|
Can the insights of science provide a proper understanding
of human culture, or must we leave the analysis of culture to the so-called human
sciences? The ability to share knowledge and beliefs
is the pre-eminent characteristic of our species. Our lives are largely dictated
by what our own culture tells us is fulfilment; and people die in wars fought
because of culture. Science itself is a product of culture and the natural sciences
are the most powerful forms of knowledge we have. From explanations of the origins
of the universe to descriptions of the molecular structure of life, science has
a spectacular record of achievement. Yet it has mostly failed to provide an understanding
of human culture. The Imagined World Made Real
changes this by showing how a grasp of human evolution extends the reach of science.
A proper understanding of the mind can at last marry the biological and the social.
Plotkin shows how nature and nurture entwine the development of intelligence,
with cultural inheritance itself proving too be a powerful force in human evolution. Henry
Plotkin describes the beginnings of a comprehensive natural science of culture,
and hence the start of a truly general understanding of why people believe the
things they believe and do what they do. Culture can now be seen as a natural
extension and expression of processes that are actually billions of years old. Henry
Plotkin's work has been described as "required reading for humans with brains"
(The Times). He is Professor of Psychobiology at University College London
and the author of two previously published books by Penguin: Darwin Machines
and the Nature of Knowledge and Evolution in Mind. |
