Mar 28, 2024  
Undergraduate Bulletin 2014-2015 
    
Undergraduate Bulletin 2014-2015 [ARCHIVED BULLETIN]

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HNSM 352 - Darwin, Monkeys, Computers and Shakespeare

3 hours
What makes human beings human? Can 100 monkeys with iPads produce Hamlet? The central work of the course, Darwin’s Origin of Species, presents an evolutionary theory that questions the existence of a natural end for man. For most Darwinians, man is just another animal that evolves without any particular end. There is a natural being that is biologically driven and a human being who is culturally constructed, but no natural human being. Since man has no natural end, then no society, culture, or behavior can be universally wrong, just culturally unacceptable. This course will examine whether a Darwinian natural moral sense in the species can exist by discussing topics such as a parents love of children, conjugal bonding of opposite sex partners, slavery, and psychopaths. Along with Darwin’s major work and smaller readings, we will read Darwinian Natural Right: The Biological Ethics of Human Nature by Larry Arnhart.



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