Shumon T. Hussain
Versuch einer Evolutionären Anthropologie der Empathie
What does it mean to be human? This key question forms the starting point of the present work. How can the specific evolutionary pathway which led to the genesis of modern humans be differentiated from other trajectories, especially those which led to the extinction of our evolutionary relatives such as Neanderthals? The hallmark of the unique capability of social cognition is a special way of empathizing with others and with the world. Our empathic constitution is much more elaborated than in non-human primates, Neanderthals or other beings, which evolution has brought to life during the course of earth's history. Higher empathy and its characteristic recursive mind reading abilities which enable us to competently understand and interpret others in their actions, emotions and mental states, raises man to modern man. Only this cognitive modernity is the primary thread in fabric of being human. Man is and has always been primarily empathetic: Homo empathicus.
Paperback, 132 pages with 41 figures (16 in colour)
Size 21.0 x 29.7 cm
Price Euro 51.00ISBN: 978-3-7749-3865-6
Aus dem Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte der Universität zu Köln – SFB 806 'Our Way to Europe'
Verlag Habelt, Bonn 2013
