Human Nature: Fact and Fiction Literature, Science and Human Nature

by Wells, Robin Headlam; McFadden, Johnjoe

• ISBN13: 9780826485458
• ISBN10: 0826485456
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-05-30
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

Human Nature: Fact and Fiction brings together a collection of inspiring, thought-provoking and original perspectives on human nature by ten leading writers, scientists and academics.There is in this v

Table of Contents

Contributors	vii
Foreword	xi
A. C. Grayling
Acknowledgements	xv
Introduction	1	(26)
Robin Headlam Wells
Johnjoe McFadden
I Is human nature written in our genes or in our books?
The biology of fiction	27	(13)
Steven Pinker
Literature, science and human nature	40	(23)
Ian McEwan
II Can science and literature collaborate to define human nature?
Literature and evolution	63	(19)
Joseph Carroll
Human nature: one for all and all for one?	82	(21)
Gabriel Dover
III What has biology got to do with imagination?
The biology of the imagination: how the brain can both play with truth and survive a predator	103	(8)
Simon Baron-Cohen
Biology and imagination: the role of culture	111	(17)
Catherine Belsey
The limits of imagination	128	(19)
Rita Carter
IV Do we need a theory of human nature to tell us how to act?
Human nature or human difference?	147	(17)
Ania Loomba
What science can and cannot tell us about human nature	164	(20)
Kenan Malik
The cat, the chisel, and the grave: an answer to the question 'do we need a theory of human nature in order to act?'	184	(10)
Philip Pullman
Index	194