Ideas of Humans and Nature
Ideas of Humans and Nature is the intellectual and philosophic heart of CHN and is meant to inform (and be informed by) the Center's other areas of research, education and action. This area seeks a philosophical understanding of the complex interactions between human beings and the rest of organic nature. This understanding demands critically engaging the concepts, ethical values, and worldviews that inform our everyday interactions with human and non-human nature, as well as our social and ethical responsibilities to human communities and the natural world. In the past several years, this area has emphasized the perspectives of evolutionary biology and ecology. Relevant activities have focused on Darwinian-informed worldviews as well as the tensions within and between the biological sciences, social sciences, and humanities.