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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > General > Philosophy of religion
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Human - A History (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R2,892
Discovery Miles 28 920
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Human - A History (Hardcover)
Series: Oxford Philosophical Concepts
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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What does it mean to be human? Is there something that makes us
distinct from computers, other great apes, Martians, gods? Is there
philosophical, ethical, or political value in continuing to think
in terms of a common human nature? Or should we rather throw this
concept into the dustbin of history? A paradox of the concept of
"human nature" is that it holds both the promise of universal
equality-insofar as it takes us all to share a common nature-while
all too often rationalizing exploitation, oppression, and even
violence against other individuals and other species. Most
appallingly, differences in skin color and other physiological
traits have been viewed as signs of a "lesser" humanity, or of
outright inhumanity, and used to justify great harms. The volume
asks: is the concept of human nature separable from the racist,
sexist, and speciest abuse that has been made of it? And is it even
possible-or desirable-to articulate a notion of human nature
unaffected by race or gender or class, as if it were possible to
observe humanity in a pure form? This volume traces the history of
the concept "human" by examining the history of claims about
distinctively human properties and capacities, and the ethical and
political repercussions of such accounts. Spanning the history of
philosophy, political science, religion, medical ethics, the
history of art and science fiction, it illuminates how our
self-understanding as "human" evolved across time and place-from
ancient Greek, classical Chinese, and medieval Arabic accounts of
human nature to contemporary evolutionary theory and the
transhumanist movement. It examines problems ranging from the
intelligibility of Incarnation (a relationship between divine and
human beings) to problems posed by genetic engineering and
artificial intelligence. Short pieces, or Reflections, are
interspersed among the chapters, which take up topics ranging from
Frankenstein to Marx's concept of human nature.
General
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