Man, Beast and Zombie: The New Science of Human Nature: What Science Can and Cannot Tell Us About Human Nature - Hardcover

Malik, Kenan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297643053 ISBN 13: 9780297643050

Publisher: W&N, 2000

Synopsis

Are humans unique? Can animals think as we do? Will machines ever be conscious? What is free will? For centuries, attempts to answer these questions have been the stuff of theological and philosophical dispute, as well as bar-room debate. Now scientists claim they can solve these riddles of human existence, once and for all. In doing so they promise to upset many of the accepted ideas of morality and human nature. Man, Beast and Zombie is a thrillingly original and accessible book. Huge in its reach and powerful in its grasp, it draws on cutting-edge sciences such as evolutionary biology, cognitive psychology and Artificial Intelligence to assess what, precisely, they can and cannot explain about human nature. Kenan Malik explains the histories of these sciences and the philosophies that underpin them and analyses the complex relationship between human beings, animals and machines to explore what really makes us human. Malik's conclusions are important and controversial. He demonstrates that much contemporary Darwinism is flawed, how behaviours that occur universally in human beings are not necessarily biological in origin and that the existence of 'intelligence' genes, or 'aggression' genes is nonsense. Though wholly committed to reason and the scientific process, Man, Beast and Zombie challenges head-on some of today's most cherished theories. It deftly interweaves philosophy, science and history to answer the most fundamental question of all: What Are We?

About this title

Review

Writer and neuroscientist Kenan Malik follows his highly acclaimed The Meaning of Race with the weighty and ambitious Man, Beast and Zombie: What Science Can and Cannot Tell Us About Human Nature. The book, Malik tells us, is "in part an exploration of the scientific arguments about human nature; in part it is a study of cultural history, about the impact of intellectual and cultural changes on scientific conceptions of the human; and in part it is an attempt to understand the philosophical framework within which the contemporary science of Man works". At the heart of the book are well-informed and often discriminating critical discussions of evolutionary psychology and cognitive science. For instance, Malik denies that the claims of sociobiologists or evolutionary psychologists are merely political claims masquerading as scientific ones or that the claims of EP are inherently racist. He treats both sociobiology and EP as serious--albeit seriously flawed--contributions to the debate about human nature.

Malik wants to recover the humanist vision epitomised by Jacob Bronowski's wonderful series of 30 years ago, The Ascent of Man, and to counter the prevailing pessimistic, sceptical, ironic, self-regarding spirit of the age: a view which allows us to think of Man as "weak, wretched, barbarous, savage, inhuman, as maniacs and murderers, tramps, mobs, rabble, flotsam, vermin. But never again, it seems, as dignified and noble, or as the measure of all things".

The shame of it is that Malik's humanist vision is never really fleshed out and so the detailed criticisms of evolutionary psychologists and cognitive scientists swing free of the question of whether or not those particular individuals and their work actually do exacerbate the bleakly pessimistic view of Man Malik describes.

More generally Man, Beast and Zombie falls short of the broad synthesis of philosophy, cultural history and science it purports to be because the various parts do not make a satisfying, persuasive whole. Nevertheless it is still a well-written, detailed and informative book for those interested in the Darwin Wars and the intra/inter-disciplinary squabbles which characterise it. --Larry Brown

Review

'Man, Beast and Zombie is sure to take its place as the most thoughtful and insightful assessment of the contemporary claims of science. Kenan Malik is even-handed between science's friends and foes, and he steers a course all of his own. Not least, he is a most accomplished writer.' -- Roy Porter

'A ray of common sense in a fog of pseudoscience - Brilliant.' -- Steve Jones

Edition details

• Publisher: W&N
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0297643053
• ISBN 13: 9780297643050
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 384