The Boundaries of Humanity: Humans, Animals, MachinesJames J. Sheehan, Morton Sosna To the age-old debate over what it means to be human, the relatively new fields of sociobiology and artificial intelligence bring new, if not necessarily compatible, insights. What have these two fields in common? Have they affected the way we define humanity? These and other timely questions are addressed with colorful individuality by the authors of The Boundaries of Humanity. Leading researchers in both sociobiology and artificial intelligence combine their reflections with those of philosophers, historians, and social scientists, while the editors explore the historical and contemporary contexts of the debate in their introductions. The implications of their individual arguments, and the often heated controversies generated by biological determinism or by mechanical models of mind, go to the heart of contemporary scientific, philosophical, and humanistic studies. Contributors: Arnold I. Davidson, John Dupré, Roger Hahn, Stuart Hampshire, Evelyn Fox Keller, Melvin Konner, Alan Newell, Harriet Ritvo, James J. Sheehan, Morton Sosna, Sherry Turkle, Bernard Williams, Terry Winograd This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1991. |
Contents
Bernard Williams | 13 |
The Animal Connection | 68 |
Reflections on Biology and Culture | 131 |
The Meaning of the Mechanistic | 142 |
Can There Be? Are | 198 |
Biology Machines and Humanity | 253 |
James J Sheehan | 259 |
CONTRIBUTORS | 267 |
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The Boundaries of Humanity: Humans, Animals, Machines James J. Sheehan,Morton Sosna Limited preview - 2024 |
Common terms and phrases
Allen Newell argued artificial intelligence behavior biological brain breeders breeding Cambridge century chess claim cognitive science competition complex concept connectionism context contrary to nature creative culture Descartes described discussion Dreyfus emergent emotion encoding ethology evolutionary theory example experience expert systems female genes genetics horror human nature humans and animals Ibid idea individual intellectual interactions kind knowledge Konner language logical machines male means mechanical Mechanistic Age Melvin Konner memory metaphor for mind Minsky models monsters natural selection Newell objects operations organism Paré Paré's phenomena philosophy physical physical symbol system problem spaces prodigies produce provides psychology question reason representation reproduction revolution romantic rules scientific scientists sense sexual Seymour Papert Sherry Turkle Simon Soar social society Society of Mind sociobiology species structure task Terry Winograd theory of mind things thought tion tradition Turkle understanding University Press Winograd York