The Human Instinct

How We Evolved to Have Reason, Consciousness, and Free Will

By: Kenneth R. Miller

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

From one of America’s best-known biologists, a revolutionary new way of thinking about evolution that shows “why, in light of our origins, humans are still special” (Edward J. Larson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evolution).

Once we had a special place in the hierarchy of life on Earth—a place confirmed by the literature and traditions of every human tribe. But then the theory of evolution arrived to shake the tree of human understanding to its roots. To many of the most passionate advocates for Darwin’s theory, we are just one species among multitudes, no more significant than any other. Even our minds are not our own, they tell us, but living machines programmed for nothing but survival and reproduction.

In The Human Instinct, Brown University biologist Kenneth R. Miller “confronts both lay and professional misconceptions about evolution” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), showing that while evolution explains how our bodies and brains were shaped, that heritage does not limit or predetermine human behavior. In fact, Miller argues in this “highly recommended” (Forbes) work that it is only thanks to evolution that we have the power to shape our destiny.

Equal parts natural science and philosophy, The Human Instinct makes an “absorbing, lucid, and engaging…case that it was evolution that gave us our humanity” (Ursula Goodenough, professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis).

Critic reviews

“Following in Darwin’s footsteps, Miller makes the slam-dunk case for why, in light of our origins, humans are still special.”

“Absorbing, lucid, and engaging. An ELOQUENT and deeply grounded case that it was evolution that gave us our humanity.”

“Here is a clear-eyed look at the use and sometime misuse of evolutionary theory.”

“Fascinating.... [The Human Instinct] confronts both lay and professional misconceptions about evolution from both scientific and philosophical perspectives.”

“Insightful.... [Miller’s] universe is a kaleidoscope of dazzling evolutionary possibilities.”

THE HUMAN INSTINCT

only two words to describe this book, GREAT BOOK,it has changed my perception about evolution.

If you like Pinker you should read this

Evolutionary psychology provides a compelling argument to many elements of human behaviour. However, it can also be used as a way of explaining away, or justifying, complex issues that we do not know much about. The human instinct is an excellent read to counterpoint most of the popular literature out there. Not sure the author is saying its all wrong, he is just adding the much-needed not-so-cool caveats that a sale-driven author might not want to include

Evolution of Consciousness

Enjoyed authors balanced perspective on the emergence of consciousness as humans evolved.

Be interesting to hear authors take on how quantum physics upends the dominant paradigm of determinism in science and the profound effect conscious observation has on locating the positions of quantum objects which can be at two (or more) places at the same time.

To paraphrase Amit Goswami the dominant philosophy in science is material realism whereby physicists say there is no meaning, no free will, that everything is the random play of atoms. But that would imply physicists' theories are meaningless too.

Special pleading does not make you special

Man is special, creationist will say because God (Jehovah) created him in His Own image and thus allows man to stand apart from nature. The author will say that evolution through natural selection makes us significant, meaningful and special from and within nature and that we are more than just form and matter in motion. The author will say there is specialness for humans and while the universe was not teleologically driven to create us as an end point we are special beyond ourselves because of our conscious self awareness, reason and free will.

Humans as individuals take a stand on their own understanding. That makes us different but not necessarily special beyond ourselves. The meaning we have comes from our own search of the true, the good and the useful. (The author did quote from Kant and that is what Kant thought all philosophy should be about).

The author showed little depth on philosophical matters. He rightly mocked evolutionary psychologist when they extrapolated beyond the data. The author does mention Titus Lucretius and his ‘On the Nature of Things’. As the preacher said to Tom Joad in ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, ‘there ain’t no virtue, there ain’t no sin. There are just people doing things’. That is definitely an Epicurean sentiment and this author’s whole book is meant to disagree with that point of view. He thinks people are special beyond themselves, and our conscious self awareness, reason, and free will makes us special. I would say: logic preserves truth, it never creates truth; our reason is the label we put on things to justify ourselves to ourselves or others. Proust will say that ‘humans are the only animal that doubts their own reason’ in Volume II of ‘Swans Way’. It is our ability to doubt ourselves that make us human but not special, significant or meaningful beyond ourselves.

I can’t really say the author told me anything I didn’t already know. I’ve read or am at least very familiar with most of the people he talks about (Pinker, Harris, Dennett, Gould, Dawkins, Penrose, Nagel, Descartes, Kant and so on). His free will arguments lacked substance, and I don’t even want to bother refuting them.

We only have so much time to learn about our place in the universe. The author takes a perspective that is different from mine. I usually appreciate different perspectives, and the author impressed me with his biology knowledge. He was not impressive with his knowledge on Philosophy of Mind, neuroscience, reason, free will or philosophy or whenever he dropped a dead philosopher’s name all topics that he tried to talk about but only managed a superficial telling. I would recommend ‘Strange Order of Things’ by Damasio or ‘The Enigma of Reason’ by Hugo Mercier instead of this book. They cover most of the topics in this book but they at least provided depth for the topics under consideration and neither book fell into the trap of making humans special, significant or meaningful beyond themselves.