Kim Sterelny Knihy

A Shared Turn : Opium and the Rise of Prohibition -- The Different Lives of Southeast Asia's Opium Monopolies -- "Morally Wrecked" in British Burma, 1870s-1890s -- Fiscal Dependency in British Malaya, 1890s-1920s -- Disastrous Abundance in French Indochina, 1920s-1940s -- Colonial Legacies.

The book presents a new theory on the evolution of human cognition and social life, highlighting the significance of intergenerational information sharing. Over three million years, humans have diverged from great apes due to rapid changes in various aspects of life, including morphology and social behavior. Kim Sterelny argues that this divergence was fueled by humans enhancing the learning environment for future generations through cooperation in sharing knowledge and ecological and reproductive collaboration, creating positive feedback loops that further distanced us from our primate relatives.

Focusing on biological evolution, this collection of linked essays by philosopher Kim Sterelny delves into key theoretical controversies surrounding evolution and selection. The first half engages with these debates, while the second half applies the concepts to cognitive evolution. Featuring some previously unpublished essays, this work presents a cohesive argument that not only articulates a comprehensive view of evolution but also offers a unique perspective on the evolution of cognition.

Charts the astonishing economic development of South Korea and explains the country's remarkable transformation to a highly innovative economy based on advanced technologies and infrastructure in spite of a postcolonial legacy of military leaders in suits and the absence of fully developed free markets.

A novel account of the evolution of language and the cognitive capacities on which language depends. In From Signal to Symbol, Ronald Planer and Kim Sterelny propose a novel theory of language: that modern language is the product of a long series of increasingly rich protolanguages evolving over the last two million years. Arguing that language and cognition coevolved, they give a central role to archaeological evidence and attempt to infer cognitive capacities on the basis of that evidence, which they link in turn to communicative capacities. Countering other accounts, which move directly from archaeological traces to language, Planer and Sterelny show that rudimentary forms of many of the elements on which language depends can be found in the great apes and were part of the equipment of the earliest species in our lineage. After outlining the constraints a theory of the evolution of language should satisfy and filling in the details of their model, they take up the evolution of words, composite utterances, and hierarchical structure. They consider the transition from a predominantly gestural to a predominantly vocal form of language and discuss the economic and social factors that led to language. Finally, they evaluate their theory in terms of the constraints previously laid out.

Is the history of life a series of accidents or a drama scripted by selfish genes? Is there an "essential" human nature, determined at birth or in a distant evolutionary past? What should we conserve—species, ecosystems, or something else?Informed answers to questions like these, critical to our understanding of ourselves and the world around us, require both a knowledge of biology and a philosophical framework within which to make sense of its findings. In this accessible introduction to philosophy of biology, Kim Sterelny and Paul E. Griffiths present both the science and the philosophical context necessary for a critical understanding of the most exciting debates shaping biology today. The authors, both of whom have published extensively in this field, describe the range of competing views—including their own—on these fascinating topics.With its clear explanations of both biological and philosophical concepts, Sex and Death will appeal not only to undergraduates, but also to the many general readers eager to think critically about the science of life.