What makes humans human? How are body and mind connected, and how are the sciences of the body connected with the sciences of the mind? Evolution has left its marks on the body and the soul. For this reason, the accumulated evolutionary knowledge is a useful and indispensable underpinning for the human sciences, which continue to epitomise the body-mind problem through the separation of the natural sciences and the humanities. Based on this insight, a theory of the human sciences is offered to steer a course towards well-grounded interdisciplinary scientific study and understanding of humans. The proposed interdisciplinary framework is illustrated by examples that span the evolution and expansion of learning, reflective and cultural capacities, aspects of social behaviour, the evolution of moral consciousness, "opposed instincts" such as aggression and the inhibition of aggression, gender differences in behaviour, and attachment behaviour. This knowledge can serve to expand behavioural freedom, including the freedom to act responsibly.
Since the chapters are self-contained, they can be read independently, depending on one's interests.