Product Description

John Dupré warns that our understanding of human nature is being distorted by two faulty and harmful forms of pseudo-scientific thinking. Not just in the academic world but increasingly in everyday life, we find one set of experts seeking to explain the ends at which humans aim in terms of evolutionary theory, and another set of experts using economic models to give rules of how we act to achieve those ends. Dupré charges this unholy alliance of evolutionary psychologists and rational-choice theorists with scientific imperialism: they use methods and ideas developed for one domain of inquiry in others where they are inappropriate. He demonstrates that these theorists' explanations do not work, and furthermore that if taken seriously their theories tend to have dangerous social and political consequences. For these reasons, it is important to resist scientism - an exaggerated conception of what science can be expected to do for us. To say this is in no way to be against science - just against bad science. Dupré restores sanity to the study of human nature by pointing the way to a proper understanding of humans in the societies that are our natural and necessary environments. He shows how our distinctively human capacities are shaped by the social contexts in which we are embedded. And he concludes with a bold challenge to one of the intellectual touchstones of modern science: the idea of the universe as causally complete and deterministic. In an impressive rehabilitation of the idea of free human agency, he argues that far from being helpless cogs in a mechanistic universe, humans are rare concentrations of causal power in a largely indeterministic world. Human Nature and the Limits of Science is a provocative, witty, and persuasive corrective to scientism. In its place, Dupré commends a pluralistic approach to science, as the appropriate way to investigate a universe that is not unified in form. Anyone interested in science and human nature will enjoy this book, unless they are its targets.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #810837 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 218 pages

Review
Dupre writes with considerable grace and economy...this book works very well indeed as a critique of the presumptions of two simplistic projects that wield undo influence on our conception of us. This critique alone is worth the price of the book. (Richard C. Francis, Biology and Philosophy )

'excellent, clear, and helpful'

His [Dupré's] criticisms are well made ... His approach is certainly interesting and deserving of both scrutiny and elaboration ... Dupré ends with the wonderful suggestion that his view leaves a role for philosophy as providing a "synoptic and integrative vision", and so moving "from underlabourer to Queen of the Sciences" (The Philosophers' Magazine )

About the Author
John Dupré is Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Exeter. He was formerly at Stanford University and Birkbeck College, London.

Customer Reviews

Human Nature and the Limits of Science
Dupré provides a well written, but sometimes subjective viewpoint on the qualms of evolutionary psychology and economic rationality, suggesting it is both imperialistic and lacking in supportive evidence. Dupré sees the field "as a bankrupt approach to understanding human behaviour” (Dupré, 2001, pg 16). The author urges the reader not to be seduced by the methodologies used in evolutionary psychology simply due to the fact that it has a highly applicable theory. He investigates specific areas of evolutionary psychology, including free-will, the evolution of sex and gender etc., and in this Dupré examines many of the older and the more current theories, including work by leading theorists such as Dennet, Wilson, Darwin, Gould and Dawkins etc.

In his criticism, Dupré distinguishes between ‘bad’ and ‘harmful’ science, suggesting evolutionary psychology is a bad science that has appeal due to bad ideology and bad philosophy. He answers these oversimplifications and errors by providing the reader with his own alternative to evolutionary psychology, emphasising an interaction between biology and the environment as the constitution of the mind. He therefore suggests that brains growing up surfing the internet will develop differently to those developed in the 13th century. Although Dupré provides a good argument, it does make too general a criticism of evolutionary psychology as a whole. His arguments also seem to be inconsistent. However, where subject matter may be complicated, examples are provided to aid in understanding, but these are often unrelated and empirical evidence is lacking. Nevertheless, Dupré provides us with a compelling and useful answer to the pseudo-scientific views of the media, as well as those in the field of Rational Choice Theory. I believe these strengths do outweigh the weaknesses, and so the book is therefore a must read for any evolutionary psychologist, students of the discipline, or anyone generally interested in the area of popular science!