Sense and nonsense

by Gillian R. Brown

ISBN: 9780198908203

Published: 2024-12-13

Evolutionary theory is one of the most wide-ranging and inspiring scientific ideas, and it offers a battery of methods that can be used to interpret human behaviour. However, researchers disagree about the best ways to use evolution to explore humanity, and a number of schools of thought have emerged.Sense and Nonsense, third edition, provides an introduction to the ideas, methods and findings of five such schools, namely sociobiology, human behavioural ecology, evolutionary psychology, cultural evolution and gene-culture coevolution. In this revised and updated edition of their successful monograph, Brown and Lala provide a balanced and rigorous analysis that scrutinises both the evolutionary arguments and the allegations of the critics, carefully guiding the reader through the mire of confusing terminology, claim, and counter-claim, and polemical statements.This readable and informative introductory book will be of use to undergraduate and postgraduate students (for example in...