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The Evolution of a Human Nature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Thomas Rhys Williams
Thomas Rhys Williams*
Affiliation:
Sacramento State College
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Abstract

This discussion recounts the development of several anthropological definitions of human nature. It then examines conclusions of studies in other disciplines that make possible a revised empirical definition of human nature and which have led to reexamination of paleoanthropological data classed as unimportant under the rubrics of precceding studies. Finally, this discussion appraises certain of these data, as they pertain to the question: “Do empirical evidences suggest that a human nature, as well as a human structure, may be the product of evolutionary processes ?”

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Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , January 1959, pp. 1 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © 1959 by Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

∗∗

I wish to express my gratitude to Professors Douglas G. Haring and George W. Fathauer for their critique of the draft of this discussion. They have no responsibility for its final form. I am indebted to a vast number of scholars whose works I am unable to cite due to limitations of space. Their contributions to this discussion will be obvious to all familiar with the literature of anthropology, sociology, psychology and philosophy.

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