The Battle for Human Nature: Science, Morality and Modern Life / Edition 1

by Barry Schwartz

Overview

“Provocative and richly textured. . . .Schwartz’s analyses of the inadequacies of contemporary scientific views of human nature are compelling, but the consequences are even more worthy of note.” —Los Angeles Times

Out of the investigations and speculations of contemporary science, a challenging view of human behavior and society has emerged and gained strength. It is a view that equates “human nature” utterly and unalterably with the pursuit of self-interest. Influenced by this view, people increasingly appeal to natural imperatives, instead of moral ones, to explain and justify their actions and those of others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393304459
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	08/17/1987
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Barry Schwartz is Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action in the psychology department at Swarthmore College. Schwartz has published widely in scholarly journals in the field of learning and motivation. In addition, he is the author of Behaviorism, Science, and Human Nature (with Hugh Lacey), The Battle for Human Nature, and The Costs of Living.

Editorial Reviews

Are people basically selfish creatures out to further their own interests and goals? In this brilliant investigation, Schwartz (Psychology of Learning and Behavior, etc.), a Swarthmore psychology professor, exposes the hidden assumptions that cause modern economists, behavioral psychologists and sociobiologists to form incomplete impressions of human beings and reply ``yes'' to the above question. Making sense of individuals' economic activity, he argues, requires knowledge of their noneconomic motives. Behaviorists do not find ``order in chaos'' so much as they create it by imposing a narrow frame of reference. Sociobiologists' clever theories equating human sexuality and aggression with animal behavior leave out the cultural dimension entirely. After identifying biases that link these disciplines, Schwartz goes on to ponder the threat economic imperialism poses to democratic institutions and our sense of social concern. (May 27)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly