How can one explain the general failure of the social sciences to accumulate reliable knowledge? According to Pat Duffy Hutcheon the social sciences have failed us in the twentieth century. Practitioners in the social realm (such as politicians, therapists, educators and economists) are unable to provide the answers we seek to meet the challenges of our everyday lives and the next millennium. In Leaving the Cave Hutcheon explores the reasons for this failure. In this pioneering study of the development of social and biological evolutionary theory she contends that, for the first time in history, there exists a paradigm capable of integrating the life sciences and the social/behavioural sciences, a model to make effective social science a reality. To illustrate her arguments Hutcheon traces the development of a current of thought she identifies as evolutionary naturalism. She focusses on the lives and writings of those thinkers who have most illuminated this philosophy, from the Hellenic Greeks, through the works of the early pioneers of modern social scientific thought, to the social theorists of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries whose ideas have been firmly rooted in the Darwinian and Pavlovian revolutions in biology and neuroscience. Leaving the Cave is an innovative, multidisciplinary study of the development of social science, the philosophy of evolutionary naturalism and the effect of each on the other. Certain to arouse controversy, this is a book which everyone concerned for the future of the social sciences will want to read.
There would seem to be a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding in the public mind about the life stance of modern humanism and its philosophical underpinnings. As a committed humanist Pat Duffy Hutcheon has made many invaluable contributions to the clarification of the nature and origin of evolutionary naturalism as a necessary component of modern humanism. This collection of topical essays is the most recent addition to her ongoing pursuit, following her analysis of cultural development in Building Character and Culture (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999) and her earlier seminal work tracing the evolution of the naturalistic basis of social-scientific thought in Leaving the Cave (Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1996). This, her newest book presents the ideas in the context of their time, of some of the most prominent thinkers who have, in one way or another, shaped the evolving philosophy of humanism over the centuries. It is a much needed and most welcome resource for any thoughtful person who wants to better appreciate the naturalistic view of human existence rather than the supernatural or mystical approaches that so regrettably dominate the current scene.
This novel is about the dark side of academia. Specifically, it deals with a number of incidents occurring within one particular Canadian university during the year of 1976-77. These events are shown to have had a profound effect upon the narrator of the story
How can one explain the general failure of the social sciences to accumulate reliable knowledge? According to Pat Duffy Hutcheon the social sciences have failed us in the twentieth century. Practitioners in the social realm (such as politicians, therapists, educators and economists) are unable to provide the answers we seek to meet the challenges of our everyday lives and the next millennium. In Leaving the Cave Hutcheon explores the reasons for this failure. In this pioneering study of the development of social and biological evolutionary theory she contends that, for the first time in history, there exists a paradigm capable of integrating the life sciences and the social/behavioural sciences, a model to make effective social science a reality. To illustrate her arguments Hutcheon traces the development of a current of thought she identifies as evolutionary naturalism. She focusses on the lives and writings of those thinkers who have most illuminated this philosophy, from the Hellenic Greeks, through the works of the early pioneers of modern social scientific thought, to the social theorists of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries whose ideas have been firmly rooted in the Darwinian and Pavlovian revolutions in biology and neuroscience. Leaving the Cave is an innovative, multidisciplinary study of the development of social science, the philosophy of evolutionary naturalism and the effect of each on the other. Certain to arouse controversy, this is a book which everyone concerned for the future of the social sciences will want to read.
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