The Western Illusion of Human Nature

The Western Illusion of Human Nature
Author :
Publisher : Paradigm
Total Pages : 124
Release :
ISBN-10 : UCSC:32106017480564
ISBN-13 :
Rating : 4/5 (64 Downloads)

Book Synopsis The Western Illusion of Human Nature by : Marshall Sahlins

Download or read book The Western Illusion of Human Nature written by Marshall Sahlins and published by Paradigm. This book was released on 2008 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reflecting the decline in college courses on Western Civilization, Marshall Sahlins aims to accelerate the trend by reducing "Western Civ" to about two hours. He cites Nietzsche to the effect that deep issues are like cold baths; one should get into and out of them as quickly as possible. The deep issue here is the ancient Western specter of a presocial and antisocial human nature: a supposedly innate self-interest that is represented in our native folklore as the basis or nemesis of cultural order. Yet these Western notions of nature and culture ignore the one truly universal character of human sociality: namely, symbolically constructed kinship relations. Kinsmen are members of one another: they live each other's lives and die each other's deaths. But where the existence of the other is thus incorporated in the being of the self, neither interest, nor agency or even experience is an individual fact, let alone an egoistic disposition. "Sorry, beg your pardon," Sahlins concludes, Western society has been built on a perverse and mistaken idea of human nature.


The Western Illusion of Human Nature Related Books

The Western Illusion of Human Nature
Language: en
Pages: 124
Authors: Marshall Sahlins
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2008 - Publisher: Paradigm

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Reflecting the decline in college courses on Western Civilization, Marshall Sahlins aims to accelerate the trend by reducing "Western Civ" to about two hours. H
Neuroscience, Psychology, and Religion
Language: en
Pages: 173
Authors: Malcolm Jeeves
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2009-03-01 - Publisher: Templeton Foundation Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Neuroscience, Psychology, and Religion is the second title published in the new Templeton Science and Religion Series. In this volume, Malcolm Jeeves and Warren
The Perfectibility of Human Nature in Eastern and Western Thought
Language: en
Pages: 232
Authors: Harold Coward
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2012-02-01 - Publisher: State University of New York Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

How perfectible is human nature as understood in Eastern and Western philosophy, psychology, and religion? Harold Coward examines some of the very different ans
Gandhi: A Very Short Introduction
Language: en
Pages: 152
Authors: Bhikhu Parekh
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2001-02-22 - Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) was one of the few men in history to fight simultaneously on moral, religious, political, social, economic, and cultural
Lessons from an Optical Illusion
Language: en
Pages: 298
Authors: Edward M. Hundert
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 1995 - Publisher: Harvard University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book is a bold, modern recasting of the age-old nature-nurture debate, informed by revolutionary insights from brain science, artificial intelligence, psyc