Fordham Univ Press, Aug 1, 2009 - 395 pages In this classic work, Adler explores how man differs from all other things in the universe, bringing to bear both philosophical insight and informed scientific hypotheses concerning the biological and behavioral characteristics of mainkind. Rapid advances in science and technology and the abstract concepts of that influence on man and human value systems are lucidly outlined by Adler, as he touches on the effect of industrialization, and the clash of cultures and value systems brought about by increased communication between previously isolated groups of people. Among the other problems this study addresses are the scientific achievements in biology and physics which have raised fundamental questions about humanity's essential nature, especially the discoveries in the bilogical relatedness of all living things. Thrown into high relief is humanity's struggle to determine its unique status in the natual world and its value in the world it has created. Ultimately, Adler's work develops an approach to the separation between scientific and philosophical questions which stands as a model of thought on philosophical considerations of new scientific discoveries and its consequences for the human person. |
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action Adler animal behavior answer Aquinas argument Aristotle assert behavior of non-linguistic brain Chapter comparative psychologists concept-formation concepts conceptual thought continuum of degrees critical threshold Darwin Descartes designators difference in kind differences in degree differs radically distinction Dobzhansky dolphins Donald Hebb ence Evolution existence experimental explain fact factors forms fossil function human behavior ibid identity hypothesis immaterialist hypothesis instinctive intellectual issue J. J. C. Smart Julian Huxley learned Leibniz linguistic behavior machines man's difference materialist meaning mind mind-body problem moral neurological non-linguistic animals non-verbal objects observed operative paleoanthropologists perceived perceptual abstractions perceptual thought philosophical phylogenetic continuity position possession power of conceptual problem processes propositional language propositional speech psychological question radical difference radically in kind reason robot scientists Sellars sense signals signify species Summa Theologica superficial difference theoretical constructs theory things tion truth Turing Turing machine understand unique verbal words