Conversations on Human Nature

Agustín Fuentes, Aku Visala

Based on interviews with twenty leading scholars, Conversations on Human Nature probes the question of what it means to be human from evolutionary, biological, philosophical, cultural, and theological points of view.

Preface Chapter 1: Introduction: Human Nature as a Contested Concept Innate, Unique and Universal Nature Evolution and Human Nature: basic issues Humans as Biocultural Animals Persons, Minds and Human Nature Theology and Human Nature Chapter 2: Evolution, Brains and Human Nature Francisco Ayala (biology, UCLA, US) Kevin Laland (biology, St. Andrews Univ, UK) Patrick Bateson (biology, Cambridge Univ, UK) Robin Dunbar (evolutionary psychology, Oxford Univ, UK) Eduard Machery (philosophy, Univ Pittsburgh, US) Chapter 3: The Biocultural Animal: Culture and Human Evolution Tim Ingold (anthropology, Aberdeen Univ, UK) Jonathan Marks (anthropology, Univ North-Carolina at Charlotte, US) Robert Sussman (anthropology, Washington Univ, US) Kim Sterelny (philosophy, Australian National Univ, Australia) Warren Brown (psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary, US) Barbara King (anthropology, College of William & Mary, US) Chapter 4: Persons and Human Nature Dean Zimmerman (philosophy, Rutgers Univ, US) Richard Swinburne (philosophy, Oxford Univ, UK) Christian Smith (sociology, Univ Notre Dame, US) Carl Gillett (philosophy, Northern Illinois Univ, US) Lynne Rudder Baker (philosophy, Univ Massachusetts Amherst, US) Philip Sloan (history and philosophy of Science, Univ Notre Dame, US) Chapter 5: Human Nature from a Religious Perspective Lluis Oviedo (theology, Antonianum, Italy) J. Wentzel van Huyssteen (theology, Princeton Univ, US) Celia Deane-Drummond (theology, Univ Notre Dame, US) Joel Greene (theology, Fuller Theological Seminary, US) Wesley Wildman (theology/philosophy, Boston Univ, US) Chapter 6: Looking Back and Moving Forward: Summary and Future Possibilities References Index About the Authors About the Interviewees