TY - BOOK ID - 29233645 TI - Sense and nonsense : evolutionary perspectives on human behaviour. AU - Laland, Kevin N.. AU - Brown, Gillian PY - 2005 SN - 0198508840 PB - Oxford Oxford university press DB - UniCat KW - 159.9 KW - 130.123.42 KW - 130.123.42 Evolutie in de menselijke cultuur. Ontwikkelingsstadia van de mensheid KW - 130.123.42 Metabletica. Leer der veranderingen KW - Evolutie in de menselijke cultuur. Ontwikkelingsstadia van de mensheid KW - Metabletica. Leer der veranderingen KW - Psychologie KW - menselijk gedrag KW - comportement humain KW - Evolutionary psychology KW - Psychology KW - Human evolution KW - Evolution. Phylogeny KW - Human ecology. Social biology KW - Evolutionary psychology. KW - Psychologie évolutionniste. KW - evolutietheorie (darwinisme) KW - théorie de l'évolution (darwinisme) UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:29233645 AB - Can evolutionary theory really help us to understand human behaviour? This is an introduction to the science behind the works of Dawkins, Dennett, Wilson and Pinker. Including profiles of the major protagonists, the book provides a truly balanced account of evolutionary theories of human behaviour, and all their faults. Evolutionary theory is one of the most wide-ranging and inspiring of scientific ideas. It offers a battery of methods that can be used to help us understand human behaviour. Nevertheless, the legitimacy of this exercise is at the centre of a heated controversy that has raged for over a century. Many evolutionary biologists, anthropologists and psychologists have taken these evolutionary principles and tried using them to explain a wide range of human characteristics, such as homicide, religion and sex differences in behaviour. Others, however, are sceptical of these interpretations. Moreover, researchers disagree as to the best ways to use evolution to explore humanity, and a number of schools have emerged. 'Sense and Nonsense' provides an introduction to the ideas, methods, and findings of five such schools, namely, sociobiology, human behavioural ecology, evolutionary psychology, memetics, and gene-culture co-evolution. Carefully guiding the reader through the mire of confusing terminology, claim and counter-claim, and polemical statements, Laland and Brown provide a balanced, rigorous analysis that scrutinizes both the evolutionary arguments and the allegations of the critics. This is a book that will make fascinating reading for popular science readers, undergraduate and postgraduate students (for example, in psychology, anthropology and zoology), and for experts in one approach who would like to know more about the other perspectives. Having completed this book the reader will feel better placed to assess the legitimacy of claims made about human behaviour under the name of evolution, and to make judgements as to what is sense and what is nonsense. ER -