Overview
- Provides an expansive vision of what it means to be a human being, shifting from traditional understanding of human identity and interaction to new grounds
- Offers an effortless interpretation and synthesis of cutting-edge popular theories in the social sciences, technology, and the humanities
- A crowning achievement of James Paul Gee’s long career as a literacy scholar, linguist, and educator
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Table of contents (26 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Part I
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Front Matter
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Part III
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Front Matter
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Keywords
About this book
In a sweeping synthesis of new research in a number of different disciplines, this book argues that we humans are not who we think we are. As he explores the interconnections between cutting-edge work in bioanthropology, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, human language and learning, and beyond, James Paul Gee advances, also, a personal philosophy of language, learning, and culture, informed by his decades of work across linguistics and the social sciences. Gee argues that our schools, institutions, legal systems, and societies are designed for creatures that do not exist, thus resulting in multiple, interacting crises, such as climate change, failing institutions, and the rise of nationalist nationalism. As Gee constructs an understanding of the human that takes into account our social, collective, and historical nature, as established by recent research, he inspires readers to reflect for themselves on the very question of who we are—a key consideration for anyone interested in society, government, schools, health, activism, culture and diversity, or even just survival.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: What Is a Human?
Book Subtitle: Language, Mind, and Culture
Authors: James Paul Gee
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50382-6
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-50381-9Published: 22 October 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-50382-6Published: 17 September 2020
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 276
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Social Sciences, general, Biological and Physical Anthropology, Sociology of Culture, Media and Communication, Philosophy, general, Sociolinguistics