The CEU Department of Philosophy cordially invites you to a talk
by
Maria Kronfeldner (Universität Bielefeld)
on
'The genealogical concept of human nature'
Tuesday, 17 June 2014, 3.00 PM, Zrinyi 14, Room 412
ABSTRACT
In contemporary philosophy of science, the concept of a human nature has a rather bad reputation: it is believed to be a ghost haunting sciences from long gone essentialist times, a ghost to be exorcised. After systematizing the critique, which is directed against an essentialist concept of human nature, the talk introduces three non-essentialist alternatives: a purely nomological, an evolutionary and a genealogical concept of human nature. The thesis that will be defended is that the genealogical concept is the one that is here to stay, for three reasons: (a) it is left untouched by the standard anti-essentialist critiques against the concept of human nature; (b) it is the one among the three non-essentialist alternatives that best fulfills the explanatory role that the concept has traditionally played; (c) it carves reality at one of its important joints.