human nature – manwithoutqualities

Browse by:

November 13, 2011ants, collaboration, collective intentionality, collective knowledge, complexity, distributed cognition, distributed knowledge, Fukuyama, hobbes, human nature, locke, rousseau, social cognition, sociobiology, sociocognition, spontaneous order, stigmergic, stigmergic cognition, stigmergy

E.O. Wilson

Here’s an article in this month’s Atlantic. Rejecting the views of classic political philosophers like Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau that primitive humankind started out as a collection of scattered, unorganized individuals, Fukuyama writes: “Human sociability is not a historical or cultural acquisition, but something hardwired into human nature.” Nowhere is Wilson, who pioneered this view,…

August 17, 2011A Treatise of Human Nature, Elizabeth Radcliffe, human nature, hume, moral philosophy, rationality, reason, The Philosopher's Magazine

Being Hume Man

Here’s an article by Elizabeth Radcliffe from TPM on Hume: He makes the astounding declaration that “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.”

June 18, 2010david livingstone smith, dehumanization, evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, human nature, psychology, violence

Psychology Of Violence

My chum David Livingstone Smith’s contribution to Forbes‘ 25 Ideas To Change The World.

February 24, 2010anthony grayling, cognitive science, david livingstone smith, evolution, evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, hobbes, human nature, new england institute, war, war and peace

War and Human Nature

Here is a recent lecture by NEI director David Livingstone Smith. Check out David’s press page.

May 7, 2009david livingstone smith, evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, human nature, new england institute, war

Human nature and war

Here is NEI Director, David Livingstone Smith’s recent SUNY New Paltz lecture entitled “The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origin of War.” David is one of the leading experts in this field – really worth checking out.

February 20, 2009david livingstone smith, david smith, deception, evolutionary biology, human nature, self-deception, war and peace

Evolutionary roots of deception and self-deception

I want to bring your attention to the work of philosopher David Livingstone Smith. David is one of the foremost theorists in: 1. Biologically informed philosophical naturalism 2. Evolution and human nature 3. Deception and self-deception 4. The evolutionary psychology of war and peace 5. Dehumanization His recent books include Less Than Human (forthcoming); The…