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Adaptation (Biology) --- Ecology. --- Euthenics. --- Nature and nurture.

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Brain --- Nature and nurture. --- Human genetics --- Physiology. --- Variation.

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How did human minds become so different from those of other animals? What accounts for our capacity to understand the way the physical world works, to think ourselves into the minds of others, to gossip, read, tell stories about the past, and imagine the future? These questions are not new: they have been debated by philosophers, psychologists, anthropologists, evolutionists, and neurobiologists over the course of centuries. One explanation widely accepted today is that humans have special cognitive instincts. Unlike other living animal species, we are born with complicated mechanisms for reasoning about causation, reading the minds of others, copying behaviors, and using language. Cecilia Heyes agrees that adult humans have impressive pieces of cognitive equipment. In her framing, however, these cognitive gadgets are not instincts programmed in the genes but are constructed in the course of childhood through social interaction. Cognitive gadgets are products of cultural evolution, rather than genetic evolution. At birth, the minds of human babies are only subtly different from the minds of newborn chimpanzees. We are friendlier, our attention is drawn to different things, and we have a capacity to learn and remember that outstrips the abilities of newborn chimpanzees. Yet when these subtle differences are exposed to culture-soaked human environments, they have enormous effects. They enable us to upload distinctively human ways of thinking from the social world around us. As Cognitive Gadgets makes clear, from birth our malleable human minds can learn through culture not only what to think but how to think it.--

Cognition and culture. --- Evolutionary psychology. --- Nature and nurture. --- Social evolution.

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Human health and well-being are inextricably linked to nature; our connection to the natural world is part of our biological inheritance. In this engaging book, a pioneer in the field of biophilia-the study of human beings' inherent affinity for nature-sets forth the first full account of nature's powerful influence on the quality of our lives. Stephen Kellert asserts that our capacities to think, feel, communicate, create, and find meaning in life all depend upon our relationship to nature. And yet our increasing disconnection and alienation from the natural world reflect how seriously we have undervalued its important role in our lives.Weaving scientific findings together with personal experiences and perspectives, Kellert explores specific human tendencies-including affection, aversion, intellect, control, aesthetics, exploitation, spirituality, and communication-to discover how they are influenced by our relationship with nature. He observes that a beneficial relationship with the natural world is an instinctual inclination, but must be earned. He discusses how we can restore the balance in our relationship by means of changes in childhood development, education, conservation, building design, ethics, and everyday life. Kellert's moving book provides exactly what is needed now: a fresh understanding of how much our essential humanity relies on being a part of the natural world.

Human ecology --- Human beings --- Philosophy of nature. --- Nature --- Nature, Philosophy of --- Natural theology --- Environmental effects on human beings --- Nature and nurture --- Philosophy. --- Effect of environment on. --- Philosophy

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Nature and nurture. --- Environment --- Genetics and environment --- Heredity and environment --- Nature --- Nature versus nurture --- Nurture and nature --- Genetics --- Heredity --- Human beings --- Nurture --- Effect of environment on --- Environment and genetics --- Environment and heredity