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The Hand: A Philosophical Inquiry into Human Being by Raymond Tallis (Paperback, 2003)

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ISBN-13: 9780748617388, 978-0748617388. What are the origins of human difference?. The Hand, which is the first part of a bold philosophical inquiry into the nature of the difference between human beings and other animals, argues that it is the result of a complex sequence of events which began several million years ago with the evolution of the human hand.

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What are the origins of human difference? As this philosophical exploration shows, the difference between human beings and other animals is the result of a complex sequence of events which began several million years ago with the evolution of the human hand. The central idea is that the possession of a fully developed hand profoundly transformed the relationship of the human being to its own body and thus altered the relationship between humans and the natural world. The interaction of the hand with the rest of the body brought about self-consciousness and laid the foundations for the unique sense of agency that is experienced by humans. Crucially, the hand inspired the tool-use that has come to dominate human life and which has led to the emergence of the complex symbolic systems - most importantly language - that underpin civilization. The book is also a celebration of the hand in human life - the almost miraculous complexity of its manipulative, exploratory and communicative functions. Raymond Tallis combines philosophical reflection with a light-hearted look at gestures, the role of each finger, the origins of numbers and the case for and against what he names handkind .