Overview

The Ascent of Man develops a comprehensive theory of human nature. James F. Harris sees human nature as an emergent property that supervenes a cluster of properties. Despite significant overlap between individuals that have human nature and those that are biologically human, the concept of human nature developed in this book is different. Whether biologically human or not, an individual may be said to possess human nature. This theory of human nature is called the-cluster theory.- Harris takes as his point of departurePlato's comment that in learning what a thing is we should look to the ways in which it acts upon or is acted upon by other things. He commits to a methodological naturalism and draws upon current views from the social and biological sciences. The cluster theory he develops represents one of the very few completely novel theories of human nature developed in the post-Darwin era. It will prove most useful in dealing with philosophical questions involving such contemporary issues as cloning, cybernetics, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. The fundamental conceptual issue is how plastic and elastic is the nature of human nature. Just how different might we imagine human beings to be and still be human in the sense that they still possess whatever it is that accounts for a unique nature? The theory of human nature developed in this book is a descriptive, dynamic, bottom-up, non-essentialist, naturalist theory. Harris is well versed in classical philosophy and contemporary behavioral science. He writes in a graceful, open-ended way that both educates and illuminates renewed interest in what it means to be human.

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9781412814218

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<p> (Harris) carefully argues his case against two views: essentialist views, which tend to be top-down, for instance, that an immortal soul is introduced into the world from a metaphysically distinct realm; and anti-essentialist views, which tend to be bottom-up, in that human nature is socially constructed. Harris maintains that human nature is best explained by his nonessentialist view: human nature supervenes on a cluster of properties that developed in a particular way through biological and cultural history....The upshot is an original account of human nature that attempts to account for the wide differences among people. No small feat. Highly recommended. <p> --P. Jenkins, Choice

Author Information

James F. Harris is Francis S. Haserot Professor Emeritus in the department of philosophy at the College of William and Mary. He is the author of several books, including Against Relativism: A Philosophical Defense of Method, Analytic Philosophy of Religion, and The Ascent of Man: A Philosophy of Human Nature (Transaction).

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