Михаил Эпштейн

НАУКА | 1 июля 2009 | Роджер Смит |

Исследования

Human nature and reflexivity

When Darwin argued for human evolution in his book The Descent of Man (1871), he prsented a list of things other writers had claimed divide human beings from animals. This list included reason, a moral sense or conscience, language, the use of tools and fire, the possession of property, religious feelings and feelings for wonder and beauty. Darwin, of course, agreed that human beings are not completely like other animals – after all, we know a person when we see one! But his argument was that we are not completely different either: we are different in degree but not in kind. He therefore provided examples of the way animals and birds show reason, live in social groups and therefore exhibit morality, communicate with signs, show curiosity and so on. Whatever humans do, he wrote, animals also do, if in very much more elementary ways. He described, for example, the Australian bower-bird, which get its name from the fact that it decorates its nest, to show that birds perceive beauty. Darwin,  evolution,  reflexivity,  R.G.Collingwood,  Михаил Эпштейн