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books tagged “sociobiology”
books tagged “sociobiology”
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African Genesis; A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins and Nature of Manby Robert ArdreyISBN 0689100132 (0-689-10013-2)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'African Genesis; A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins and Nature of Man'Book summary:This volume opens with the statement: "The home of our fathers was the African highland reaching north from the Cape to the Lakes of the Nile. Eleven chapters follow, describing the "African Genesis". [via]
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Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approachby N.B. Davies, KrebsISBN 0878931333 (0-87893-133-3)
Softcover, Sinauer Associates
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach'Book summary:Behavioural ecology : an evolutionary approach. Publisher: Oxford : Blackwell Scientific, 1978. ISBN: 0632001135. OCLC Number: 702944789 Notes: Includes indexes. Description: xi, 494 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. Responsibility: edited by J. R. Krebs and N. B. Davies. [via]
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The Biology of Moral Systemsby Richard D. AlexanderISBN 0202011747 (0-202-01174-7)
Softcover, Transaction Pub
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Biology of Moral Systems'Book summary:Despite wide acceptance that the attributes of living creatures have appeared through a cumulative evolutionary process guided chiefly by natural selection, many human activities have seemed analytically inaccessible through such an approach. Prominent evolutionary biologists, for example, have described morality as contrary to the direction of biological evolution, and moral philosophers rarely regard evolution as relevant to their discussions.
The Biology of Moral Systems adopts the position that moral questions arise out of conflicts of interest, and that moral systems are ways of using confluences of interest at lower levels of social organization to deal with conflicts of interest at higher levels. Moral systems are described as systems of indirect reciprocity: humans gain and lose socially and reproductively not only by direct transactions, but also by the reputations they gain from the everyday flow of social interactions.
The author develops a general theory of human interests, using senescence and effort theory from biology, to help analyze the patterning of human lifetimes. He argues that the ultimate interests of humans are reproductive, and that the concept of morality has arisen within groups because of its contribution to unity in the context, ultimately, of success in intergroup competition. He contends that morality is not easily relatable to universals, and he carries this argument into a discussion of what he calls the greatest of all moral problems, the nuclear arms race.
"Crammed with sage observations on moral dilemmas and many reasons why an understanding of evolution based on natural selection will advance thinking in finding practical solutions to our most difficult social problems." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences Richard D. Alexander is Donald Ward Tinkle Professor of Evolutionary Biology, Department of Biology, and Curator of Insects, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan. A recipient of numerous awards, Dr. Alexander is the author of Darwinism and Human Affairs. [via]More editions of The Biology of Moral Systems:
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The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Natureby Steven PinkerISBN 0142003344 (0-14-200334-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature'Book summary:Our conceptions of human nature affect everything aspect of our lives, from child-rearing to politics to morality to the arts. Yet many fear that scientific discoveries about innate patterns of thinking and feeling may be used to justify inequality, to subvert social change, and to dissolve personal responsibility.
In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. He shows how many intellectuals have denied the existence of human nature and instead have embraced three dogmas: The Blank Slate (the mind has no innate traits), The Noble Savage (people are born good and corrupted by society), and The Ghost in the Machine (each of us has a soul that makes choices free from biology). Each dogma carries a moral burden, so their defenders have engaged in desperate tactics to discredit the scientists who are now challenging them.
Pinker provides calm in the stormy debate by disentangling the political and moral issues from the scientific ones. He shows that equality, compassion, responsibility, and purpose have nothing to fear from discoveries about an innately organized psyche. Pinker shows that the new sciences of mind, brain, genes, and evolution, far from being dangerous, are complementing observations about the human condition made by millennia of artists and philosophers. All this is done in the style that earned his previous books many prizes and worldwide acclaim: irreverent wit, lucid exposition, and startling insight on matters great and small. [via]More editions of The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature:
Cheating Monkeys and Citizen Bees: The Nature of Cooperation in Animals and Humansby Lee A. DugatkinISBN 0684843412 (0-684-84341-2)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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Consciousness Explainedby Daniel Dennett, Paul WeinerISBN 0316180661 (0-316-18066-1)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Consciousness Explained'Book summary:Consciousness is notoriously difficult to explain. On one hand, there are facts about conscious experience--the way clarinets sound, the way lemonade tastes--that we know subjectively, from the inside. On the other hand, such facts are not readily accommodated in the objective world described by science. How, after all, could the reediness of clarinets or the tartness of lemonade be predicted in advance? Central to Daniel C. Dennett's attempt to resolve this dilemma is the "heterophenomenological" method, which treats reports of introspection nontraditionally--not as evidence to be used in explaining consciousness, but as data to be explained. Using this method, Dennett argues against the myth of the Cartesian theater--the idea that consciousness can be precisely located in space or in time. To replace the Cartesian theater, he introduces his own multiple drafts model of consciousness, in which the mind is a bubbling congeries of unsupervised parallel processing. Finally, Dennett tackles the conventional philosophical questions about consciousness, taking issue not only with the traditional answers but also with the traditional methodology by which they were reached.
Dennett's writing, while always serious, is never solemn; who would have thought that combining philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience could be such fun? Not every reader will be convinced that Dennett has succeeded in explaining consciousness; many will feel that his account fails to capture essential features of conscious experience. But none will want to deny that the attempt was well worth making. --Glenn Branch [via]
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Consilienceby Edward O. WilsonISBN 067976867X (0-679-76867-X)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Consilience'Book summary:The biologist Edward O. Wilson is a rare scientist: having over a long career made signal contributions to population genetics, evolutionary biology, entomology, and ethology, he has also steeped himself in philosophy, the humanities, and the social sciences. The result of his lifelong, wide-ranging investigations is Consilience (the word means "a jumping together," in this case of the many branches of human knowledge), a wonderfully broad study that encourages scholars to bridge the many gaps that yawn between and within the cultures of science and the arts. No such gaps should exist, Wilson maintains, for the sciences, humanities, and arts have a common goal: to give understanding a purpose, to lend to us all "a conviction, far deeper than a mere working proposition, that the world is orderly and can be explained by a small number of natural laws." In making his synthetic argument, Wilson examines the ways (rightly and wrongly) in which science is done, puzzles over the postmodernist debates now sweeping academia, and proposes thought-provoking ideas about religion and human nature. He turns to the great evolutionary biologists and the scholars of the Enlightenment for case studies of science properly conducted, considers the life cycles of ants and mountain lions, and presses, again and again, for rigor and vigor to be brought to bear on our search for meaning. The time is right, he suggests, for us to understand more fully that quest for knowledge, for "Homo sapiens, the first truly free species, is about to decommission natural selection, the force that made us.... Soon we must look deep within ourselves and decide what we wish to become." Wilson's wisdom, eloquently expressed in the pages of this grand and lively summing-up, will be of much help in that search. [via]
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Consilience : The Unity of Knowledgeby Edward O. WilsonISBN 0679450777 (0-679-45077-7)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Consilience : The Unity of Knowledge'Book summary:The biologist Edward O. Wilson is a rare scientist: having over a long career made signal contributions to population genetics, evolutionary biology, entomology, and ethology, he has also steeped himself in philosophy, the humanities, and the social sciences. The result of his lifelong, wide-ranging investigations is Consilience (the word means "a jumping together," in this case of the many branches of human knowledge), a wonderfully broad study that encourages scholars to bridge the many gaps that yawn between and within the cultures of science and the arts. No such gaps should exist, Wilson maintains, for the sciences, humanities, and arts have a common goal: to give understanding a purpose, to lend to us all "a conviction, far deeper than a mere working proposition, that the world is orderly and can be explained by a small number of natural laws." In making his synthetic argument, Wilson examines the ways (rightly and wrongly) in which science is done, puzzles over the postmodernist debates now sweeping academia, and proposes thought-provoking ideas about religion and human nature. He turns to the great evolutionary biologists and the scholars of the Enlightenment for case studies of science properly conducted, considers the life cycles of ants and mountain lions, and presses, again and again, for rigor and vigor to be brought to bear on our search for meaning. The time is right, he suggests, for us to understand more fully that quest for knowledge, for "Homo sapiens, the first truly free species, is about to decommission natural selection, the force that made us.... Soon we must look deep within ourselves and decide what we wish to become." Wilson's wisdom, eloquently expressed in the pages of this grand and lively summing-up, will be of much help in that search. [via]
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Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meaning of Lifeby Daniel DennettISBN 068482471X (0-684-82471-X)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meaning of Life'Book summary:One of the best descriptions of the nature and implications of Darwinian evolution ever written, it is firmly based in biological information and appropriately extrapolated to possible applications to engineering and cultural evolution. Dennett's analyses of the objections to evolutionary theory are unsurpassed. Extremely lucid, wonderfully written, and scientifically and philosophically impeccable. Highest Recommendation! [via]
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Defenders of the Truth: The Battle for Science in the Sociobiology Debate and Beyondby Ullica SegerstraleISBN 0198505051 (0-19-850505-1)
Hardcover, Oxford University Press
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Defenders of the Truth: The Battle for Science in the Sociobiology Debate and Beyond'Book summary:How do scientists separate their politics from their work--or is such a distinction even possible? These questions frame the two levels of sociologist Ullica Segerstrale's analysis of the sociobiology controversy, Defenders of the Truth. From EO Wilson's 1975 publication of Sociobiology to his 1998 release of Consilience, he has consistently been the often unwilling centre of the vitriolic debate over human nature and its scientific study. Heavy hitters such as Richard Dawkins, Stephen Jay Gould and John Maynard Smith have lined up to attack and defend the scientific, political and moral interpretations and implications of Wilson's synthesis, and Dr Segerstrale tells a compelling story of their battles on multiple fronts. The author knows her science, having trained extensively in biochemistry before turning to sociology; while she distances herself from assessing the validity of the various claims, she is clearly sympathetic to Wilson, who seems almost naive at times when his ideas are interpreted ideologically rather than scientifically.
That, of course, is the heart of the contention surrounding sociobiology. The political left, well-represented among evolutionary biologists, has long considered any genetic influence on human behaviour anathema--such theories are believed to support racist policies, even in the unlikely event that they were not merely reflections of racist attitudes. To their credit, many scientists held more complex beliefs, but some used the ideological argument as a back-door to introduce their own neo-Darwinian scientific theories. The struggle for understanding has been eclipsed for some time by the struggle for political and academic survival and dominance, and Segerstrale reports and scrutinises both with humour, intelligence and aplomb. The end of the controversy--if there can be one--is far off, but a careful reading of Defenders of the Truth will give insight into the forces influencing our scientific self-examination. --Rob Lightner [via]
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Defenders of the Truth: The Sociobiology Debateby Ullica SegerstraleISBN 0192862154 (0-19-286215-4)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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A Devil's Chaplain: Selected Essaysby Richard Dawkins, Latha MenonISBN 0297829734 (0-297-82973-4)
Hardcover, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Devil's Chaplain: Selected Essays'Book summary:Richard Dawkins has an opinion on everything biological, it seems, and in A Devil's Chaplain, everything is biological. Dawkins weighs in on topics as diverse as ape rights, jury trials, religion, and education, all examined through the lens of natural selection and evolution. Although many of these essays have been published elsewhere, this book is something of a greatest-hits compilation, reprinting many of Dawkins' most famous recent compositions. They are well worth re-reading. His 1998 review of Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont's Fashionable Nonsense is as bracing an indictment of academic obscurantism as the book it covered, although the review reveals some of Dawkins' personal biases as well. Several essays are devoted to skillfully debunking religion and mysticism, and these are likely to raise the hackles of even casual believers. Science, and more specifically evolutionary science, underlies each essay, giving readers a glimpse into the last several years' debates about the minutiae of natural selection. In one moving piece, Dawkins reflects on his late rival Stephen Jay Gould's magnum opus, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, and clarifies what it was the two Darwinist heavyweights actually disagreed about. While the collection showcases Dawkins' brilliance and intellectual sparkle, it brings up as many questions as it answers. As an ever-ardent champion of science, honest discourse, and rational debate, Dawkins will obviously relish the challenge of answering them. --Therese Littleton [via]
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A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science and Loveby Richard DawkinsISBN 0618485392 (0-618-48539-2)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin
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The Diversity of Lifeby Edward O. WilsonISBN 0393319407 (0-393-31940-7)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Diversity of Life: With a New Introduction'Book summary:Humans, the Harvard University entomologist Edward O. Wilson has observed, have an innate--or at least extremely ancient--connection to the natural world, and our continued divorce from it has led to the loss of not only "a vast intellectual legacy born of intimacy" with nature, but also our very sanity. In The Diversity of Life, Wilson takes a sweeping view of our planet's natural richness, remarking on what on the surface seems a paradox: "almost all the species that ever lived are extinct, and yet more are alive today than at any time in the past." (Wilson's elegant explanation is a scientific education in itself.) This great variety of species is, of course, threatened by habitat destruction, global climate change, and a host of other forces, and Wilson revisits his oft-stated call for the protection of wilderness and undeveloped land, noting that "wilderness has virtue unto itself and needs no extraneous justification." We should, he continues, regard every species, "every scrap of biodiversity," as precious and irreplaceable, without attempting to quantify that regard with utilitarian measures such as "bio-economics." In short, Wilson offers with this book a simple, workable environmental ethic that extends the work of Aldo Leopold and other conservationists. A remarkably productive and influential scientist, Wilson is also a fine writer, and his survey of biodiversity makes for welcome and instructive reading. --Gregory McNamee [via]
More editions of The Diversity of Life:
- The Diversity of Life: ISBN 0674212983 (0-674-21298-3)
Hardcover, Harvard Univ Pr - The Diversity of Life: ISBN 0393310477 (0-393-31047-7)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - The Diversity of Life: ISBN 0393964574 (0-393-96457-4)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - The Diversity of Life: ISBN 0393989801 (0-393-98980-1)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - The Diversity of Life: With a New Introduction: ISBN 0393319407 (0-393-31940-7)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
- The Diversity of Life: ISBN 0674212983 (0-674-21298-3)
The Evolution of Human Sexualityby Donald SymonsISBN 0195029070 (0-19-502907-0)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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Genes, Mind, And Culture: The Coevolutionary Processby Edward O. Wilson, Charles J. LumsdenISBN 9812562745 (981-256-274-5)
Hardcover, World Scientific Pub Co Inc
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Global Brain: The Evolution of the Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Centuryby Howard K. BloomISBN 0471419192 (0-471-41919-2)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Global Brain: The Evolution of the Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century'Book summary:When did big-picture optimism become cool again? While not blind to potential problems and glitches, Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind From the Big Bang to the 21st Century confidently asserts that our networked culture is not only inevitable but essential for our species' survival and eventual migration into space. Author Howard Bloom, believed by many to be R. Buckminster Fuller's intellectual heir, takes the reader on a dizzying tour of the universe, from its original subatomic particle network to the unimaginable data-processing power of intergalactic communication. His writing is smart and snappy, moving with equal poise through the depiction of frenzied bacteria passing along information packets in the form of DNA and that of nomadic African tribespeople putting their heads together to find water for the next year. The reader is swept up in Bloom's vision of the power of mass minds and before long can't help seeing the similarities between ecosystems, street gangs and the Internet. Were Bloom not so learned and well. respected--over a third of his book is devoted to notes and references and luminaries from Lynn Margulis to Richard Metzger have lined up behind him--it would be tempting to dismiss him as a crank. His enthusiasm, the grand scale of his thinking and his transcendence of traditional academic disciplines can be daunting but the new outlook yielded to the persistent is simultaneously exciting and humbling. Bloom takes the old-school sci-fi dystopian vision of group thinking and turns it around--Global Brain predicts that our future's going to be less like the Borg and more like a great party. --Rob Lightner [via]
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Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societiesby Jared DiamondISBN 0393317552 (0-393-31755-2)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies'Book summary:With a new chapter. The phenomenal bestseller; over 1.5 million copies sold; is now a major PBS special.Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Guns, Germs, and Steel is a brilliant work answering the question of why the peoples of certain continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering or displacing their peoples. This edition includes a new chapter on Japan and all-new illustrations drawn from the television series. Until around 11,000 BC, all peoples were still Stone Age hunter/gatherers. At that point, a great divide occurred in the rates that human societies evolved. In Eurasia, parts of the Americas, and Africa, farming became the prevailing mode of existence when indigenous wild plants and animals were domesticated by prehistoric planters and herders. As Jared Diamond vividly reveals, the very people who gained a head start in producing food would collide with preliterate cultures, shaping the modern world through conquest, displacement, and genocide.The paths that lead from scattered centers of food to broad bands of settlement had a great deal to do with climate and geography. But how did differences in societies arise? Why weren't native Australians, Americans, or Africans the ones to colonize Europe? Diamond dismantles pernicious racial theories tracing societal differences to biological differences. He assembles convincing evidence linking germs to domestication of animals, germs that Eurasians then spread in epidemic proportions in their voyages of discovery. In its sweep, Guns, Germs and Steel encompasses the rise of agriculture, technology, writing, government, and religion, providing a unifying theory of human history as intriguing as the histories of dinosaurs and glaciers. 32 illustrations [via]
More editions of Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies:
- Guns, Germs, And Steel: The Fates of Human Societies: ISBN 0393061310 (0-393-06131-0)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies: ISBN 061318114X (0-613-18114-X)
Hardcover, Bt Bound - Guns, Germs, and Steel : The Fates of Human Societies: ISBN 0393038912 (0-393-03891-2)
Hardcover, Norton & Company, Incorporated, W. W. - Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies: ISBN 0393973867 (0-393-97386-7)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies: ISBN 0393317552 (0-393-31755-2)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
- Guns, Germs, And Steel: The Fates of Human Societies: ISBN 0393061310 (0-393-06131-0)
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Guns, Germs, and Steel Reader's Companionby Jared DiamondISBN 1586638637 (1-58663-863-7)
Softcover, Sterling Pub Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Guns, Germs, and Steel Reader's Companion'Book summary:Scholar and professor Jared Diamond made a huge splash with this fascinating but controversial book, which argues that geography and environment have almost singlehandedly determined the course of human history. Dig deeper into his contentions with the information inside this invaluable reader's handbook:- Why did Europe colonize Africa and Asia rather than the other way around?
- Why is geography the most important factor in human history?
- How has the rest of the scientific community received Diamond's theory?
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The Human Difference: Animals, Computers, and the Necessity of Social Scienceby Alan WolfeISBN 0520089413 (0-520-08941-3)
Softcover, Univ of California Pr on Demand
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Human Difference: Animals, Computers, and the Necessity of Social Science'More editions of The Human Difference: Animals, Computers, and the Necessity of Social Science:
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Introducing Evolutionary Psychologyby Dylan Evans, Oscar ZarateISBN 1840466685 (1-84046-668-5)
Softcover, Totem Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Introducing Evolutionary Psychology'Book summary:Evolutionary psychologists are beginning to piece together the first truly scientific account of human nature. [via]
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An Introduction to Behavioural Ecologyby J. R. Krebs, N.B. Davies, Jan ParrISBN 0632035463 (0-632-03546-3)
Softcover, Blackwell Science Inc
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Journey to the Ants: A Story of Scientific Explorationby Edward O. Wilson, Bert HolldoblerISBN 0674485262 (0-674-48526-2)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Journey to the Ants: A Story of Scientific Exploration'Book summary:"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]
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The Jungleby Upton Beall Sinclair, Earl Lee, Kathleen De GraveISBN 1884365302 (1-884365-30-2)
Softcover, See Sharp Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Jungle'Book summary:For nearly a century, the original version of Upton Sinclair's classic novel has remained almost entirely unknown. When it was published in serial form in 1905, it was a full third longer than the censored, commercial edition published in book form the following year. That expurgated commercial edition edited out much of the ethnic flavor of the original, as well as some of the goriest descriptions of the meat-packing industry and much of Sinclair's most pointed social and political commentary. The text of this new edition is as it appeared in the original uncensored edition of 1905. It contains the full 36 chapters as originally published, rather than the 31 of the expurgated edition. A new foreword describes the discovery in the 1980s of the original edition and its subsequent suppression, and a new introduction places the novel in historical context by explaining the pattern of censorship in the shorter commercial edition.[via]More editions of The Jungle:
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The Meme Machineby Susan Blackmore, Richard DawkinsISBN 019286212X (0-19-286212-X)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Meme Machine'Book summary:In The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins proposed the concept of the meme as a unit of culture, spread by imitation. Now Dawkins himself says of Susan Blackmore:
Showing greater courage and intellectual chutzpah than I have ever aspired to, she deploys her memetic forces in a brave--do not think foolhardy until you have read it--assault on the deepest questions of all: What is a self? What am I? Where am I? ... Any theory deserves to be given its best shot, and that is what Susan Blackmore has given the theory of the meme.
Blackmore is a parapsychologist who rejects the paranormal, a skeptical investigator of near-death experiences, and a practitioner of Zen. Her explanation of the science of the meme (memetics) is rigorously Darwinian. Because she is a careful thinker (though by no means dull or conventional), the reader ends up with a good idea of what memetics explains well and what it doesn't, and with many ideas about how it can be tested--the very hallmark of an excellent science book. Blackmore's discussion of the "memeplexes" of religion and of the self are sure to be controversial, but she is (as Dawkins says) enormously honest and brave to make a connection between scientific ideas and how one should live one's life. --Mary Ellen Curtin [via]
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The Mismeasure of Manby Stephen Jay GouldISBN 0393314251 (0-393-31425-1)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Mismeasure of Man'Book summary:How smart are you? If that question doesn't spark a dozen more questions in your mind (like "What do you mean by 'smart,'" "How do I measure it," and "Who's asking?"), then The Mismeasure of Man, Stephen Jay Gould's masterful demolition of the IQ industry, should be required reading. Gould's brilliant, funny, engaging prose dissects the motivations behind those who would judge intelligence, and hence worth, by cranial size, convolutions, or score on extremely narrow tests. How did scientists decide that intelligence was unipolar and quantifiable, and why did the standard keep changing over time? Gould's answer is clear and simple: power maintains itself. European men of the 19th century, even before Darwin, saw themselves as the pinnacle of creation and sought to prove this assertion through hard measurement. When one measure was found to place members of some "inferior" group such as women or Southeast Asians over the supposedly rightful champions, it would be discarded and replaced with a new, more comfortable measure. The 20th-century obsession with numbers led to the institutionalization of IQ testing and subsequent assignment to work (and rewards) commensurate with the score, shown by Gould to be not simply misguided--for surely intelligence is multifactorial--but also regressive, creating a feedback loop rewarding the rich and powerful. The revised edition includes a scathing critique of Herrnstein and Murray's The Bell Curve, taking them to task for rehashing old arguments to exploit a new political wave of uncaring and belt tightening. It might not make you any smarter, but The Mismeasure of Man will certainly make you think. --Rob Lightner [via]
More editions of The Mismeasure of Man:
- The Mismeasure of Man: ISBN 0393310671 (0-393-31067-1)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - The Mismeasure of Man: ISBN 0393014894 (0-393-01489-4)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - The Mismeasure of Man: ISBN 0393039722 (0-393-03972-2)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - The Mismeasure of Man: ISBN 0393314251 (0-393-31425-1)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
- The Mismeasure of Man: ISBN 0393310671 (0-393-31067-1)
The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Lifeby Robert Wright, Luann WaltherISBN 0679763996 (0-679-76399-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life'Book summary:An accessible introduction to the science of evolutionary psychology and how it explains many aspects of human nature. Unlike many books on the topic,which focus on abstractions like kin selection, this book focuses on Darwinian explanations of why we are the way we are--emotionally and morally. Wright deals particularly well with explaining the reasons for the stereotypical dynamics of the three big "S's:" sex, siblings, and society. [via]
More editions of The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life:
- The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life: ISBN 0316875015 (0-316-87501-5)
Hardcover, Little, Brown Book Group Limited - The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life: ISBN 084466927X (0-8446-6927-X)
Hardcover, Peter Smith Pub Inc - The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life: ISBN 0679763996 (0-679-76399-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc
- The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life: ISBN 0316875015 (0-316-87501-5)
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The Moral Animal : Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionaryby Robert WrightISBN 0679407731 (0-679-40773-1)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Moral Animal : Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary'Book summary:An accessible introduction to the science of evolutionary psychology and how it explains many aspects of human nature. Unlike many books on the topic,which focus on abstractions like kin selection, this book focuses on Darwinian explanations of why we are the way we are--emotionally and morally. Wright deals particularly well with explaining the reasons for the stereotypical dynamics of the three big "S's:" sex, siblings, and society. [via]
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Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selectionby Sarah Blaffer HrdyISBN 0679442650 (0-679-44265-0)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection'Book summary:Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection should be required reading for anyone who happens to be a human being. In it, Hrdy reveals the motivations behind some of our most primal and hotly contested behavioral patterns--those concerning gender roles, mate choice, sex, reproduction, and parenting--and the ideas and institutions that have grown up around them. She unblinkingly examines and illuminates such difficult subjects as control of reproductive rights, infanticide, "mother love," and maternal ambition with its ever-contested companions: child care and the limits of maternal responsibility. Without ever denying personal accountability, she points out that many of the patterns of abuse and neglect that we see in cultures around the world (including, of course, our own) are neither unpredictable nor maladaptive in evolutionary terms. "Mother" Nature, as she points out, is not particularly concerned with what we call "morality." The philosophical and political implications of our own deeply-rooted behaviors are for us to determine--which can be done all the better with the kind of understanding gleaned from this exhaustive work.
Hrdy's passion for this material is evident, and she is deeply aware of the personal stake she has here as a woman, a mother, and a professional. This highly accomplished author relies on her own extensive research background as well as the works of others in multiple disciplines (anthropology, primatology, sociobiology, psychology, and even literature). Despite the exhaustive documentation given to her conclusions (as witness the 140-plus-page notes and bibliography sections), the book unfolds in an exceptionally lucid, readable, and often humorous manner. It is a truly compelling read, highly recommended. --Katherine Ferguson [via]
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Mother Nature: Maternal Instincts and How They Shape the Human Speciesby Sarah Blaffer HrdyISBN 0345408934 (0-345-40893-4)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Mother Nature: Maternal Instincts and How They Shape the Human Species'Book summary:Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection should be required reading for anyone who happens to be a human being. In it, Hrdy reveals the motivations behind some of our most primal and hotly contested behavioral patterns--those concerning gender roles, mate choice, sex, reproduction, and parenting--and the ideas and institutions that have grown up around them. She unblinkingly examines and illuminates such difficult subjects as control of reproductive rights, infanticide, "mother love," and maternal ambition with its ever-contested companions: child care and the limits of maternal responsibility. Without ever denying personal accountability, she points out that many of the patterns of abuse and neglect that we see in cultures around the world (including, of course, our own) are neither unpredictable nor maladaptive in evolutionary terms. "Mother" Nature, as she points out, is not particularly concerned with what we call "morality." The philosophical and political implications of our own deeply-rooted behaviors are for us to determine--which can be done all the better with the kind of understanding gleaned from this exhaustive work.
Hrdy's passion for this material is evident, and she is deeply aware of the personal stake she has here as a woman, a mother, and a professional. This highly accomplished author relies on her own extensive research background as well as the works of others in multiple disciplines (anthropology, primatology, sociobiology, psychology, and even literature). Despite the exhaustive documentation given to her conclusions (as witness the 140-plus-page notes and bibliography sections), the book unfolds in an exceptionally lucid, readable, and often humorous manner. It is a truly compelling read, highly recommended. --Katherine Ferguson [via]
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A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercionby Randy ThornhillISBN 0262700832 (0-262-70083-2)
Softcover, Mit Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion'Book summary:Evolutionary psychology often stomps where other branches of science fear to tread. Case in point: A Natural History of Rape. Randy Thornhill, a biologist, and Craig T. Palmer, an anthropologist, have attempted to apply evolutionary principles to one of the most disgusting of human behaviors, and the result is a guaranteed storm of media hype and debate. The book's central argument is that rape is a genetically developed strategy sustained over generations of human life because it is a kind of sexual selection--a successful reproductive strategy. This runs directly counter to the prevailing notion--that rape is predominantly about violent power, and only secondarily about sex.
The authors base their argument partly on statistics showing that in the United States, most rape victims are of childbearing age. But disturbingly large numbers of rapes of children, elderly women, and other men are never adequately explained. And the actual reproductive success of rape is not clear. Thornhill and Palmer's biological interpretation is just that--an interpretation, one that won't withstand tough scientific scrutiny. They further claim that the mental trauma of rape is greater for women of childbearing age (especially married women) than it is for elderly women or children. The data supporting these assertions come from a single psychological study, done by Thornhill in the 1970s, that mixes first-person interviews with caretaker's interpretations of children's reactions.
While Thornhill and Palmer claim that they are trying to look objectively at the root causes of rape, they focus almost entirely on data that support their thesis, forcing them to write an evolutionary "just-so" story. The central problem is evident in this quote, from the chapter "The Pain and Anguish of Rape":
We feel that the woman's perspective on rape can be best understood by considering the negative influences of rape on female reproductive success.... It is also highly possible that selection favored the outward manifestations of psychological pain because it communicated the female's strong negative attitude about the rapist to her husband and/or her relatives.
Women are disturbed by rape mostly because they are worried about what their husbands might think? In statements like this, the authors repeatedly discount the psychological aspects of rape, such as fear, humiliation, loss of autonomy, and powerlessness, and focus solely on personal shame.
A Natural History of Rape will no doubt have people talking about rape and its causes, and perhaps thinking about real ways of preventing it. In fact, the authors suggest that all young men be educated frankly about their (theoretical) genetic desire to rape. And it reopens the debate about the role of sex in rape. But without more and better data supporting their conclusions, Thornhill and Palmer are doing the very thing they criticize feminists and social scientists of doing: just talking. --Therese Littleton [via]
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Not in Our Genesby Richard C. Lewontin, Steven Rose, Leon J. KaminISBN 0394728882 (0-394-72888-2)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Not in Our Genes'Book summary:Three eminent scientists analyze the scientific, social, and political roots of biological determinism. [via]
On Human Natureby Edward O. WilsonISBN 0674016386 (0-674-01638-6)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'On Human Nature'Book summary:Image is same as cover. [via]
The Origin of Virtueby Matt RidleyISBN 0670863572 (0-670-86357-2)
Softcover, Penguin USA
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The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperationby Matt RidleyISBN 0140264450 (0-14-026445-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation'Book summary: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]
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The Selfish Geneby Richard DawkinsISBN 0199291152 (0-19-929115-2)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Selfish Gene'Book summary: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:
- The Selfish Gene: ISBN 0192860925 (0-19-286092-5)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr - The Selfish Gene: ISBN 0192177737 (0-19-217773-7)
Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr - The Selfish Gene: ISBN 0195200004 (0-19-520000-4)
Hardcover, Oxford University Press - The Selfish Gene: ISBN 019857519X (0-19-857519-X)
Hardcover, Oxford University Press - The Selfish Gene: ISBN 0199291144 (0-19-929114-4)
Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr - The Selfish Gene: ISBN 0199291152 (0-19-929115-2)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
- The Selfish Gene: ISBN 0192860925 (0-19-286092-5)
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Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviourby Kevin N. Laland, Gillian R. BrownISBN 0198508840 (0-19-850884-0)
Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour'Book summary:Evolutionary theory is one of the most wide-ranging and inspiring of scientific ideas. It offers a battery of methods that can be used to help us understand human behavior. Nevertheless, the legitimacy of this exercise is at the center of a heated controversy that has raged for over a century. Many evolutionary biologists, anthropologists and psychologists have taken these evolutionary principles and tried using them to explain a wide range of human characteristics, such as homicide, religion and sex differences in behavior. Others, however, are sceptical of these interpretations. Moreover, researchers disagree as to the best ways to use evolution to explore humanity, and a number of schools have emerged.
'Sense and Nonsense' provides an introduction to the ideas, methods, and findings of five such schools, namely, sociobiology, human behavioural ecology, evolutionary psychology, memetics, and gene-culture co-evolution. Carefully guiding the reader through the mire of confusing terminology, claim and counter-claim, and polemical statements, Laland and Brown provide a balanced, rigorous analysis that scrutinizes both the evolutionary arguments and the allegations of the critics. This is a book that will be make fascinating reading for popular science readers, undergraduate and postgraduate students (for example, in psychology, anthropology and zoology), and to experts on one approach who would like to know more about the other perspectives. Having completed this book the reader will feel better placed to assess the legitimacy of claims made about human behavior under the name of evolution, and to make judgements as to what is sense and what is nonsense. [via]More editions of Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour:
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Sociobiologyby Edward Osborne WilsonISBN 0674002350 (0-674-00235-0)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sociobiology: The New Synthesis'Book summary: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:
- Sociobiology: ISBN 0674816242 (0-674-81624-2)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr - Sociobiology: The New Synthesis: ISBN 0674000897 (0-674-00089-7)
Hardcover, Harvard Univ Pr - Sociobiology: ISBN 0674816234 (0-674-81623-4)
Hardcover, Harvard Univ Pr - Sociobiology: The New Synthesis: ISBN 0674002350 (0-674-00235-0)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
- Sociobiology: ISBN 0674816242 (0-674-81624-2)
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Sociobiology: The New Synthesisby Edward O. Wilson, Sarah LandryISBN 0674816218 (0-674-81621-8)
Hardcover, Harvard University Press
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sociobiology: The New Synthesis'Book summary: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]
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Sociobiology: Sense or Nonsenseby Michael RuseISBN 9027717982 (90-277-1798-2)
Softcover, Kluwer Academic Pub
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Speaking of Sexuality: An Anthologyby Nelwyn B. Moore, J. Kenneth DavidsonISBN 1891487337 (1-891487-33-7)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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Speaking of Sexuality: Interdisciplinary Readingsby J. Kenneth Davidson, Nelwyn B. MooreISBN 1931719381 (1-931719-38-1)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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Sperm Warsby Robin BakerISBN 0330390775 (0-330-39077-5)
Hardcover, Pan Macmillan
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sperm Wars'Book summary:Robin Baker puts forward the thesis that evolution has programmed men to conquer and monopolise women while women, without even knowing they are doing it, seek the best genetic input on offer from potential sexual partners. Facts of life presented include: 10 per cent of children are not fathered by their "fathers", less than 1 per cent off a man's sperm is capable of fertilizing anything - the rest is there to fight off other men's sperm, "smart" vaginal mucus encourages some sperm but blocks others, and a woman is far more likely to conceive through a casual fling than through sex with her regular partner. Baker describes fictionalized scences and then explains the science behind the actions to demonstrate how our everyday behaviour fits into a pattern of evolution. [via]
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Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, And Other Bedroom Battlesby Robin BakerISBN 1560258489 (1-56025-848-9)
Softcover, Thunder's Mouth Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, And Other Bedroom Battles'Book summary:Published to acclaim and controversy a decade ago, Sperm Wars is a revolutionary thesis about sex that turned centuries-old biological assumptions on their head. Evolution has programmed men to conquer and monopolize women while women, without ever knowing they are doing it, seek the best genetic input on offer from potential sexual partners. In this book, best-selling author Robin Baker reveals these new facts of life: ten percent of children are not fathered by their "fathers;" less than one percent of a man's sperm is capable of fertilizing anything (the rest is there to fight off all other men's sperm); "smart" vaginal mucus encourages some sperm but blocks others; and a woman is far more likely to conceive through a casual fling than through sex with her regular partner. It's no wonder that Sperm Wars is a classic of popular science writing that will surprise, entertain, and even shock.[via]More editions of Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, And Other Bedroom Battles:
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Sperm Wars: The Science of Sexby Robin BakerISBN 0788160044 (0-7881-6004-4)
Softcover, Diane Pub Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sperm Wars: The Science of Sex'Book summary:If you've ever looked upon sperm as a little army of white-coated soldiers setting off to sack and pillage a barely pregnable fortress . . . well, you'd be right, according to this fascinating new book. Dr. Robin Baker, who has studied sperm and cervical mucus in much greater detail than anyone would've thought necessary, has come to some startling conclusions: that less than 1 percent of sperm is actually designed to fertilize an egg (the rest are there to block other men's sperm), and that 4 to 10 percent of all children born to married couples are in fact the offspring of other men, usually of higher socioeconomic status, with whom the mother had a short-term relationship. [via]
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The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spiritby Melvin KonnerISBN 0805072799 (0-8050-7279-9)
Softcover, Holt & Company, Henry
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit'Book summary:Why do we behave as we do, and how are we to judge this behaviour in terms of right and wrong, good and evil, natural and unnatural? On the answers to these questions, whole systems of religion, law and government have been founded. Now, science has begun to address these same questions, offering data that is both exciting and controversial. Specifically concerned with the biological bases of human behaviour and human emotions, this book is a treatment of materials that have often been misused and exploited for questionable ends. [via]
More editions of The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit:
- The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit: ISBN 0060910704 (0-06-091070-4)
Softcover, Harpercollins - The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit: ISBN 080501327X (0-8050-1327-X)
Softcover, Henry Holt & Co - The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit: ISBN 003057062X (0-03-057062-X)
Hardcover, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston - The Tangled Wing : Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit: ISBN 0716746026 (0-7167-4602-6)
Hardcover, Holt & Company, Henry - The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit: ISBN 0805072799 (0-8050-7279-9)
Softcover, Holt & Company, Henry
- The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit: ISBN 0060910704 (0-06-091070-4)
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The Triumph of Sociobiologyby John AlcockISBN 0195163354 (0-19-516335-4)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Triumph of Sociobiology'Book summary:Scientists tend to be a bit insecure about their position in society. Nowhere is this more evident than in the decades-old sociobiology debate, and in The Triumph of Sociobiology behavioural scientist John Alcock tries to shore up his side against the sometimes-hysterical opposition. Inevitably, the book is somewhat defensive and apologetic, but the author explains himself and his field well and will convince most readers that studying the evolution of behaviour is no more controversial than any other aspect of evolution. Between charming, engaging tales of field study and intriguing analyses of the chief arguments against sociobiology, Alcock disarms any natural discomfort with the topic and makes his case clearly.
Humans have not always had all the cultural accoutrements of Hutus or Englishmen. At one time not so many million years ago, our ancestors could make only rudimentary tools while surely communicating in a far less sophisticated manner than we do currently. The immense increase in brain size over the last million or so years must have had profound consequences for our capacity to learn and acquire our culture. If you accept the less-than-revolutionary assumption that brains are necessary for learned behavior, then past selection on hominids that varied in their capacity for culture is a certainty.
But doesn't sociobiology justify rape, racism and genocide? Not so fast, says Alcock--just because behaviour has a natural explanation, that doesn't make it moral. It would seem that those who want to prevent this sort of behaviour would be keenly interested in understanding why it manifests, but often the opposite case pertains. Through gentle dissection of the differences between scientific and ethical knowledge, Alcock shows that we can use them to complement each other. The Triumph of Sociobiology takes time and care to examine all of the claims made against the field, both political and scientific, and ends up making a strong case for deeper research. --Rob Lightner [via]More editions of The Triumph of Sociobiology:
Why the Reckless Survive: And Other Secrets of Human Natureby Melvin KonnerISBN 014015289X (0-14-015289-X)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Armas, germenes y acero/ Guns, Germs and Steelby Jared DiamondISBN 848306667X (84-8306-667-X)
Hardcover, Debate Editorial
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Destejiendo El Arco Irisby Richard DawkinsISBN 8483106698 (84-8310-669-8)
Softcover, Ediciones Urano
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Destejiendo El Arco Iris'Book summary:Desde la astronomia y la genetica hasta el lenguaje y la realidad virtual, Richard Dawkins nos demuestra -y nos convence con ejemplos irreprochables- que la ciencia tambien entrana belleza; y que el descubrimiento de los mecanismos que rigen los fenomenos naturales no solo no destruye su poesia sino que la ensalza, revelandonos aspectos sorprendentes que de ninguna otra manera podriamos apreciar o imaginar. Con un enorme caudal de citas poeticas, Destejiendo el arco iris sugiere que puede aprenderse mucho de los poetas, que la ciencia deberia saber recurrir a imagenes y metaforas inspiradoras que facilitarian una comprension profunda y una investigacion fertil. / Mysteries don't lose their poetry because they are solved: the solution often is more beautiful than the puzzle, uncovering deeper mysteries. Bestselling author, Dawkins takes up important topics in modern science, from astronomy and genetics to language and virtual reality, combining them in a landmark statement of the human appetite for wonder. [via]
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La Maquina De Los Memesby Susan BlackmoreISBN 8449309670 (84-493-0967-0)
Softcover, Paidos Iberica Ediciones S A
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› Find signed collectible books: 'La Maquina De Los Memes'Book summary:Los humanos somos muy extraños. De la misma forma en que lo hicieron los animales, nuestros cuerpos han evolucionado por selección natural y, no obstante, son tremendamente distintos de los cuerpos de los otros seres. Utilizamos el lenguaje para comunicarnos, declaramos la guerra, creemos en la religión, enterramos a nuestros muertos y nos avergüenza la sexualidad. Consumimos televisión, conducimos automóviles y comemos helados. ¿Por qué somos tan sumamente distintos? De entre todos los animales, los humanos somos los únicos seres capaces de imitar a nuestros semejantes y, por lo tanto, de copiar ideas, costumbres, habilidades, conducta, inventos, canciones e historias: memes, en suma. El término «meme» fue acuñado en 1976 por Richard Dawkins, en las últimas páginas de su obra El gen egoísta. Los memes, como los genes, son replicantes empeñados en introducirse en tantos cerebros como puedan y en iniciar una competición que da forma a nuestras mentes y a nuestra cultura, del mismo modo en que la selección natural ha diseñado nuestros cuerpos. Los memes nos hacen: todos los seres humanos somos máquinas de fabricar memes. Este fascinante y extraordinario libro concluye con una de las cuestiones más trascendentales con las que debe enfrentarse el ser humano: la naturaleza del ser, el meollo de la conciencia que siente emociones, que tiene recuerdos y creencias y que toma decisiones. Y así, el fascinante discurso de Susan Blackmore sostiene que ese meollo de la conciencia, el yo interior, no es más que una entelequia, una ilusión creada por los memes en su esfuerzo por autorreplicarse. [via]
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La Tabla Rasaby Steven PinkerISBN 8449314895 (84-493-1489-5)
Softcover, Paidos Iberica Ediciones S A
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› Find signed collectible books: 'La Tabla Rasa'Book summary:La concepción que podamos tener de la naturaleza humana afecta a todos los aspectos de nuestra vida, desde la forma en que educamos a nuestros hijos hasta las ideas políticas que defendemos. Sin embargo, en un momento en que la ciencia está avanzando espectacularmente en estos temas, muchas personas se muestran hostiles al respecto. Temen que los descubrimientos sobre los patrones innatos del pensar y el sentir se puedan emplear para justificar la desigualdad, subvertir el orden social, anular la responsabilidad personal y confundir el sentido y el propósito de la vida.En La tabla rasa, Steven Pinker explora la idea de la naturaleza humana y sus aspectos éticos, emocionales y políticos. Demuestra que muchos intelectuales han negado su existencia al defender tres dogmas entrelazados: la tabla rasa (la mente no tiene características innatas), el buen salvaje (la persona nace buena y la sociedad la corrompe) y el fantasma en la máquina (todos tenemos un alma que toma decisiones sin depender de la biología). Cada dogma sobrelleva una carga ética, y por eso sus defensores se obcecan en tácticas desesperadas para desacreditar a los científicos que los cuestionan.Pinker aporta calma y serenidad a estos debates al mostrar que la igualdad, el progreso, la responsabilidad y el propósito nada tienen que temer de los descubrimientos sobre la complejidad de la naturaleza humana. Con un razonamiento claro, sencillez en la exposición y ejemplos procedentes de la ciencia y la historia, el autor desmonta incluso las amenazas más inquietantes. Y demuestra que un reconocimiento de la naturaleza humana basado en la ciencia y el sentido común, lejos de ser peligroso, puede ser un complemento a las ideas sobre la condición humana que miles de miles de artistas y filósofos han generado. Todo ello aderezado con un estilo que, en sus obras anteriores, le sirvió para conseguir muchos premios y el aplauso internacional: ingenio, lucidez y agudeza en el análisis de todos los asuntos, sean grandes o pequeños. [via]
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