Description
NATURE OR NURTURE? AS THE CONTROVERSY HEATS UP, NEW EVIDENCE IS RESHAPING OUR WORLD.
Ever since Darwin placed mankind at the top of the evolutionary ladder, subject to the same forces of natural selection that have shaped the bodies and behavior of all living things, the question has raged: What is human nature? Is our behavior culturally learned? Or is it genetically programmed into our brains?
Are we, as some scientists claim, innately aggressive killers? Are human characteristics such as love and altruism merely the workings of "biological determinism"? Are there fundamental emotional and intellectual differences between men and women? Are humans naturally monogamous? Are there genes that predispose us toward antisocial behavior?
Renowned scientist-author Richard Morris traces our changing scientific theories to show how they have been used and misused to justify every kind of social structure from democracy and capitalism to fascism; how they have profoundly influenced the thinking of leaders from Rockefeller and Roosevelt to Marx and Hitler; and how current scientific breakthroughs are impacting our world today. Piecing together leading-edge discoveries from all the life sciences, Richard Morris ventures a startling answer of his own to the age-old mystery of what it means to be human.
ISBN:071001003758
