meeting 1-introduction to the history of evolution and human consciousness

HIST H300: The History of Evolution and Human Consciousness (31993) | T 3:00-5:40

Jason M. Kelly, PhD FSADirector, IUPUI Arts & Humanities InstituteAssociate Professor of [email protected] | @jason_m_kelly Paintings from the Grotte

Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, Ardèche, France. ca. 35,000-30,000 BP.

mailto:[email protected]

I. Introduction > Outline of Today’s Meeting

I. Introductions II. What do you know?III. Cosmologies

// BREAK //

IV. What is History?V. Universal History, Deep History, Big HistoryVI. The History of Consciousness

Most professional historians focus on studying humans and human societies over the last 500 years. A significant

number examine humanity’s history over the past 3000 years. And, a handful analyze the past 10,000 years.

However, the earliest humans emerged approximately 2.3 million years ago. This means that well over 2 million years

of human history are virtually ignored by most professional historians.

This is not entirely unexpected. For centuries, scholars lacked the tools and techniques to study the deep history of the human past. However, over the last several decades, new discoveries, technologies, and methodologies have uncovered a rich history embedded in rocks, bones, and genes. Most of this work has been done by scientists and social scientists, but a small number of historians have begun collaborating with them to trace the evolution of humans, their societies and their cultures.

What these researchers have found has profound consequences — not simply for our understanding of the deep past, but for our understanding of modern societies and cultures. It is evident that professional historians will increasingly need to engage with these discoveries as well as disciplines such as archaeology, evolutionary biology, and neurobiology.

This course introduces students to these debates by

asking a fundamental question: what makes us

human? The answer, we will find, requires that we explore

the histories of religion, philosophy and science. It will

necessitate that we explore the evolution of humans — and

most importantly the evolution of brains, consciousness, and

culture. We will draw on research from biology,

anthropology, and history to explore our pasts, presents,

and futures.

1. Students will be able to outline the history of hominids with special attention to key moments in the evolution of consciousness and culture.

I. Introduction > Learning Outcomes


2. Through comparing and contrasting the major philosophical and scientific debates about the nature of human consciousness since the 17th century, students will construct a visual model that highlights key historical themes in these debates.




3. Students will be able to identify and summarize current debates about gene-culture co-evolution and relate them to current historiographical discussions.




3. Students will be able to identify and summarize current debates about gene-culture co-evolution and relate them to current historiographical discussions.

4. By comparing and contrasting the philosophical, historical, and scientific debates about evolution and the history of consciousness over the past 300 years, students will evaluate the ethical implications of various theoretical models.


II. What Do You Know?

Quiz 1

Human Skull Neanderthal Skull

III. Cosmologies

What is a Cosmology?

The air god Shu, assisted by other gods, holds up Nut, the sky, as Geb, the earth, lies beneath. ca. 970 BCE. British Museum

III. Cosmologies


a. The science or theory of the universe as an ordered whole, and of the general laws which govern it. Also, a particular account or system of the universe and its laws.

b. Philos. That branch of metaphysics which deals with the idea of the world as a totality of all phenomena in space and time.

Oxford English Dictionary

http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/42251?redirectedFrom=cosmology#eid

III. Cosmologies


a. the study of the origins, development, structure, and fate of the universe

b. a worldview

III. Cosmologies > What is a Cosmology?

Greek

κόσμος kosmos

(order, world)

λογια -logia

(discourse)

Latin French English

cosmologia cosmologie cosmology

17th-18th centuries

III. Cosmologies

Examples: Ancient and Modern

Hartmann Schedel and Georg Alt. Woodblocks by Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. Nuremberg Chronicle. 1493. Cambridge University Library, Inc.0.A.7.2[888], f. 5v.

Hartmann Schedel and Georg Alt. Woodblocks by Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. Nuremberg Chronicle. 1493. Cambridge University Library, Inc.0.A.7.2[888].

1v 2r 3v 4v

Hartmann Schedel and Georg Alt. Woodblocks by Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. Nuremberg Chronicle. 1493. Cambridge University Library, Inc.0.A.7.2[888], f. 5r.

David Attenborough from Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life. BBC 1. 2009.

IV. What is History?

What is History?


Why do we study History?


History is

a subjecta discipline

a way of thinkingan ethical framework

a descriptive techniquea philosophical intervention

a method of identity formation


History is

a subject a discipline

a way of thinking an ethical framework

a descriptive technique a philosophical intervention

a method of identity formation

What questions can (or should) we ask as historians?

IV. What is History? —> Epistemologies

What is a Epistemology?

Philos. The theory of knowledge and understanding, esp. with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified belief and opinion; (as a count noun) a particular theory of knowledge and understanding.

Oxford English Dictionary

http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/42251?redirectedFrom=cosmology#eid


Greek

ἐπιστήμη episteme

(knowledge)

λογια -logia

(discourse)

English/French

epistemology / l’épistémologie

19th century

German18th-19th centuries

(translation of German philosophical

concept Wissenschaftslehre)


Epistemological Frameworks

Teleological • linear history (e.g. providential, Marxist, Whig) • cyclical history (Polybius)

Empirical • e.g. positivism, quantitative history, cliometrics

Social/Cultural • e.g. ethnography, history from below

Radical / Critical Theory

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V. Universal History, Deep History, Big History

What is Universal History?

Universal History is an approach to history which attempts to account for the entirety of human history — often from creation to the present. In the past, it has often sought to integrate a religious or philosophical point of view. From the eighteenth century, writers increasingly attempted to both make their works more secular and scientific and to create universal histories that integrated more people from around the world. However, these works often justified imperialism and racism. By the 20th century, most professional historians rejected universal history as too reductive.

Sebastian C. Adams Adams' Synchronological Chart of Universal History. 1881. 70 x 57 cm. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~226101~5505923:Page-1--Adams--Synchronological-Cha

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~226101~5505923:Page-1--Adams--Synchronological-Cha

Henry Fairfield Osborn, Evolution and Religion in Education: Polemics of the Fundamentalist Controversy of 1922 to 1926 (New York, 1926).

Why Big History?