Man, Beast, and Zombie: What Science Can and Cannot Tell Us about Human Nature

By Kenan Malik

Book Overview

A fascinating examination of what science can and cannot explain about human nature. Are humans unique? Can animals think as we do? Will machines ever have consciousness? What is free will? For centuries, attempts to answer these questions have been the stuff of both bar-room debates and intense theological and philosophical dispute. Now scientists claim they can solve these riddles of human existence once and for all. In so doing, they promise to upset many of the accepted ideas about morality and human nature. Man, Beast, and Zombie is an original and accessible book. Vast in its scope, it draws on cutting-edge sciences such as evolutionary biology, cognitive psychology, and artificial intelligence to assess what, precisely, science can and cannot explain about human nature. Kenan Malik explains the histories of these sciences (and the philosophies that underpin them) and analyzes the complex relationship between human beings, animals, and machines to explore what really makes us human. Malik demonstrates that much current thinking about human nature is flawed: how there is more than one way to design a mind; why the lifestyles of contemporary hunter-gatherers do not illuminate the lives of our prehistoric ancestors; and what intelligent machines really reveal about human consciousness. He shows, too, how the scientific debate about human nature is as influenced by politics as by science. Man, Beast, and Zombie is both a defense of scientific reason and a challenge to some of todays most cherished scientific theories. It deftly interweaves philosophy, science, and history to answer the most fundamental question of all: what is a human being?

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813531225
• ISBN13: 9780813531229
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

A fresh new perspective of race and multiculturalism

Is pluralism the most progressive standpoint or does progressive pluralism hold only slightly less racism than conservatism? Malik challenges the decades-old notion that pluralism is the best option for minorities, which most of us have taken for granted since the 70's. I must say that his compelling arguments have had an enormous impact on my political views and changed my perspective on many issues. My only issue with this book is that he goes into ridiculous amounts of mundane detail. If you have the patience to wade through those details, there are all kinds of interesting new perspectives to find.

First class

Written with a breadth of knowledge, Malik doesn't disdain evidence taken from popular culture, but his work is replete with academic learning too. His thesis is challenging and well argued, and the book has the rare merit of proposing a view that sets the reader thinking on their own, and not just about race but all forms of socially constructed reality. First class.