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How to be animal a new history of what it means to be human

"Our troubled relationship with being an animal-and why we need a better one." Humans are the most inquisitive, emotional, imaginative, aggressive animals on the planet. And we also happen to be the only animal that doesn't like to think it's an animal. So how well do we really know ourselves? 'How...

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Main Author: Challenger, Melanie (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language:English
Published: [New York] : Penguin Books, 2021.
Subjects:
Human beings > Animal nature.
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Summary:"Our troubled relationship with being an animal-and why we need a better one." Humans are the most inquisitive, emotional, imaginative, aggressive animals on the planet. And we also happen to be the only animal that doesn't like to think it's an animal. So how well do we really know ourselves? 'How to Be Animal' argues that at the heart of our existence is a profound struggle with being animal. We possess a psychology that seeks separation between humanity and the rest of nature, and we have invented grand ideaologies to magnify this. As well as piecing together the mystery of how this mindset evolved, Melanie Challenger examines the wide-reaching ways in which it affects our lives. We travel from the origin of Homo sapiens through the agrarian and industrial revolutions, the age of the internet, and on to the futures of AI and human-machine interface. Blending nature writing, history, and moral philosophy, How to be Animal is both a fascinating reappraisal of what it means to be human and a robust defense of all that is rich and rewarding about being an animal. -- taken from back cover.
Item Description:First published in Great Britain by Canongate Books Ltd 2021.
Physical Description:260 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-242) and index.
ISBN:9780143134350
0143134353
Author Notes:Melanie Challenger works as a researcher on the history of humanity and the natural world, and on environmental philosophy. She is the author of On Extinction : How We Became Estranged from Nature . She received a Darwin Now Award for her research among Canadian Inuit and the Arts Council International Fellowship with the British Antarctic Survey for her work on the history of whaling. She lives with her family in England. Challenger is the host of the "Enter the Psychosphere" podcast, where she dives into the world of the diverse intelligences that exist on the planet in conversations with guests like Peter Godfrey Smith and Daniel Dennett.

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