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Readings

Darwin, instinct, and human nature.

Darwin, C. (1871) Ch.2 & 3 : “Comparison of the mental powers of man and the lower animals.” The Descent of Man (p. 1-5, 34-47, 84-93, 97-106).

Access the entire text here

Diane Paul (2003), “Darwin, Social Darwinism and Eugenics.” (p. 214-237)

Schwartz, J.S. (1984), Darwin, Wallace and the Descent of Man. Journal of the History of Biology, 17(2): 271-289.

Ethology

Lorenz, K. (1963), Excerpts from On Aggression. Methuen & Co. ltd.
(p.17-18, 26-39, 40-46, 57-60, 110-118, 189-202, 212-236).

Hess, E.H. (1958) Imprinting in Animals. Scientific American

Brigandt, I.(2005) The instinct concept of the early Konrad Lorenz.Journal of the History of Biology 38 (3):571–608.

Lehrman (1953), “A critique of Konrad Lorenz’s theory of instinctive behaviour.” Quarterly Review of Biology, 28(4): 337-363.

Sociobiology

Wilson, E.O. (1975) “Chapter 27 Man: From sociobiology to sociology.” Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. (p. 547- 574) .

Sociobiology Study Group of Science for the People (1976), “Sociobiology another biological determinism.” & response by Wilson, “Academic vigilantism and the political significance of socio-biology.” Bioscience, 26(3).

Lewontin, R. (1979), “Sociobiology as an adaptationist program” Behav Sci, 24: 5-14.

Evolutionary Psychology

Pinker, S. (1999), “The blank slate, the noble savage and the ghost in the machine”. The Tanner Lectures on Human Values.

Lang, Sober & Strier (2002), “Are human beings part of the rest of nature?” Biology and Philosophy 17: 661-71.

Evolutionary Moral Psychology

Haidt, J., & Joseph, C. (2007), “The moral mind.” In Stich et al In P. Carruthers, S. Laurence, and S. Stich (Eds.) The Innate Mind, Vol. 3. New York: Oxford, pp. (367-391).

Comparative Psychology

Boesch, C. (2007), “What makes us human (Homo sapiens)? The challenge of cognitive cross- species comparison.” J. of Comparative Psychology, 121, 227–240.

Tomasello, M. & Call, J. (2008) “Assessing the validity of ape-human comparisons: A reply to Boesch (2007). “Journal of Comparative Psychology, 122, 449- 452.

Species typicality and human nature

Hull, D. (1986), “On human nature.” PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association. 3-13.

Machery, E. (2008), “A plea for human nature.” Philosophical Psychology, 21: 321-329.

Innateness

Griffiths, P. (2002), “What is innateness?” The Monist, 85: 70-85. Griffiths and Machery.

Khaldi, (2009), "should we eliminate the innate?" Philosophical Psychology 22 (4):505 – 519.