Friday, 3 December 2010
Do Human Beings Have a Nature?
Richard Samuels
Visiting Fellow (CPS)
Ohio State University, Philosophy
12:05 pm, 817R Cathedral of Learning

::: photos

Abstract: Debates about human nature have a long and influential intellectual heritage; and they continue to figure prominently in certain areas of contemporary science, especially those sciences concerned with human behavior and cognition. Yet there are some well-known problems with the very notion of human nature, as traditionally construed, that have led many to conclude that human nature could not be a legitimate object of scientific enquiry. In this talk I address the following question: What sense, if any, can be made of the claim that there is a scientifically discoverable human nature?