Author : P. Segerdahl,W. Fields,S. Savage-Rumbaugh
Publisher : Springer
Page : 239 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2005-08-05
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780230513389

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Kanzi's Primal Language by P. Segerdahl,W. Fields,S. Savage-Rumbaugh Pdf

Sue Savage-Rumbaugh's work on the language capabilities of the bonobo Kanzi has intrigued the world because of its far-reaching implications for understanding the evolution of the human language. This book takes the reader behind the scenes of the filmed language tests. It argues that while the tests prove that Kanzi has language, the even more remarkable manner in which he originally acquired it - spontaneously, in a culture shared with humans - calls for a re-thinking of language, emphasizing its primal cultural dimensions.

Author : Mary Sanders Pollock
Publisher : Penn State Press
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2015-04-27
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9780271067667

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Storytelling Apes by Mary Sanders Pollock Pdf

The annals of field primatology are filled with stories about charismatic animals native to some of the most challenging and remote areas on earth. There are, for example, the chimpanzees of Tanzania, whose social and family interactions Jane Goodall has studied for decades; the mountain gorillas of the Virungas, chronicled first by George Schaller and then later, more obsessively, by Dian Fossey; various species of monkeys (Indian langurs, Kenyan baboons, and Brazilian spider monkeys) studied by Sarah Hrdy, Shirley Strum, Robert Sapolsky, Barbara Smuts, and Karen Strier; and finally the orangutans of the Bornean woodlands, whom Biruté Galdikas has observed passionately. Humans are, after all, storytelling apes. The narrative urge is encoded in our DNA, along with large brains, nimble fingers, and color vision, traits we share with lemurs, monkeys, and apes. In Storytelling Apes, Mary Sanders Pollock traces the development and evolution of primatology field narratives while reflecting upon the development of the discipline and the changing conditions within natural primate habitat. Like almost every other field primatologist who followed her, Jane Goodall recognized the individuality of her study animals: defying formal scientific protocols, she named her chimpanzee subjects instead of numbering them, thereby establishing a trend. For Goodall, Fossey, Sapolsky, and numerous other scientists whose works are discussed in Storytelling Apes, free-living primates became fully realized characters in romances, tragedies, comedies, and never-ending soap operas. With this work, Pollock shows readers with a humanist perspective that science writing can have remarkable literary value, encourages scientists to share their passions with the general public, and inspires the conservation community.