Behind The Mirror: A Search For A Natural History Of Human Knowledge
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
What does it mean to know — and how did the human mind evolve the capacity to do so? In Behind the Mirror: A Search for a Natural History of Human Knowledge, Nobel Prize-winning ethologist Konrad Lorenz turns the tools of evolutionary biology upon the very instrument we use to understand the world: the human brain. Drawing on decades of research into animal behaviour and cognitive science, Lorenz argues that human knowledge itself is a product of natural selection, shaped and constrained by the same biological forces that govern every living organism on Earth. The central premise is as bold as it is provocative — that our capacity for reason, perception, and self-awareness did not emerge from abstraction, but from the ancient, adaptive pressures of survival. Lorenz writes with the authority of a scientist and the breadth of a philosopher, weaving together ethology, epistemology, and evolutionary theory into a seamless and intellectually daring argument. Behind the Mirror stands as a landmark work in the tradition of naturalistic philosophy, challenging readers to reconsider the relationship between the observer and the observed, between the mind and the world it attempts to comprehend. Lorenz's style is rigorous yet accessible, bringing scientific precision to questions that have occupied thinkers from Kant to Darwin. For anyone who has ever wondered whether human reason can ever truly see beyond its own reflection, this work poses a question that lingers long after the final page.
Author: Konrad Lorenz
Format: Paperback
Genre: Philosophy
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
What does it mean to know — and how did the human mind evolve the capacity to do so? In Behind the Mirror: A Search for a Natural History of Human Knowledge, Nobel Prize-winning ethologist Konrad Lorenz turns the tools of evolutionary biology upon the very instrument we use to understand the world: the human brain. Drawing on decades of research into animal behaviour and cognitive science, Lorenz argues that human knowledge itself is a product of natural selection, shaped and constrained by the same biological forces that govern every living organism on Earth. The central premise is as bold as it is provocative — that our capacity for reason, perception, and self-awareness did not emerge from abstraction, but from the ancient, adaptive pressures of survival. Lorenz writes with the authority of a scientist and the breadth of a philosopher, weaving together ethology, epistemology, and evolutionary theory into a seamless and intellectually daring argument. Behind the Mirror stands as a landmark work in the tradition of naturalistic philosophy, challenging readers to reconsider the relationship between the observer and the observed, between the mind and the world it attempts to comprehend. Lorenz's style is rigorous yet accessible, bringing scientific precision to questions that have occupied thinkers from Kant to Darwin. For anyone who has ever wondered whether human reason can ever truly see beyond its own reflection, this work poses a question that lingers long after the final page.