The Excluded Third

In view of the new forays from biology into the Humanities, this book aims not only to demonstrate the inconsistencies of the theory of evolution in addressing cultural dynamics, but also to offer an alternative that begins from a resumption of the dialogue between anthropology and historical materialism in which dialectics reintroduces itself to anthropology from different premises and the role of symbolic language within materialism is reevaluated.

Fernando Haddad, graduated in law, M.A. in economics and Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of São Paulo, Professor of Political Theory, was the previous Minister of Education and then Mayor of São Paulo, and is now Minister of Finance in Brazil. He has published Work and Language for the Renewal of Socialism (Azougue Editorial, 2004), among others.

"This wide-ranging study probes deeply into questions of great intellectual significance and import for human life. Challenging and thought-provoking."
- Noam Chomsky

"The Excluded Third is a piercing appraisal of the cultural dynamics that animate our politics. Drawing on an impressive range of philosophical and anthropological sources, Haddad makes a case for rehabilitating the concept of dialectical change, as a first step to rescuing the study of humanity from the spectre of pseudo-science."
- David Wengrow, co-author of The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, and professor of comparative archaeology at University College London

"An impressive tour de force, an update on the debate between disciplines as diverse as biology, linguistics and anthropology. Weaving a complex dialogue between so many different perspectives has never been more necessary and The Excluded Third does this masterfully and boldly."
- Sidarta Ribeiro, neuroscientist, author of The Oracle of Night: The History and Science of Dreaming.