What science offers the humanities : integrating body and culture / Edward Slingerland.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Slingerland, Edward, 1968-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophy.

Science and the humanities.

Humanity.

Human body.

Physical Description:

xv, 370 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Summary:

What Science Offers the Humanities examines some of the deep problems facing current approaches to the study of culture. It focuses especially on the excesses of postmodernism but also acknowledges serious problems with postmodernism's harshest critics. In short, Edward Slingerland argues that, in order for the humanities to progress, its scholars need to take seriously contributions from the natural sciences - in particular research on human cognition - which demonstrate that any separation of the mind and body is entirely untenable. The author provides suggestions for how humanists might begin to utilize these scientific discoveries without conceding that science has the last word on morality, religion, art, and literature. Calling into question such deeply entrenched dogmas as the "blank slate" theory of nature, strong social constructivism, and the ideal of disembodied reason, What Science Offers the Humanities replaces the humanities-sciences divide with a more integrated approach to the study of culture.

Contents:

Exorcising the ghost in the machine

Embodying culture

Defending vertical integration.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-355) and index.

ISBN:

9780521877701

0521877709

9780521701518

0521701511

OCLC:

123767083

Online:

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