Animal Nature and Human Nature - Hardcover

William Homan Thorpe

9780385082419: Animal Nature and Human Nature

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 038508241X ISBN 13: 9780385082419

Publisher: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1974

Eminent ethologist W. H. Thorpe conducts a brilliant and rigorous search through the animate and inanimate world to uncover the uniqueness of man. He brings to this study some fifty years of experimental and intellectual experience, interwoven with the philosophies of some of the world's greatest thinkers - from Plato to Kant, from Whitehead to Karl Popper. Dr. Thorpe begins by defining the differences between living and non-living things. He examines simple organisms, communication in vertebrates and invertebrates, innate behavior versus acquired behavior, animal perception, and finally the development of human behavior. Ultimately, he tackles the question of human nature. Man differs from the lower animals in his consciousness of his past, his awareness of his future, and his desire to understand the meaning of his existence. Dr. Thorpe believes that an immense responsibility lies with literate men of good will, particularly scientists, to convince man that he is the spearhead and custodian of a stupendous evolutionary process. Humankind, emerged from the lower forms of life, bound upward toward the pinnacle of an orderly succession. And man's religion - a progressive apprehension of spirit that began 100,000 years ago - can and must fulfill an ever-increasing role in his journey. "Animal Nature and Human Nature" integrates scientific fact with sound theological thought in a discourse that is profound, provocative - prophetic. [Based on the Gifford Lectures given by the author at St. Andrews University 1969-71]

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