Where Biology Meets Psychology
Where Biology Meets Psychology

Author: Valerie Gray Hardcastle

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 9780262581745

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A great deal of interest and excitement surround the interface between the philosophy of biology and the philosophy of psychology, yet the area is neither well defined nor well represented in mainstream philosophical publications. This book is perhaps the first to open a dialogue between the two disciplines. Its aim is to broaden the traditional subject matter of the philosophy of biology while informing the philosophy of psychology of relevant biological constraints and insights.The book is organized around six themes: functions and teleology, evolutionary psychology, innateness, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and parallels between philosophy of biology and philosophy of mind. Throughout, one finds overlapping areas of study, larger philosophical implications, and even larger conceptual ties. Woven through these connections are shared concerns about the status of semantics, scientific law, evolution and adaptation, and cognition in general. Contributors André Ariew, Mark A. Bedau, David J. Buller, Paul Sheldon Davies, Stephen M. Downes, Charbel Niño El-Hani, Owen Flanagan, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Todd Grantham, Valerie Gray Hardcastle, Gary Hatfield, Daniel W. McShea, Karen Neander, Shaun Nichols, Antonio Marcos Pereira, Tom Polger, Lawrence A. Shapiro, Kim Sterelny, Robert A. Wilson, William C. Wimsatt

Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology
Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology

Author: Robert C. Richardson

Publisher: Bradford Book

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13:

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Takes a critical look at evolutionary psychology by subjecting its ambitious and controversial claims to the same sorts of methodological and evidential constraints that are broadly accepted within evolutionary biology.

Biological Psychology
Biological Psychology

Author: Minna Lyons

Publisher: Learning Matters

Published: 2014-03-21

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0857256955

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This accessible introductory text addresses the core knowledge domain of biological psychology, with focused coverage of the central concepts, research and debates in this key area. Biological Psychology outlines the importance and purpose of the biological approach and contextualises it with other perspectives in psychology, emphasizing the interaction between biology and the environment. Learning features including case studies, review questions and assignments are provided to aid students′ understanding and promote a critical approach. Extended critical thinking and skill-builder activities develop the reader′s higher-level academic skills.

What's Left of Human Nature?
What's Left of Human Nature?

Author: Maria Kronfeldner

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2018-10-16

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13: 0262038412

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A philosophical account of human nature that defends the concept against dehumanization, Darwinian, and developmentalist challenges. Human nature has always been a foundational issue for philosophy. What does it mean to have a human nature? Is the concept the relic of a bygone age? What is the use of such a concept? What are the epistemic and ontological commitments people make when they use the concept? In What's Left of Human Nature? Maria Kronfeldner offers a philosophical account of human nature that defends the concept against contemporary criticism. In particular, she takes on challenges related to social misuse of the concept that dehumanizes those regarded as lacking human nature (the dehumanization challenge); the conflict between Darwinian thinking and essentialist concepts of human nature (the Darwinian challenge); and the consensus that evolution, heredity, and ontogenetic development result from nurture and nature. After answering each of these challenges, Kronfeldner presents a revisionist account of human nature that minimizes dehumanization and does not fall back on outdated biological ideas. Her account is post-essentialist because it eliminates the concept of an essence of being human; pluralist in that it argues that there are different things in the world that correspond to three different post-essentialist concepts of human nature; and interactive because it understands nature and nurture as interacting at the developmental, epigenetic, and evolutionary levels. On the basis of this, she introduces a dialectical concept of an ever-changing and “looping” human nature. Finally, noting the essentially contested character of the concept and the ambiguity and redundancy of the terminology, she wonders if we should simply eliminate the term “human nature” altogether.

Beyond Versus
Beyond Versus

Author: James Tabery

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2023-10-31

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 0262549603

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Why the “nature versus nurture” debate persists despite widespread recognition that human traits arise from the interaction of nature and nurture. If everyone now agrees that human traits arise not from nature or nurture but from the interaction of nature and nurture, why does the “nature versus nurture” debate persist? In Beyond Versus, James Tabery argues that the persistence stems from a century-long struggle to understand the interaction of nature and nurture—a struggle to define what the interaction of nature and nurture is, how it should be investigated, and what counts as evidence for it. Tabery examines past episodes in the nature versus nurture debates, offers a contemporary philosophical perspective on them, and considers the future of research on the interaction of nature and nurture. From the eugenics controversy of the 1930s and the race and IQ controversy of the 1970s to the twenty-first-century debate over the causes of depression, Tabery argues, the polarization in these discussions can be attributed to what he calls an “explanatory divide”—a disagreement over how explanation works in science, which in turn has created two very different concepts of interaction. Drawing on recent developments in the philosophy of science, Tabery offers a way to bridge this explanatory divide and these different concepts integratively. Looking to the future, Tabery evaluates the ethical issues that surround genetic testing for genes implicated in interactions of nature and nurture, pointing to what the future does (and does not) hold for a science that continues to make headlines and raise controversy.

Biological Psychology
Biological Psychology

Author: James W. Kalat

Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing Company

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 584

ISBN-13: 9781111839529

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Dr. James W. Kalat's BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY, 11E, International Edition is the most widely used text in the course area, and for good reason: an extremely high level of scholarship, clear and occasionally humorous writing style, and precise examples. Throughout all eleven editions, Kalat's goal has been to make biological psychology accessible to psychology students, not just to biology majors and pre-meds. Another goal has been to convey the excitement of the search for biological explanations of behavior, and Kalat delivers. Updated with new topics, examples, and recent research findings and supported by a strong media package this text speaks to today's students and instructors.

Evolutionary Psychology
Evolutionary Psychology

Author: David Buss

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2015-10-02

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 1317345746

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This book examines human psychology and behavior through the lens of modern evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary Psychology: The Ne w Science of the Mind, 5/e provides students with the conceptual tools of evolutionary psychology, and applies them to empirical research on the human mind. Content topics are logically arrayed, starting with challenges of survival, mating, parenting, and kinship; and then progressing to challenges of group living, including cooperation, aggression, sexual conflict, and status, prestige, and social hierarchies. Students gain a deep understanding of applying evolutionary psychology to their own lives and all the people they interact with.

Where God and Science Meet
Where God and Science Meet

Author: Patrick McNamara Ph.D.

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2006-09-30

Total Pages: 918

ISBN-13: 0313054762

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Spiritual practices, or awakenings, have an impact on brain, mind and personality. These changes are being scientifically predicted and proven. For example, studies show Buddhist priests and Franciscan nuns at the peak of religious feelings show a functional change in the lobes of their brain. Similar processes have been found in people with epilepsy, which Hippocrates called the sacred disease. New research is showing that not only does a person's brain activity change in particular areas while that person is experiencing religious epiphany, but such events can be created for some people, even self-professed atheists, by stimulating various parts of the brain. In this far-reaching and novel set, experts from across the nation and around the world present evolutionary, neuroscientific, and psychological approaches to explaining and exploring religion, including the newest findings and evidence that have spurred the fledgling field of neurotheology. It is not the goal of neurotheology to prove or disprove the existence of God, but to understand the biology of spiritual experiences. Such experiences seem to exist outside time and space - caused by the brain for some reason losing its perception of a boundary between physical body and outside world - and could help explain other intangible events, such as altered states of consciousness, possessions, alien visitations, near-death experiences and out-of-body events. Understanding them - as well as how and why these abilities evolved in the brain - could also help us understand how religion contributes to survival of the human race. Eminent contributors to this set help us answer questions including: How does religion better our brain function? What is the difference between a religious person and a terrorist who kills in the name of religion? Is there one site or function in the brain necessary for religious experience?

Evolutionary Psychology
Evolutionary Psychology

Author: Matthew Rossano

Publisher:

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13:

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Written in a lively and engaging manner, this new work places evolutionary psychology within the broad sweep of our primate heritage and the full scope of our evolutionary story. Beginning with the basics of evolution, the book first unpacks the far-ranging saga of human evolution, then moves on to examine motor behavior and emotions, sexual behavior and mate selection, and higher cognition.

Conservation Psychology
Conservation Psychology

Author: Susan Clayton

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2011-09-19

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1444356410

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This textbook introduces the reader to the new and emerging field of Conservation Psychology, which explores connections between the study of human behavior and the achievement of conservation goals. People are often cast as villains in the story of environmental degradation, seen primarily as a threat to healthy ecosystems and an obstacle to conservation. But humans are inseparable from natural ecosystems. Understanding how people think about, experience, and interact with nature is crucial for promoting environmental sustainability as well as human well-being. The book first summarizes theory and research on human cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to nature and goes on to review research on people's experience of nature in wild, managed, and urban settings. Finally, it examines ways to encourage conservation-oriented behavior at both individual and societal levels. Throughout, the authors integrate a wide body of published literature to demonstrate how and why psychology is relevant to promoting a more sustainable relationship between humans and nature.