Human Intelligence Gone Ape
Author: Josh Greenberger
Publisher: Josh Greenberger
Published: 1990
Total Pages: 82
ISBN-13:
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The Artificial Ape
Author: Timothy Taylor
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2010-07-20
Total Pages: 258
ISBN-13: 023010973X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA breakthrough theory that tools and technology are the real drivers of human evolution Although humans are one of the great apes, along with chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans, we are remarkably different from them. Unlike our cousins who subsist on raw food, spend their days and nights outdoors, and wear a thick coat of hair, humans are entirely dependent on artificial things, such as clothing, shelter, and the use of tools, and would die in nature without them. Yet, despite our status as the weakest ape, we are the masters of this planet. Given these inherent deficits, how did humans come out on top? In this fascinating new account of our origins, leading archaeologist Timothy Taylor proposes a new way of thinking about human evolution through our relationship with objects. Drawing on the latest fossil evidence, Taylor argues that at each step of our species' development, humans made choices that caused us to assume greater control of our evolution. Our appropriation of objects allowed us to walk upright, lose our body hair, and grow significantly larger brains. As we push the frontiers of scientific technology, creating prosthetics, intelligent implants, and artificially modified genes, we continue a process that started in the prehistoric past, when we first began to extend our powers through objects. Weaving together lively discussions of major discoveries of human skeletons and artifacts with a reexamination of Darwin's theory of evolution, Taylor takes us on an exciting and challenging journey that begins to answer the fundamental question about our existence: what makes humans unique, and what does that mean for our future?
Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Darwinism
Author: Geoffrey Cantor
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2008-09-15
Total Pages: 274
ISBN-13: 0226093018
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDarwin’s theory of evolution transformed the life sciences and made profound claims about human origins and the human condition, topics often viewed as the prerogative of religion. As a result, evolution has provoked a wide variety of religious responses, ranging from angry rejection to enthusiastic acceptance. While Christian responses to evolution have been studied extensively, little scholarly attention has been paid to Jewish reactions. Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Darwinism is the first extended meditation on the Jewish engagement with this crucial and controversial theory. The contributors to Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Darwinism—from several academic disciplines and two branches of the rabbinate—present case studies showing how Jewish discussions of evolution have been shaped by the intersections of faith, science, philosophy, and ideology in specific historical contexts. Furthermore, they examine how evolutionary theory has been deployed when characterizing Jews as a race, both by Zionists and by anti-Semites. Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Darwinism addresses historical and contemporary, as well as progressive and Orthodox, responses to evolution in America, Europe, and Israel, ultimately extending the history of Darwinism into new religious domains.
Personalities on the Plate
Author: Barbara J. King
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2017-03-15
Total Pages: 240
ISBN-13: 022619518X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"Rooted in the latest science, and built on a mix of firsthand experience (including entomophagy, which, yes, is what you think it is) and close engagement with the work of scientists, farmers, vets, and chefs, Personalities on the Plate is an unforgettable journey through the world of animals we eat."--Dust jacket.
Becoming Human
Author: Michael Tomasello
Publisher: Belknap Press
Published: 2019-01-14
Total Pages: 393
ISBN-13: 0674980859
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWinner of the William James Book Award Winner of the Eleanor Maccoby Book Award “A landmark in our understanding of human development.” —Paul Harris, author of Trusting What You’re Told “Magisterial...Makes an impressive argument that most distinctly human traits are established early in childhood and that the general chronology in which these traits appear can...be identified.” —Wall Street Journal Virtually all theories of how humans have become such a distinctive species focus on evolution. Becoming Human looks instead to development and reveals how those things that make us unique are constructed during the first seven years of a child’s life. In this groundbreaking work, Michael Tomasello draws from three decades of experimental research with chimpanzees, bonobos, and children to propose a new framework for psychological growth between birth and seven years of age. He identifies eight pathways that differentiate humans from their primate relatives: social cognition, communication, cultural learning, cooperative thinking, collaboration, prosociality, social norms, and moral identity. In each of these, great apes possess rudimentary abilities, but the maturation of humans’ evolved capacities for shared intentionality transform these abilities into uniquely human cognition and sociality. “How does human psychological growth run in the first seven years, in particular how does it instill ‘culture’ in us? ...Most of all, how does the capacity for shared intentionality and self-regulation evolve in people? This is a very thoughtful and also important book.” —Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution “Theoretically daring and experimentally ingenious, Becoming Human squarely tackles the abiding question of what makes us human.” —Susan Gelman “Destined to become a classic. Anyone who is interested in cognitive science, child development, human evolution, or comparative psychology should read this book.” —Andrew Meltzoff
Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
Author: Frans de Waal
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2016-04-25
Total Pages: 340
ISBN-13: 0393246191
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA New York Times bestseller: "A passionate and convincing case for the sophistication of nonhuman minds." —Alison Gopnik, The Atlantic Hailed as a classic, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? explores the oddities and complexities of animal cognition—in crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, chimpanzees, and bonobos—to reveal how smart animals really are, and how we’ve underestimated their abilities for too long. Did you know that octopuses use coconut shells as tools, that elephants classify humans by gender and language, and that there is a young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University whose flash memory puts that of humans to shame? Fascinating, entertaining, and deeply informed, de Waal’s landmark work will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal—and human—intelligence.
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
Author: Shmuel Waldman
Publisher: Feldheim Publishers
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 324
ISBN-13: 9781583306499
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book was written for the Jew who seeks evidence and proofs that the principal beliefs of Judaism are indeed true. Readable and friendly, inspiring and refreshing, this book presents the main issues of Judaism in depth. It includes compelling evidence to there being a Creator, evidence to the Divine origin of the Torah, to there being a spiritual soul and the World To Come, and Divine guidance throughout Jewish history. It discusses the problems with Evolution, and it deals with the Holocaust and human suffering. It also provides many other sources for further reading, and a glossary of terms. This is a newly adapted edition of the original work, tailored to meet the needs of beginners to Judaism. This volume contains website references and an added appendix on the origins of Christianity and Islam.
The Evolution of Thought
Author: Anne E. Russon
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2007-07-23
Total Pages: 396
ISBN-13: 1139451383
DOWNLOAD EBOOKResearch on the evolution of higher intelligence rarely combines data from fields as diverse as paleontology and psychology. In this volume we seek to do just that, synthesizing the approaches of hominoid cognition, psychology, language studies, ecology, evolution, paleoecology and systematics toward an understanding of great ape intelligence. Leading scholars from all these fields have been asked to evaluate the manner in which each of their topics of research inform our understanding of the evolution of intelligence in great apes and humans. The ideas thus assembled represent a comprehensive survey of the various causes and consequences of cognitive evolution in great apes. The Evolution of Thought will therefore be an essential reference for graduate students and researchers in evolutionary psychology, paleoanthropology and primatology.
Fossil Discoveries Disprove Evolution Beyond A Doubt
Author: Josh Greenberger
Publisher: Josh Greenberger
Published: 2012-11-27
Total Pages: 81
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book shows how the very fossil record that scientists often present as proof of the validity of the theory of evolution proves the precise opposite. Fossils are excellent "laboratory experiments" on a grand scale that assess what happened to life in the past. And they prove beyond any question that the emergence and progression of life did not occur in any way remotely resembling what is depicted by the theory of evolution. This may be a difficult pill for some people to swallow, but it's the facts that should dictate what science is. This book deals with provable facts, not unverifiable conjecture.
Going Ape
Author: Brandon Haught
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Published: 2014-04-22
Total Pages: 367
ISBN-13: 0813047579
DOWNLOAD EBOOKBefore William Jennings Bryan successfully prosecuted John Scopes in the infamous “Scopes Monkey Trial,” he was a prominent antievolution agitator in Florida. In Going Ape, Brandon Haught tells the riveting story of how the war over teaching evolution began and unfolded in Florida, one of the nation’s bellwether states. It still simmers just below the surface, waiting for the right moment to engulf the state. The saga opens with the first shouts of religious persecution and child endangerment in 1923 Tallahassee and continues today with forced delays and extra public hearings in state-level textbook adoptions. These ceaseless battles feature some of the most colorful culture warriors imaginable: a real estate tycoon throwing his fortune into campaigns in Miami; lawmakers attempting to insert the mandatory teaching of creationism into bills; and pastors and school board members squabbling in front of the national media that descends into their small town. The majority of participants, however, have been, and still are, average people, and Haught expertly portrays these passionate citizens and the sense of moral duty that drives each of them. Given a social climate where the teaching of evolution continues to sharply divide neighbors and communities, Going Ape is a must-read for anyone concerned with the future of public education.
