Biological Bases of Human Social Behaviour

Exert from the preface: "Understanding human behavior involves problems infinitely more difficult than landing a man on the moon or unraveling the structure of complex molecules. The problems are also more important and more urgent. If we are to tackle them, we must use every source of evidence available to us. Studies of animals are one such source. Sometimes such studies are useful to the extent that animals resemble man, and sometimes they help just because animals are different and permit the study of issues in a simplified, isolated, or exaggerated form. They may assist us in understanding the behavior of man not only through factual comparison between animal and man but also by helping us to refine the categories and concepts used in the description and explanation of behavior and social structure. But the use of animals involves dangers: it is so easy to make rash generalizations, to slip from firm fact to flight of fancy, to select examples to fit preconceptions. Studies of animals must, therefore, be used circumspectly, and the limitations of their usefulness specified. In this book I have attempted to review some studies of non-human species which may help us to understand human social behaviour. In doing so I have selected for consideration topics to which the animal data seemed most clearly relevant. Thus I have concentrated on questions of causation and development, at the expense of those evolution and ecology. And, because their behavior is most likely to be relevant to our own, I have drawn most of the material from studies of non-human primates- though I have discussed data on other species when issues or principles could be better illustrated by doing so. This has involved the omission of many fascinating aspects of social behavior- for instance, I have hardly mentioned the social insects, and have included little material on lower vertebrates- but this seemed necessary if I were to pursue my chosen theme inadequate depth."

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Hinde, Robert A.

Psychology & Counseling

McGraw=Hill

McGraw-Hill Companies

Constraints on learning;: Limitations and predispositions, based on a conference sponsored by St. John's College, Cambridge, England

Academic Press

Why do animals--or people--behave as they do? The author examines the main aspects of ethology, believing that an ethological approach is important for many other sciences, both biological sciences and human social sciences.

Ethology: Its Nature and Relations with Other Sciences

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

Oxford University Press

Why do animals--or people--behave as they do? The author examines the main aspects of ethology, believing that an ethological approach is important for many other sciences, both biological sciences and human social sciences.

Everywhere people share certain moral principles--it is bad to steal, to kill, to lie--and yet we often subvert these rules. As Robert Hinde points out in this provocative book, the politician will vote with his party instead of his conscience, a lawyer will argue a point that he or she personally abhors. And this constant bending the rules ultimately endangers our world.   Hinde, an eminent Cambridge biologist and psychologist, here presents a new approach to morality--combining insights from evolutionary science with observations on how people actually behave. Featuring contributions by Nobel Peace Laureate Sir Joseph Rotblat, the book illuminates how rule-bending--hardening in-group boundaries, putting duty over other moral obligations, and much more--occurs within personal relationships, law, science, medicine, politics, business, and war. Hinde argues that many of the world's problems are related to the disregard of moral rules--for instance, racism, religious intolerance, excessive consumerism, and global warming. With growing reliance on nuclear weapons, we are heading for a world ruled by threat and fear, instead of one ruled by law and mutual understanding. We need a new understanding of morality, its nature, sources, and importance for communal living. This book helps to provide that understanding.

Bending the Rules: Morality in the Modern World - From Relationships to Politics and War

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Do-unto-others-as-you-would-have-them-do-unto-you. Who would disagree with this "Golden Rule?" We regard it as the basis of an absolute and universal morality. And yet it is considered acceptable to kill the enemy in war; for a businessman to do the best for himself; for a lawyer to argue professionally for a position he would personally reject. Are the moral rules we live by more flexible than they seem at first sight? In Bending the Rules Robert Hinde does not follow the much-trodden path of philosophizing about what is right and just. Instead, he uses an approach grounded in the behavioral sciences to explore the nature of morality, what people actually do, what they believe to be right, and what values they hold, and how these positions came to be. Such a deeper understanding of morality, he argues, as a product of biological and cultural evolution, and changing with social environment, holds out hope that we can avoid disaster and steer society towards peace and equity in the twenty-first century.

Bending the Rules: The Flexibility of Absolutes in Modern Life

Culture - broadly defined as all we learn from others that endures for long enough to generate customs and traditions - shapes vast swathes of our lives and has allowed the human species to dominate the planet in an evolutionarily unique way. Culture and cultural evolution are uniquely significant phenomena in evolutionary biology: they are products of biological evolution, yet they supplement genetic transmission with social transmission, thus achieving a certain independence from natural selection. However, cultural evolution nevertheless expresses key Darwinian processes itself and also interacts with genetic evolution. Just how culture fits into the grander framework of evolution is a big issue though, yet one that has received relatively little scientific attention compared to, for example, genetic evolution. Our 'capacity for culture' appears so distinctive among animals that it is often thought to separate we cultural beings from the rest of nature and the Darwinian forces that shape it. 'Culture Evolves' presents a different view arising from the recent discoveries of a diverse range of disciplines, that focus on evolutionary continuities. First, recent studies reveal that learning from others and the transmission of traditions are more widespread and significant across the animal kingdom than earlier recognized, helping us understand the evolutionary roots of culture. Second, archaeological discoveries have pushed back the origins of human culture to much more ancient times than traditionally thought. These developments together suggest important continuities between animal and human culture. A third new array of discoveries concerns the later diversification of human cultures, where the operations of Darwinian-like, cultural evolutionary processes are increasingly identified. Finally, surprising discoveries have been made about the imprint of cultural evolution in children's predisposition to acquire culture. The result of a major interdisciplinary meeting held by he Royal Society and the British Academy, this book presents the work of leading experts from the fields of ethology, behavioural ecology, primatology, comparative psychology, archaeology, anthropology, evolutionary biology and developmental psychology.

Culture Evolves

Laland, Kevin N.

Whiten, Andrew

Stringer, Christopher B.

Mental Health

Why Gods Persist: A Scientific Approach to Religion

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Sociology

Routledge

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor &amp; Francis, an informa company.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hinde, Robert A.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hinde, Robert A.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hinde, Robert A.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Biological Bases of Human Social Behaviour

Biological Bases of Human Social Behaviour

Constraints on learning;: Limitations and predispositions, based on a conference sponsored by St. John's College, Cambridge, England

Ethology: Its Nature and Relations with Other Sciences

Ethology: Its Nature and Relations with Other Sciences

Bending the Rules: Morality in the Modern World - From Relationships to Politics and War

Bending the Rules: The Flexibility of Absolutes in Modern Life

Culture Evolves

Why Gods Persist: A Scientific Approach to Religion

Why Gods Persist: A Scientific Approach to Religion