What Science Offers the Humanities

Integrating Body and Culture
Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-0-521-70151-8
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 384 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 631 g

What Science Offers the Humanities examines some of the deep problems facing current approaches to the study of culture. It focuses 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 - and particular research on human cognition - which demonstrate that any separation of the mind and the 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 human-sciences divide with a more integrated approach to the study of culture.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Slingerland, Edward

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Forschung und Information Datenanalyse, Datenverarbeitung
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Geisteswissenschaften
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschaftsphilosophie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Wissenschaften: Theorie, Epistemologie, Methodik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction; Part I. Exorcising the Ghost in the Machine: 1. The disembodied mind; 2. They live among us; 3. Pulling the plug; Part II. Embodying Culture: 4. Embodying culture; Part III. Defending Vertical Integration: 5. Defending the empirical; 6. Who's afraid of reductionism?; Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Slingerland, Edward
Edward Slingerland taught in the School of Religion and Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Southern California, where he was recipient of the 2002 General Education Teaching Award. He is currently Associate Professor of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia and is Canada Research Chair in Chinese Thought and Embodied Cognition. His previous books include The Annalects of Confucius and Effortless Action: Wu-wei as Conceptual Metaphor and Spiritual Ideal in Early China, which won the American Academy of Religion's 2003 Best First Book in the History of Religions Award.