00000cmm a22000004i 4500 UP-99796217611094714 Buklod 20140128092006.0 m go j cr |n |||auu|a 110627s2011 xxu u | eng d 9781441993533(eBook) (iLib)UPD-00212403991 DLC DML eng DMLUC GN 281.4 B43 2011eb Bednarik, Robert G. author. The human condition [electronic resource] Robert G. Bednarik, author. New York, NY Springer New York Imprint: Springer 2011. 1 online resource (xx, 207 p.) ill., maps. 1 A little epistemology -- The expulsion of Eve -- 3 The hard evidence -- 4 Seafaring, beads and external hard drives -- 5 An alternative paradigm -- 6 The bigger picture -- 7 Advanced cognition and neurodegenerative diseases: a Faustian deal. IP-based subscription, access limited to within on-campus computer network. Access via Electronic Resources of the UPD University Library Website. Although the human condition can also be considered in metaphysical, ideological or ontological terms, in this book it is examined from a purely scientific perspective: what has occurred in the evolution of our species that led to the emergence of such a remarkable primate? In reviewing the limited empirical evidence we have about our distant past, some favored interpretations are replaced with hitherto unexplored alternatives. The relatively recent reduction of human brain size and physical robusticity, loss of estrus, development of neoteny and of numerous deleterious or maladaptive genetic syndromes, including neurodegenerative illnesses, are all attributed to one cause: the rise of culturally mediated behavior, including deliberate mate choice based on cultural constructs. This shift, introduced roughly 40,000 years ago, replaced both natural selection and genetic drift with the laws of domestication. Homo sapiens sapiens is thus the product of his own but unintended self-domestication. This revolutionary new hypothesis solves several conundrums in paleoanthropology, neuroscience and the cognitive sciences. But in a broader perspective, it also explains how the contradictions, tensions and enigmas of human existence came into existence and can be rationally accounted for. The Human Condition, therefore, strives to explain the very origins and characteristics of what it means to be human. About the Author Robert G. Bednarik, born in Vienna but an Australian since 1970, contradicts norms. He has undertaken numerous expeditions crossing the sea on rafts built with stone tools, but he cannot swim; he has produced 1165 academic publications, including many books, but has no formal education; he edits three scientific journals and two series of monographs, but not in his native language. As a complete autodidact, he regards himself as ignorant as did Socrates. Consequently his principal interest is the origin of the human ability to create constructs of reality, and in a wide variety of fields providing supplementary information in that quest. Electronic reproduction. New York SpringerLink 2011. Available via World Wide Web through Springerlink. Human evolution. Cognition and culture. Social evolution. Behavior evolution. Anthropology, Prehistoric. Antiquities, Prehistoric. Electronic books. SpringerLink (Online service). Available for University of the Philippines Diliman via SpringerLink. Click here to access http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4419-9353-3 (viewed 10 June 2014) FO Monograph UPD DMLR Electronic Resource