Essential Building Blocks of Human Nature

• Corporate Author: SpringerLink (Online service)
• Other Authors: Frey, Ulrich J. (Editor), Störmer, Charlotte (Editor), Willführ, Kai P. (Editor)
• Format: Electronic eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2011.
• Edition: 1.
• Series: The Frontiers Collection,
• Subjects: Life sciences.; Epistemology.; Evolutionary biology.; Psychology.; Cognitive psychology.; Life Sciences.; Evolutionary Biology.; Popular Science in Psychology.; Cognitive Psychology.

To understand why we humans are as we are, it is necessary to look at the essential building blocks that comprise our nature. The foundations of this structure are our evolutionary origins as primates and our social roots. Upon these rest features such as our emotions, language and aesthetic prefere...

Table of Contents:

• Our Origins: How and Why We Do and Do Not Differ from Primates; Peter Kappeler
• Our Children: Parental Decisions - How Much to Invest in Your Offspring; Mary K. Shenk
• Our Social Roots: How Local Ecology Shapes our Social Structures; Ruth Mace
• Our Selections and Decisions: Inherent Features of the Nervous System?; Frank Rösler
• Our Gods: Variation in Supernatural Minds; Benjamin G. Purzycki and Richard Sosis
• Our Preferences: Why We Like What We Like; Karl Grammer and Elisabeth Oberzaucher
• Our Appetite for Information: Invented Environment, Non-Transparent Mind, and Evolved Preferences; Matthias Uhl
• Our Best Shot at Truth: Why Humans Evolved Mathematical Abilities; Niklas Krebs
• Our Way to Understand the World: Darwin’s Controversial Inheritance; Michael Schmidt-Salomon
• Index.