International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2017

 

Homo and the end of certainties

(Abstract)

 

Pascal Picq

 

Paleoanthropologists begin to overcome the deceptive rigidity of hominisation. This linear and anthropocentric conception of human evolution is the leafless tree that hides the ancestral bush. Uncertainty, seemingly haunting so many people today, might originate from this fact, long-neglected by all systems of hegemonic thought: the neglect, or rather the denial of diversity. It has become urgent and critical to understand that diversity is the most powerful potential of adaption. Since the collapse of the Berlin Wall and globalisation began to speed up, a triumphing Neo-liberalism without a clear perspective of progress for all makes certainty ambiguous. More than ever, facing uncertainties means understanding what evolution is.