Synopses & Reviews
John Dupré explores the ways in which we categorize animals, including humans, and comes to refreshingly radical conclusions. It is a mistake to think that each organism has an essence that determines its necessary place in a unique hierarchy. We should reject the misguided concepts of a universal human nature and normality in human behavior. He shows that we must take a pluralistic view of biology and the human sciences.
Synopsis
John Dupré explores the ways in which we categorize animals, including humans, and comes to refreshingly radical conclusions. It is a mistake to think that each organism has an essence that determines its necessary place in a unique hierarchy. We should reject the misguided concepts of a universal human nature and normality in human behavior. He shows that we must take a pluralistic view of biology and the human sciences.
About the Author
John Dupré is Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Exeter. He was formerly at Stanford University and the University of London.
Table of Contents
Introduction
I.Kinds of Animals in Everyday Life
1. Natural Kinds and Biological Taxa
2. Are Whales Fish?
II. Kinds of Animals in Biological Science
3. On the Impossibility of a Monistic Account of Species
4. In Defence of Classification
III. Kinds of Kinds
5. Is 'Natural Kind' a Natural Kind Term?
IV. Kinds of People
6. Human Kinds
7. Darwin and Human Nature
V. Gendered People
8. Sex, Gender, and Essence
9. What the Theory of Evolution Can't Tell Us
VI. Differences between Humans and Other Animals
10. The Mental Lives of Non-Human Animals
11. Conversations with Apes