| Search | About | Preferences | Interact | Help | |
| 150 million books. 1 search engine. | ||

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Altruism Equation: Seven Scientists Search for the Origins of Goodness'
More editions of The Altruism Equation: Seven Scientists Search for the Origins of Goodness:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Ant and the Peacock: Altruism and Sexual Selection from Darwin to Today'
The "ant" and the "peacock" stand for two puzzles in Darwinism--altruism and sexual selection. How can natural selection favor those, such as the worker ant, that renounce tooth and claw in favor of the public-spirited ways of the commune? And how can "peacocks"--flamboyant, ornamental and apparently useless--be tolerated by the grimly economical Darwinian reaper? Helena Cronin has a deep understanding of today's answers to these riddles and their roots in the nineteenth century; the analysis is new and exciting and the explanations lucid and compelling. [via]
More editions of The Ant and the Peacock: Altrusim and Sexual Selection from Darwin to Today:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Ants at Work : How an Insect Society Is Organized'
More editions of Ants at Work: How an Insect Society Is Organized:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Army Ants: The Biology of Social Predation'
More editions of Army Ants: The Biology of Social Predation:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art of Listening'

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art of Loving'
The fiftieth Anniversary Edition of the groundbreaking international bestseller that has shown millions of readers how to achieve rich, productive lives by developing their hidden capacities for love
Most people are unable to love on the only level that truly matters: love that is compounded of maturity, self-knowledge, and courage. As with every art, love demands practice and concentration, as well as genuine insight and understanding.
In his classic work, The Art of Loving, renowned psychoanalyst and social philosopher Erich Fromm explores love in all its aspectsnot only romantic love, steeped in false conceptions and lofty expectations, but also brotherly love, erotic love, self-love, the love of God, and the love of parents for their children.
[via]More editions of The Art of Loving:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Atlas Shrugged'
At last, Ayn Rand's masterpiece is available to her millions of loyal readers in trade paperback.
With this acclaimed work and its immortal query, "Who is John Galt?", Ayn Rand found the perfect artistic form to express her vision of existence. Atlas Shrugged made Rand not only one of the most popular novelists of the century, but one of its most influential thinkers.
Atlas Shrugged is the astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world--and did. Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged stretches the boundaries further than any book you have ever read. It is a mystery, not about the murder of a man's body, but about the murder--and rebirth--of man's spirit.
Atlas Shrugged is the "second most influential book for Americans today" after the Bible, according to a joint survey conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club [via]
More editions of Atlas Shrugged:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Better World Handbook: From Good Intentions to Everyday Actions'
More editions of The Better World Handbook: From Good Intentions to Everyday Actions:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society'
God or evolution? Though the debate about our origins has swirled in epic controversy since Darwin's time, David Sloan Wilson bravely blends these two contentious theories. This has been tried before, of course, mainly by religious intellectuals. What makes Darwin's Cathedral stand out is that Wilson does not pursue the classic "intelligent design" argument (evolution is God's hand at work), but instead argues that religion is evolution at work.
Wilson sees religion as a complex organism with "biological" functions. He argues that the social cohesiveness of religion makes it analogous to a beehive or a human body--and, in fact, religious believers sometimes employ these metaphors. He writes, "Thinking of a religious group as like an organism encourages us to look for adaptive complexity.... Mechanisms are required that are often awesome in their sophistication." To Wilson, therein lies the astonishing complexity of religion, just as in the biological world.
Following Wilson's argument requires understanding the rudiments of evolutionary biology; a smattering of theology, history, anthropology, sociology, and psychology is helpful, too. But the reasoning isn't as challenging as Wilson warns in the introduction. For educated readers, it's an accessible book.
In just 260 pages, Wilson can't begin to do justice to the broad swath of intellectual work he's cut out for himself. And ultimately, the book's main failing is its simplicity. In addition, his approach to religion is so clearly an outsider's that he is unlikely to win many converts. Adaptive-mechanistic explanations of forgiveness and altruism may be intriguing to the atheist in the ivory tower, but they are likely to elicit little more than a bemused and passing interest from believers. --Eric de Place [via]
More editions of Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society:
› Find signed collectible books: 'El Arte De Amar / The Art of Loving'
Cuarenta y cinco anos despues de su primera edicion en espanol, la vigencia de esta obra confirma su categoria de clasico. A traves de estas paginas, varias generaciones han afinado su educacion sentimental y han reflexionado sobre el amor en sus distintas formas. Sobre todo, han entendido la capacidad de amar como acto de dar. Paidos ofrece ahora una nueva edicion, con un formato mayor y una presentacion apta, precisamente, para regalar. [via]
More editions of El Arte De Amar / The Art of Loving:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Evolution of Cooperation'
More editions of The Evolution of Cooperation:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Fairy Went A-Marketing'
› Find signed collectible books: 'Genetic and Cultural Evolution of Cooperation'
Current thinking in evolutionary biology holds that competition among individuals is the key to understanding natural selection. When competition exists, it is obvious that conflict arises; the emergence of cooperation, however, is less straightforward and calls for in-depth analysis. Much research is now focused on defining and expanding the evolutionary models of cooperation. Understanding the mechanisms of cooperation has relevance for fields other than biology. Anthropology, economics, mathematics, political science, primatology, and psychology are adopting the evolutionary approach and developing analogies based on it. Similarly, biologists use elements of economic game theory and analyze cooperation in "evolutionary games." Despite this, exchanges between researchers in these different disciplines have been limited. Seeking to fill this gap, the 90th Dahlem Workshop was convened. This book, which grew out of that meeting, addresses such topics as emotions in human cooperation, reciprocity, biological markets, cooperation and conflict in multicellularity, genomic and intercellular cooperation, the origins of human cooperation, and the cultural evolution of cooperation; the emphasis is on open questions and future research areas. The book makes a significant contribution to a growing process of interdisciplinary cross-fertilization on this issue.
[via]More editions of Genetic and Cultural Evolution of Cooperation:
› Find signed collectible books: 'How to Be Good'
In Nick Hornby's How to Be Good, Katie Carr is certainly trying to be. That's why she became a GP. That's why she cares about Third World debt and homelessness, and struggles to raise her children with a conscience. It's also why she puts up with her husband David, the self-styled Angriest Man in Holloway. But one fateful day, she finds herself in a Leeds parking lot, having just slept with another man. What Katie doesn't yet realize is that her fall from grace is just the first step on a spiritual journey more torturous than the interstate at rush hour. Because, prompted by his wife's actions, David is about to stop being angry. He's about to become good--not politically correct, organic-food-eating good, but good in the fashion of the Gospels. And that's no easier in modern-day Holloway than it was in ancient Israel.
Hornby means us to take his title literally: How can we be good, and what does that mean? However, quite apart from demanding that his readers scrub their souls with the nearest available Brillo pad, he also mesmerizes us with that cocktail of wit and compassion that has become his trademark. The result is a multifaceted jewel of a book: a hilarious romp, a painstaking dissection of middle-class mores, and a powerfully sympathetic portrait of a marriage in its death throes. It's hard to know whether to laugh or cry as we watch David forcing his kids to give away their computers, drawing up schemes for the mass redistribution of wealth, and inviting his wife's most desolate patients round for a Sunday roast. But that's because How to Be Good manages to be both brutally truthful and full of hope. It won't outsell the Bible, but it's a lot funnier. --Matthew Baylis [via]

› Find signed collectible books: 'How to Make the World a Better Place: 116 Ways You Can Make a Difference'
More editions of How to Make the World a Better Place: 116 Ways You Can Make a Difference:

› Find signed collectible books: 'How to Make the World a Better Place: A Guide to Doing Good'
More editions of How to Make the World a Better Place: A Guide to Doing Good:
› Find signed collectible books: 'I Am the Messenger'
Meet Ed Kennedyunderage cabdriver, pathetic cardplayer, and useless at romance. He lives in a shack with his coffee-addicted dog, the Doorman, and hes hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. Thats when the first Ace arrives. Thats when Ed becomes the messenger. . . .
Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary), until only one question remains: Whos behind Eds mission?
Winner of the 2003 Childrens Book Council Book of the Year Award in Australia, I Am the Messenger is a cryptic journey filled with laughter, fists, and love. [via]
More editions of I am The Messenger:
› Find signed collectible books: 'I Am the Messenger'
FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. After capturing a bank robber, 19-year-old cab driver Ed Kennedy begins receiving mysterious messages that direct him to addresses where people need help, and he begins getting over his lifelong feeling of worthlessness. [via]
More editions of I Am the Messenger:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Join Me'
How could you refuse the polite invitation of begoggled Danny Wallace in Join Me? You don't know what you could be missing out on. It's all about living for the moment in this quirky, seemingly pointless yet addictive narrative. Finding himself with too much time on his hands after quitting his BBC job, Danny revels in "sitting around in his pants" and generally taking a break from the responsibilities of working life. Danny attends the funeral of his great uncle Gallus and finds out that he had set up a commune of like-minded people to escape Swiss small town small-mindedness in the 1940s. Intrigued by this idea, on his return to London Danny places a cryptic advert in the classified ads paper Loot and gets some surprising results.
His Norwegian radio-producer girlfriend Hanne is bemused and infuriated that this has become more than a transient interest; it takes over his life--and hers. The number of "joinees"--people replying to his ad--escalates as word gets out about this new "happy cult", but without a clue about what he wants to achieve, or do with all his newfound friends, Danny has to think fast as dissent rises in the ranks. Now the reluctant leader of a troop of random hopefuls, he maintains their interest with obscure e-mails and watches as his joinees meet and bond.
Whatever he had created, it was bigger than he had anticipated. From an initially puerile idea, it had grown into something of a social experiment--why were people willing to take the risk of replying to the advert? What was lacking in their lives that they thought they might get out of contacting a stranger? Taking risks, no matter how big or small, is the essential crux of the matter here, and, of course, nothing ventured, nothing gained. --Angela Boodoo [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Journey to the Ants: A Story of Scientific Exploration'
"Look to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise," says the proverb. Bert Hölldobler and E.O. Wilson have joined together to tell how they took this advice and to share the fruits of their wisdom. As Nature said, they "have done for ants what Levi's did for denim." Not just a good-parts version of their magisterial, Pulitzer-winning The Ants, Journey is also a double autobiography--the history of how early enthusiasm developed into an enormously fruitful scientific collaboration. "We, having entered our bug period as children, were blessed by never being required to abandon it," the authors write. Their devotion to their chosen field shines through.
Journey to the Ants gives an outstanding overview of the enormous variety and fascination of myrmecology, from the primitive bulldog ants of Australia to the complexities of weaver ant societies, slave-making ants and agriculture, army ants, and the social parasites concealed within anthills. There is an appendix with practical instructions for collecting individual ants or whole colonies, dead or alive. Hölldobler and Wilson clearly want other children to follow in their footsteps, growing from simple bug love to insights into evolution and society. --Mary Ellen Curtin [via]
More editions of Journey to the Ants: A Story of Scientific Exploration:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction'
More editions of Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Late Night Thoughts'
A vintage collection of sparkling essays by a writer who is surely in the tradition of T. H. Huxley, Faraday, and J. B. S. Haldane.' New Scientist . [via]
More editions of Late Night Thoughts:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony'
This magnificent collection of essays by scientist and National Book Award-winning writer Lewis Thomas remains startlingly relevant for today's world. Luminous, witty, and provocative, the essays address such topics as "The Attic of the Brain, " "Falsity and Failure, " "Altruism, " and the effects of the federal government's virtual abandonment of support for basic scientific research will have on medicine and science. Profoundly and powerfully, Thomas questions the folly of nuclear weaponry, showing that t brainpower and money spent on this endeavor are needed much more urgently for the basic science we have abandoned--and that even medicine's most advanced procedures would be useless or insufficient in the face of the smallest nuclear detonation. And in the title essay, he addresses himself with terrifying poignancy to the question of what it is like to be young in the nuclear age. [via]
More editions of Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Left Hand of Darkness'
Genly Ai is an emissary from the human galaxy to Winter, a lost, stray world. His mission is to bring the planet back into the fold of an evolving galactic civilization, but to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own culture and prejudices and those that he encounters. On a planet where people are of no gender--or both--this is a broad gulf indeed. The inventiveness and delicacy with which Le Guin portrays her alien world are not only unusual and inspiring, they are fundamental to almost all decent science fiction that has been written since. In fact, reading Le Guin again may cause the eye to narrow somewhat disapprovingly at the younger generation: what new ground are they breaking that is not already explored here with greater skill and acumen? It cannot be said, however, that this is a rollicking good story. Le Guin takes a lot of time to explore her characters, the world of her creation, and the philosophical themes that arise.
If there were a canon of classic science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness would be included without debate. Certainly, no science fiction bookshelf may be said to be complete without it. But the real question: is it fun to read? It is science fiction of an earlier time, a time that has not worn particularly well in the genre. The Left Hand of Darkness was a groundbreaking book in 1969, a time when, like the rest of the arts, science fiction was awakening to new dimensions in both society and literature. But the first excursions out of the pulp tradition are sometimes difficult to reread with much enjoyment. Rereading The Left Hand of Darkness, decades after its publication, one feels that those who chose it for the Hugo and Nebula awards were right to do so, for it truly does stand out as one of the great books of that era. It is immensely rich in timeless wisdom and insight.
The Left Hand of Darkness is science fiction for the thinking reader, and should be read attentively in order to properly savor the depth of insight and the subtleties of plot and character. It is one of those pleasures that requires a little investment at the beginning, but pays back tenfold with the joy of raw imagination that resonates through the subsequent 30 years of science fiction storytelling. Not only is the bookshelf incomplete without owning it, so is the reader without having read it. --L. Blunt Jackson [via]
More editions of The Left Hand of Darkness:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Mutual Aid'
Short excerpt: Paucity of life, under-populationnot over-populationbeing the distinctive feature of that immense part of the globe which we name Northern Asia, I conceived since then serious doubtswhich subsequent study has only confirmedas to the reality of that fearful competition for food and life within each species, which was an article of faith with most Darwinists... [via]

› Find signed collectible books: 'Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution'
More editions of Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution'
More editions of Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Mutual Aid, a Factor of Evolution'
More editions of Mutual Aid, a Factor of Evolution:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Natural Selection and Social Theory: Selected Papers of Robert L. Trivers'
More editions of Natural Selection and Social Theory: Selected Papers of Robert L. Trivers:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Ordinary Grace: An Examination of the Roots of Compassion, Altruism, and Empathy, and the Ordinary Individuals Who Help Others in Extraordinary Ways'
More editions of Ordinary Grace: An Examination of the Roots of Compassion, Altruism, and Empathy, and the Ordinary Individuals Who Help Others in Extraordinary Ways:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Origin and Evolution of Cultures'
Oxford presents, in one convenient and coherently organized volume, 20 influential but until now relatively inaccessible articles that form the backbone of Boyd and Richerson's path-breaking work on evolution and culture. Their interdisciplinary research is based on two notions. First, that culture is crucial for understanding human behavior; unlike other organisms, socially transmitted beliefs, attitudes, and values heavily influence our behavior. Secondly, culture is part of biology: the capacity to acquire and transmit culture is a derived component of human psychology, and the contents of culture are deeply intertwined with our biology. Culture then is a pool of information, stored in the brains of the population that gets transmitted from one brain to another by social learning processes. Therefore, culture can account for both our outstanding ecological success as well as the maladaptations that characterize much of human behavior. The interest in this collection will span anthropology, psychology, economics, philosophy, and political science. [via]
More editions of The Origin and Evolution of Cultures:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Origin of Virtue'
More editions of The Origin of Virtue:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation'
Human life, scientific journalist Matt Ridley suggests, is a complex balancing act: we behave with self-interest foremost in mind, but also in ways that do not harm, and sometimes even benefit, others. This behavior, in a strange way, makes us good. It also makes us unique in the animal world, where self-interest is far more pronounced. "The essential virtuousness of human beings is proved not by parallels in the animal kingdom, but by the very lack of convincing animal parallels," Ridley writes. How we got to be so virtuous over millions of years of evolution is the theme of this entertaining book of popular science, which will be of interest to any student of human nature. [via]
More editions of The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Plausibility of Life: Resolving Darwin's Dilemma'
More editions of The Plausibility of Life: Resolving Darwin's Dilemma:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Possibility of Altruism'
More editions of Possibility of Altruism:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Practical Entomologist'
More editions of The Practical Entomologist:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Primates & Philosophers: How Morality Evolved'
"It's the animal in us," we often hear when we've been bad. But why not when we're good? Primates and Philosophers tackles this question by exploring the biological foundations of one of humanity's most valued traits: morality.
In this provocative book, primatologist Frans de Waal argues that modern-day evolutionary biology takes far too dim a view of the natural world, emphasizing our "selfish" genes. Science has thus exacerbated our reciprocal habits of blaming nature when we act badly and labeling the good things we do as "humane." Seeking the origin of human morality not in evolution but in human culture, science insists that we are moral by choice, not by nature.
Citing remarkable evidence based on his extensive research of primate behavior, de Waal attacks "Veneer Theory," which posits morality as a thin overlay on an otherwise nasty nature. He explains how we evolved from a long line of animals that care for the weak and build cooperation with reciprocal transactions. Drawing on both Darwin and recent scientific advances, de Waal demonstrates a strong continuity between human and animal behavior. In the process, he also probes issues such as anthropomorphism and human responsibilities toward animals.
Based on the Tanner Lectures de Waal delivered at Princeton University's Center for Human Values in 2004, Primates and Philosophers includes responses by the philosophers Peter Singer, Christine M. Korsgaard, and Philip Kitcher and the science writer Robert Wright. They press de Waal to clarify the differences between humans and other animals, yielding a lively debate that will fascinate all those who wonder about the origins and reach of human goodness.
[via]More editions of Primates & Philosophers: How Morality Evolved:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Saint Iggy'
More editions of Saint Iggy:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Saints and Postmodernism: Revisioning Moral Philosophy'
More editions of Saints and Postmodernism: Revisioning Moral Philosophy:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Save Karyn: One Shopaholic's Journey to Debt and Back'
More editions of Save Karyn: One Shopaholic's Journey to Debt and Back:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Save the Animals: 101 Easy Things You Can Do'
The director of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), the country's largest animal rights organization, offers practical strategies that will help protect the earth's animals. From eating less meat and dairy products to avoiding fur, leather and wool, to buying "cruelty free" products not tested on animals, here are 101 suggestions for ways everyone can make a difference. [via]
More editions of Save the Animals: 101 Easy Things You Can Do:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Selfish Gene'
Inheriting the mantle of revolutionary biologist from Darwin, Watson, and Crick, Richard Dawkins forced an enormous change in the way we see ourselves and the world with the publication of The Selfish Gene. Suppose, instead of thinking about organisms using genes to reproduce themselves, as we had since Mendel's work was rediscovered, we turn it around and imagine that "our" genes build and maintain us in order to make more genes. That simple reversal seems to answer many puzzlers which had stumped scientists for years, and we haven't thought of evolution in the same way since.
Why are there miles and miles of "unused" DNA within each of our bodies? Why should a bee give up its own chance to reproduce to help raise her sisters and brothers? With a prophet's clarity, Dawkins told us the answers from the perspective of molecules competing for limited space and resources to produce more of their own kind. Drawing fascinating examples from every field of biology, he paved the way for a serious re-evaluation of evolution. He also introduced the concept of self-reproducing ideas, or memes, which (seemingly) use humans exclusively for their propagation. If we are puppets, he says, at least we can try to understand our strings. --Rob Lightner [via]
More editions of The Selfish Gene:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Sociobiology: The New Synthesis'
E.O. Wilson defines sociobiology as "the systematic study of the biological basis of all social behavior," the central theoretical problem of which is the question of how behaviors that seemingly contradict the principles of natural selection, such as altruism, can develop. Sociobiology: A New Synthesis, Wilson's first attempt to outline the new field of study, was first published in 1975 and called for a fairly revolutionary update to the so-called Modern Synthesis of evolutionary biology. Sociobiology as a new field of study demanded the active inclusion of sociology, the social sciences, and the humanities in evolutionary theory. Often criticized for its apparent message of "biological destiny," Sociobiology set the stage for such controversial works as Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene and Wilson's own Consilience.
Sociobiology defines such concepts as society, individual, population, communication, and regulation. It attempts to explain, biologically, why groups of animals behave the way they do when finding food or shelter, confronting enemies, or getting along with one another. Wilson seeks to explain how group selection, altruism, hierarchies, and sexual selection work in populations of animals, and to identify evolutionary trends and sociobiological characteristics of all animal groups, up to and including man. The insect sections of the books are particularly interesting, given Wilson's status as the world's most famous entomologist.
It is fair to say that as an ecological strategy eusociality has been overwhelmingly successful. It is useful to think of an insect colony as a diffuse organism, weighing anywhere from less than a gram to as much as a kilogram and possessing from about a hundred to a million or more tiny mouths.
It's when Wilson starts talking about human beings that the furor starts. Feminists have been among the strongest critics of the work, arguing that humans are not slaves to a biological destiny, forever locked in "primitive" behavior patterns without the ability to reason past our biochemical nature. Like The Origin of Species, Sociobiology has forced many biologists and social scientists to reassess their most cherished notions of how animals work. --Therese Littleton [via]
More editions of Sociobiology:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Sociobiology: The New Synthesis'
E.O. Wilson defines sociobiology as "the systematic study of the biological basis of all social behavior," the central theoretical problem of which is the question of how behaviors that seemingly contradict the principles of natural selection, such as altruism, can develop. Sociobiology: A New Synthesis, Wilson's first attempt to outline the new field of study, was first published in 1975 and called for a fairly revolutionary update to the so-called Modern Synthesis of evolutionary biology. Sociobiology as a new field of study demanded the active inclusion of sociology, the social sciences, and the humanities in evolutionary theory. Often criticized for its apparent message of "biological destiny," Sociobiology set the stage for such controversial works as Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene and Wilson's own Consilience.
Sociobiology defines such concepts as society, individual, population, communication, and regulation. It attempts to explain, biologically, why groups of animals behave the way they do when finding food or shelter, confronting enemies, or getting along with one another. Wilson seeks to explain how group selection, altruism, hierarchies, and sexual selection work in populations of animals, and to identify evolutionary trends and sociobiological characteristics of all animal groups, up to and including man. The insect sections of the books are particularly interesting, given Wilson's status as the world's most famous entomologist.
It is fair to say that as an ecological strategy eusociality has been overwhelmingly successful. It is useful to think of an insect colony as a diffuse organism, weighing anywhere from less than a gram to as much as a kilogram and possessing from about a hundred to a million or more tiny mouths.
It's when Wilson starts talking about human beings that the furor starts. Feminists have been among the strongest critics of the work, arguing that humans are not slaves to a biological destiny, forever locked in "primitive" behavior patterns without the ability to reason past our biochemical nature. Like The Origin of Species, Sociobiology has forced many biologists and social scientists to reassess their most cherished notions of how life works. --Therese Littleton [via]
More editions of Sociobiology: The New Synthesis:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior'
In Unto Others, philosopher Elliott Sober and biologist David Sloan Wilson bravely attempt to reconcile altruism, both evolutionary and psychological, with the scientific discoveries that seem to portray nature as red in tooth and claw. The first half of the book deals with the evolutionary objection to altruism. For altruistic behavior to be produced by natural selection, it must be possible for natural selection to act on groups--but conventional wisdom holds that group selection was conclusively debunked by George Williams in Adaptation and Natural Selection. Sober and Wilson nevertheless defend group selection, instructively reviewing the arguments against it and citing important work that relies on it. They then discuss group selection in human evolution, testing their conclusions against the anthropological literature.
In the second half of the book, the question is whether any desires are truly altruistic. Sober and Wilson painstakingly examine psychological evidence and philosophical arguments for the existence of altruism, ultimately concluding that neither psychology nor philosophy is likely to decide the question. Fortunately, evolutionary biology comes to the rescue. Sober and Wilson speculate that creatures with truly altruistic desires are reproductively fitter than creatures without--altruists, in short, make better parents than do egoists.
Rich in information and insight, Unto Others is a book that will be seriously considered by biologists, philosophers, anthropologists, and psychologists alike. The interested amateur may find it difficult in places but worth the effort overall. --Glenn Branch [via]
More editions of Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Virtue of Selfishness'
More editions of The Virtue of Selfishness:
Ayn Rand, author of "The Fountainhead" was the founder of "Objectivism", an extremely right wing ideology which focuses on selfishness. "The Virtue of Selfishness" is the key philosophy in Ayn Rand's writings. [via]
More editions of Virtue Selfishness:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Como Ser Buenos'
Katie Carr es madre de dos hijos, ejerce la medicina, y le gustaria estar convencida de que es buena persona porque ayuda a los demas. En un viaje a Leeds, tiene una aventura con un hombre mas joven que ella y a partir de ese momento todo su mundo se transforma en un mar de dudas. Y es que su cinico marido toma la repentina decision de cambiar radicalmente y, tras una terapia, se transforma en un dechado de virtudes. Pero su enloquecida bondad no tiene freno y Katie se ve obligada a tomar el papel de cinica... Una mirada maliciosamente ironica sobre la vida familiar, la crisis de la mediana edad, la buena conciencia liberal, y la obsesion por ser buenas personas, escrita por uno de los mas agudos y divertidos cronistas de la Inglaterra contemporanea. / Katie Carr is a mother to two sons, practices medicine and she would like to think that she is a good person because she helps others. On a trip to Leeds, she has an affair with a man younger than her and from that moment onwards her life transforms into a sea of doubt. The thing is, her cynical husband takes the sudden decision to radically change, and after therapy he becomes a paragon of virtues. But his insane goodness has no limits and Katie is forced to take on the role of cynic This is a maliciously ironic look at family life, the crisis of middle age, the good liberal conscience and the obsession with being good people, written by one of the sharpest and funniest chroniclers of contemporary England [via]
More editions of Como Ser Buenos:
› Find signed collectible books: 'La rebelion del atlas/ The Rebellion of the Atlas'
More editions of La rebelion del atlas/ The Rebellion of the Atlas:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Gegenseitige Hilfe in Der Tier- Und Menschenwelt'
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. [via]
More editions of Gegenseitige Hilfe in Der Tier- Und Menschenwelt:
