Amazon.com
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.
Book Description
If, as Darwin suggests, evolution relentlessly encourages the survival of the fittest, why are humans compelled to live in cooperative, complex societies? In this fascinating examination of the roots of human trust and virtue, a zoologist and former American editor of the Economist reveals the results of recent studies that suggest that self-interest and mutual aid are not at all incompatible. In fact, he points out, our cooperative instincts may have evolved as part of mankind's natural selfish behavior--by exchanging favors we can benefit ourselves as well as others. Brilliantly orchestrating the newest findings of geneticists, psychologists, and anthropologists, The Origins of Virtue re-examines the everyday assumptions upon which we base our actions towards others, whether in our roles as parents, siblings, or trade partners. With the wit and brilliance of The Red Queen, his acclaimed study of human and animal sexuality, Matt Ridley shows us how breakthroughs in computer programming, microbiology, and economics have given us a new perspective on how and why we relate to each other.
• Ridley's previous book, The Red Queen, was short-listed for the Writers' Guild Award for nonfiction.
Customer Reviews:
The Greatest Book Ever Written.......2007-09-11
Don't pick up this book unless you want life-changing revelations about the way you view friends, family, and all other relationships. Everything is a give and take.
Interesting book about cooperative behavior, marred by libertarian bias.......2007-05-06
Why should people or animals be nice to one another? The thesis of the book is that such behavior arises because it is in the mutual interest of individuals to exchange goods and services. The book does a good job of showing examples from animal and anthropological studies as well as providing theoretical arguments. Along the way you will be disabused of any notions that you may have of "noble savages" and of any idyllic images of the behavior of dolphins and chimpanzees.
Unfortunately the author has a dislike of large scale government, which causes him to ignore investigating the benefits not only of government but of special purpose organizations at all levels from gardening clubs to Medieval guilds to large scale charitable organizations. There are, for example, things that governments do well that simply are not possible at the individual level, like organizing poice and armies and constructing highways. Also worthy of mention would be the comparatively modern concept of voting. This is not something done by hunter-gatherers, because they do not have the required abstract concept of number, which is not something that we are born with.
Despite its title the book does not really explain the origin of virtue as a concept. He says that the ideal of self-less behavior is an illusion, yet even if this is the case it requires an explanation. Why are we moved by the suffering of others? Why do so many people contribute to charitable organizations? Why do we have a concept of justice, leading to what the author calls the "irrational" attitude of revenge, which he notes is peculiar to our own species.
The book provides a good starting point for a discussion of virtue, but, as I have indicated it is certainly not the final word on the subject.
Interesting argument about human cooperation and evolution.......2007-03-19
The book opens with a daring jail break. The story notes that the person escaping the grim Russian prison is, in fact, a member of the nobility, one of the Czar's favorites when the escapee was much younger. The person breaking out, of course, is Peter Kropotkin, the anarchist prince. However, it is not his philosophy so much as his work in natural history that drew Matt Ridley's attention.
Kropotkin, on an exploration of Siberia, observed what he saw was cooperation among multitudinous animal species. He drew from that the conclusion that Huxley, who had described nature as "red in tooth and claw," was missing an important part of the evolution picture--the evolution of cooperation. And this leads to Ridley's thesis in this well written volume (page 5): "Society works not because we have consciously invented it, but because it is an ancient product of our evolved predispositions. It is literally in our nature." He goes on to note that (page 5): "This is a book about human nature, and in particular the surprisingly social nature of the human animal."
The volume proceeds by reviewing theories and research on cooperation, evolution, and so on, a wide ranging review of the human condition and of our evolutionary impulses. He notes that our primate relatives set the stage for understanding the evolution of human cooperation. He notes the importance of a game, adopting game theory, developed by political scientist Robert Axelrod, in which humans will cooperate unless double crossed, at which point individuals will respond in negative kind. But, according to some theorists, as long as individuals are willing to cooperate with one another, they will get cooperation in return.
His conclusion is intriguing (page 264): "If we are to recover social harmony and virtue, if we are to build back into society the virtues that made it work for us, it is vital that we reduce the power and scope of the state." He calls for (page 265) ". . .social and material exchange between equals for that is the raw material of trust, and trust is the basis for virtue."
All in all, an intriguing and interesting volume. Not all, of course, will be convinced of the thesis. But it is a well written effort to integrate many different bodies of work to make his point.
Provocative with some confusing conclusions.......2007-01-10
I gave this book four stars out of five because most of the book seems to develop a sound argument for virtues and traits arising out of evolutionary development. Where it fails is in some of its conclusions. Here I am echoing the Editorial Review From Library Journal as shown here on Amazon.com. After pointing out how mankind, many times as hunter-gather tribes, has caused massive destruction and drove many species to extinction, he concludes that the best way to be environmentally friendly is through small, local cooperatives rather than large, especially state sponsored or directed, environmental organizations. (He arrives at other similar conclusions in other areas as well). This seems to be a dichotomy. While he does provide some evidence, it is not nearly as conclusive as he seems to believe. At one point he speaks of the English medieval common. He points out that stinting is still an on-going practice in some regions, thus leading to the conclusion that local control and cooperation is best. However, this argument leaves a lot to be desired. First, the commons system mostly broke down for a variety of reasons, one of which was cheating. This lead to the enclosures. This ended up leading to wealthier individuals who ended up purchasing more property and reducing his neighbors to fuedal status and eventual poor management. If the commons system was so successful, it is hard to understand why it almost completely collapsed. To be sure, the collapse can be partially explained to some degree by other aspects of human nature. Yet, a truly successful system should have been able to resist such corruption.
Likewise, the attacks on the larger "do good" organizations seems questionable. After all, it has been a defining nature of man to organize in ever larger groups for at least 10,000 years, the time of the earliest known permanent settlements. While 10,000 years is a mere blip on the evolutionary scale, the need to organize seems pervasive, as he points out early on using the complex systems of plants and animals as examples. While the frailties of human nature do not always lead these organizations to performing the best good, it is unquestionable that many people involved in these organizations are selfless. Also, another counter-argument to his conclusions is the fact that much of the Industrial world democratically votes for things that will cost them, but are for some sort of larger good.
What this book does well is demonstrate that many virtuous traits did come out of evolutionary development, rather than cultural or religious forces. While these latter undoubtedly have an effect on these traits, they are not the source. It does a good job explaining what the base behavioral tendencies are, thus providing a basis for evaluating our institutions, finding ways to reward positive traits and to punish the negative traits that always arise.
This book is an easy read. If the subject is interesting to you, purchase the book, just keep on mind some of the weaknesses. A newer book you may want to consider is Moral Minds. Or, perhaps, read both.
Very entertaining.......2006-11-21
Matt Ridley does a good job of explaining the origins of virtue as pro-social, instinctive behaviors that serve individual or genetic self-interest via a cohesive and cooperative group. The flip-side of this is tribal 'us' vs 'them' thinking and behavior which can lead to the horrors of war and genocide.
Free-trade is seen as the way to improve relations between groups. Reduced state power with private or communal property ownership is seen as the way to improve conservation of resources and to improve relations between people who are then equally engaged in exchange. Exchange is built on trust which is the foundation of virtue.
Ridley acknowledges the problem that the recognition of the motivation of self-interest in people can lead to people becoming more selfish.
My greater concern is his assumption of exchange being between equals. Or, indeed, how decision-making power will be shared equally considering, for example, how much authority men have had over women throughout evolution and history. Can women be equal exchangers considering their reproductive and 'caring' roles in society that are so difficult to cost or even for men to value? Ridley himself says that tribalism is more of a male problem so is this all really just directed at men and traditional male activities? If so, where does it leave women, children, the elderly etc? The practicalities are far from clear.
Nonetheless, this is a strong argument and Ridley is a very entertaining writer. Certainly well worth reading.
Book Description
For generations, scientists have taught us about the 'fight or flight' response to stress. But is this instinct universal? Renowned psychologist Shelley E. Taylor explains that 'fight or flight' may only be half the story. Humans-particularly females-are hardwired to respond to stress differently. As Taylor deftly points out in this eye-opening work, the 'tend and befriend' response is among the most vital ingredient of human social life. Ranging widely over biology, evolutionary psychology, physiology, and neuroscience, Taylor examines the biological imperative that drives women to seek each other's company, and to tend to the young and the infirm, bestowing great benefits to the group but often at great cost to themselves. This tending process begins virtually at the moment of conception, and literally crafts the biology of offspring through genes that rely on caregiving for their expression. In the tradition of groundbreaking books about the science of human nature such as Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence and Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct, Taylor's book will change forever the way we talk and think about ourselves.
Customer Reviews:
extremely useful.......2003-10-16
The book is an amazing compilation of basic up to the minute neuroendocrinology and social psychology.
Combined with work on gender development, e.g., "The Two Sexes: Growing Apart, Coming Together," by Stanford psychologist Eleanor Maccoby, this book provides deep background for two of the most salient issues confronting the reproduction of American culture: collaborative parenting and collaborative conflict resolution.
It is extremely unfortunate that this book is not ranked higher on the Amazon sales chart It's a must read as a nuts and bolts book about the elementary conditions necessary for true "family values."
But it is even more valuable as a subtle debunking of the fictious version of "human nature" espoused by the likes of Steven Pinker. Pinker is at his best describing the power of human language. For solid looks at the ways in which men and women develop emotionally, look at Taylor and Maccoby
Book Description
Fresh out of film school, aspiring producer Jane Hamsher and her partner Don Murphy stumbled onto a screenplay by a geeky filmmaker-wannabe named Quentin Tarantino. For $10,000, Jane and Don optioned Natural Born Killers and set off on a two-year roller coaster ride no classroom could have prepared them for. With an outrageous cast of real-life characters including Oliver Stone, Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey, Jr., and Juliette Lewis--along with a slew of film-crew leeches and behind-the-scenes studio pitbulls--Killer Instinct rivals the most mesmerizing, gut-wrenching movie scenes. A wild joyride like no other, Hamsher's tale provides a fresh, insider's perspective on stardom and the real balance of power in Hollywood.
Customer Reviews:
lightweight.......2006-08-03
This book is pretty flimsy. Other reviewers have noted that it is a fast read, nothing special. But, come on...there are so many GOOD books out there, why waste your time?
c'mon guys, i mean, like................2006-03-23
who's this ditz kidding? her partner's a fat oaf, the bozo meter rates a potential's b.o.
this man is a meany, this one's a crook, this one's dumb.
i mean like.....
y she hatin?
Hunter S. Thompson Redux.......2006-01-24
Fear and loathing in Hollywood. You get the picture. A bore.
........2003-01-20
I give 'Killer Instinct' this much: it was a quick and entertaining read -- a fun ride. The type of book you tear right through in a night. However, I find it difficult to take seriously Jane Hamsher's account of events. I find it curious that every single woman in this book is portrayed as a sweet, strong-willed, honest-to-goodness saint, worthy of enormous sympathy -- (not least of all, Jane Hamsher herself!) -- while almost every single man (save for one writer friend of hers) is portrayed as, more or less, an utter demon (at times, almost literally.)* Even her "partner in crime," Don Murphy is shown, at times, in a critical light -- but never Iron-Willed Jane. She is the very picture of patience and professionalism, often beset upon, but rarely (if ever) in error. It's interesting that at several points, particularly on the production of NBK, it is implied that a lot of people on the set are losing patience with her and are irritated by her presence -- but unfortunately, we don't have their side of the story, and as far as Jane is concerned, it is (always!) all miraculously due to their inability to handle the fact that she's a woman. (!!!) Don't get me wrong, I don't doubt there's plenty of sexism in Hollywood, but Hamsher's account, with its suspiciously unfailing tendency to portray every single woman as a flawless, tough-hearted angel, leads me to believe that this is not just a one-sided account, but quite possibly entirely out-of-whack, the rays of truth refracted wildly through Hamsher's "feminist fairytale" vision of her own experiences.
Additionally, I find it interesting that while initially very smitten with Tarantino's ideas and scripts, that as their professional ties go south, he magically turns into a thoroughly talentless hack, milking stolen ideas for all they're worth. But then she remembers that NBK is her dream project, and it was, of course, scripted by him -- drats! Thinking fast, she asserts that by far the best part of the script -- the TV sitcom parody -- was the work of her writer friend, not Tarantino. Well, uh ... OK.
Particularly priceless, though, is her initial (and I think only) direct encounter with Lawrence Bender, Tarantino's producer. They meet at a party, he says hello and is perfectly friendly and polite to her, and that's pretty much the extent of her experiences with him. Given that, it's pretty amazing (and terribly questionable) exactly how much hostility she has towards him and how much dirt she shovels in his direction throughout the rest of the book. Upon meeting him, she feels "queasy," shakes, and has to immediately leave the room for some air when they part! Why? Because she feels intuitively that she has just been in the presence of -- I believe she uses the term "jackal" -- but given the incredibly over-the-top way she describes it, the impression is more that of a "demon."* And why does she feel that way? Well, it's not one of those things you can explain, see, but essentially, it seems to mainly have to do with the fact that his eyes have a distant look to them. (They "recede into an emotional abyss when he speaks" according to Hamsher.)
I've never met Lawrence Bender, and I have no trouble believing that Quentin Tarantino and Oliver Stone and the host of other male Hollywood stars and hopefuls that appear in Hamsher's tale have their fair share of shortcomings and ballooned egos. Maybe a few of them really are even bad, dishonest people, through and though. Maybe. What I find more difficult to believe is that Hamsher and her coterie of oppressed agents and starlets and mother-figures are half as immaculate as they seem in the version of events she gives us here.
I also question the motivation for writing this book. A fun ride through the Hollywood system, or just an excuse to trash-talk people who've gone on to have more successful careers than she? Looking through Hamsher's filmography, I notice her unfailing tendency to grab interesting projects and turn them into mediocre films with mediocre earnings. It seems unlikely that Hamsher would ever deign to admit to an emotion as base as jealousy, but one wonders all the same.
Treated as a work of FICTION, it rates five stars, but..........2002-08-07
...if this book were rated on its believability, it would rate one star or lower. While there are no doubt some grains of truth to the incidents it describes, other parts of it are utterly insane. Either there is a heavy degree of fabrication and embellishment, or Oliver Stone and company are COMPLETELY FREAKIN' NUTS! My money is on the former simply because so much of it is unrealistic: towards the end of the book, Jane tells about how Quentin Tarantino hit on her in Italy, and includes a picture of his letter to her, written in childish scrawl and including ridiculous misspellings of common words. It looks like it was written by a five-year-old! Either Mr. Tarantino was taking drugs, or he is in serious need of psychiatric help! Also, Oliver Stone is portrayed as a philanderer and a drug addict. However, there are plenty of other accounts of the productions of his films. The kind of behavior attributed to Mr. Stone in this book would stick out like a sore thumb. Why none of those other accounts have revealed more than a shade of those characteristics of his personality is beyond me! In other words, I believe Jane's account is heavily exaggerated.
Anyway, I don't mean for this to be completely negative, because the book is truly funny--the ominous buildup to meeting Oliver Stone after Jane and Don hear that he is interested in the project, the funny captions on the pictures, the crew doing psychedelic mushrooms during location scout in the desert, the prison riot, the film festival in Italy, etc. (Don't read this book in a library. You will die trying to stifle your laughter.)
This book is worth buying... but take everything it says with a heaping bowl of salt.
Amazon.com
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
Book Description
Maternal instinct--the all-consuming, utterly selfless love that mothers lavish on their children--has long been assumed to be an innate, indeed defining element of a woman's nature. But is it? In this provocative, groundbreaking book, renowned anthropologist (and mother) Sarah Blaffer Hrdy shares a radical new vision of motherhood and its crucial role in human evolution.
Hrdy strips away stereotypes and gender-biased myths to demonstrate that traditional views of maternal behavior are essentially wishful thinking codified as objective observation. As Hrdy argues, far from being "selfless," successful primate mothers have always combined nurturing with ambition, mother love with sexual love, ambivalence with devotion. In fact all mothers, in the struggle to guarantee both their own survival and that of their offspring, deal nimbly with competing demands and conflicting strategies.
In her nuanced, stunningly original interpretation of the relationships between mothers and fathers, mothers and babies, and mothers and their social groups, Hrdy offers not only a revolutionary new meaning to motherhood but an important new understanding of human evolution. Written with grace and clarity, suffused with the wisdom of a long and distinguished career, Mother Nature is a profound contribution to our understanding of who we are as a species--and why we have become this way.
Customer Reviews:
A Triumph!.......2007-05-13
Utterly fascinating and, when it comes to understanding what makes human beings tick, is of greater reality, to my mind, than the phantasmagorical reaches of psychoanalysis, and more fundamental. Painstakingly researched. A scholarly book written in an accessible and engaging style.
Must-read for any woman or parent (especially working moms!).......2005-11-18
I find myself raving about this book to every woman (and man) I know. This is the most astounding and thought-provoking book I've read in recent years. Professor Hrdy is an emeritus professor of anthropology at UC Davis who puts the behavior of mothers and infants into an evolutionary context, using a comparative approach and drawing from sociobiology, anthropology, and psychology. I enjoyed this book from my perspectives as a student who did doctoral research in behavioral ecology; as a scientist who's tired of the superficial stereotype of instinctive, selfless maternal devotion; and most profoundly as a mother who's trying somehow to balance the equation of doing good for my family, myself, and the world as an ecologist with a conservation group. I appreciated the fact that she did not just rely on her own research on langur monkeys, but extensively reviewed other studies (and pointed out the dearth of studies that challenge societal assumptions that all mothers should care for every infant under any circumstance). She also entertains different hypotheses instead of just staking out a prescription based on an idealized version from one point in human evolutionary history (i.e. romanticizing hunter-gatherer societies), as seen in anthropologist Meredith Small's "Our Babies, Ourselves", which is also a wonderful book, but lacks the breadth of Hrdy's scholarship.
I frequently read this book as I rocked and nursed my infant son, which made everything more vivid to me. Hrdy writes with grace and humor about topics such as the origins of lactation (the rapture and thrall of oxytocin), the sensual (and hormonal) appeal of infants (so luscious you want to eat `em up). I was fascinated by the many ways that mothers seek to secure resources for their children (such as the tradition of godparents, or women's "unnatural" ambitions in the workplace). But reading the tragic chapters in European history of unsuccessful wet-nursing and wholescale infant abandonment while nursing my baby was almost more than I could bear.
One theme Hrdy reiterates throughout the book is how mothers throughout history forge workable compromises between infant needs and maternal ambition. She shares her experiences as a mother and scientist, and reflections from other women in the field. I found myself cheering "Yes!" in her final chapters, when she steers the debate of working mothers away from the gender politics of "Is it bad for infants when mothers work?" to the more critical question "How can we ensure that infants are cared for as lovingly and securely as kin?" whether that's by the mother or 'allomothers' [relatives or helpers who care like mothers]. "All early caregivers become the emotional equivalents of kin. Any caretaker is capable of communicating the message infants desperately seek - `You are wanted and will not be set aside'. (p. 509)" While the mother is uniquely equipped to meet that need, with her physical contact, her scent, her milk, she's not the only one who can answer when an infant seeks "the meeting eyes of love." Hrdy has written a passionate and scholarly book that is both an engaging read as well as a profoundly enlightening look into human nature. I cannot recommend this more highly.
A must read for any evolutionary psychologist.......2004-02-20
So many great little factoids. My favorite topics include family planning (abortion, infanticide), maternal bonding, the adaptiveness of menopause, females in social structure, and lots of other tidbits I wish more authors would cover. The most fascinating thing is that these topics come up in the animal kingdom, not just with us.
Only complaint might be that it's a dense read, and doesn't have a nice "backdrop" to organize it like Robert Wright's books (which I highly recommend). For this reason, you might need to read it twice to get everything. The facts themselves are tremendous, however. This book illustrates many more complexities about females that her male contemporaries might gloss over. Hrdy offers balance to anyone who's read other books on the same topic -- albeit great ones -- by male authors. (Come on, they can't help it.)
One more interesting thing that Hrdy adds is that science in her field is limited because neither feminists nor conservatives want to explore the evolutionary basis of womanhood. For conservatives, they know they are baby machines. For feminists, all that matters is that women are now free. Hrdy takes issue with both camps.
Evolution from a female viewpoint.......2003-11-13
This is a fascinating look at evolution with particular reference to the female of the species. Packed with fascinating information about female behaviour through the ages. Descriptions of life among hunter-gatherer groups are particularly interesting. Subjects like infanticide, wetnursing, abandonment of infants, etc are gone into in great detail. I learnt a lot from this book. I particularly enjoyed the splendidly bloodthirsty lullabye from the Napoleonic era printed at the end of this book, my children love it. One small complaint, at one point in this book Ms. Hrdy compares housewives to laboratory rats. Now, I am used to the abuse routinely heaped on housewives, but this is really going a little too far. The big difference between a laboratory rat and a housewife is that I, a housewife, can leave my house any time I like (maybe it's different in America, perhaps housewives are kept locked up there, I don't know), and I frequently do. i have alot more freedom of movement than I would if I were, say, stuck in an office all day long. I quite accept Ms. Hardy' point that children do not have to be cared for full-time by their mothers, but it would be nice if she could refrain from abusing those of us who actually enjoy being full-time carers.
An Honest Search For Truth.......2003-07-01
Biology has an agenda. Squirrels, whales, and crickets do not have our language facility, thus they do not have self-help books, preachers, or legions of well-meaning advisors. Yet they are born with the genetically provided rules (feelings) that allow them to be successful squirrels, wonderful whales, and competent crickets. We too have genetically provided rules, which sociobiologists and such are trying to discover. This wonderful book is the author's attempt to explain some of the conditions of motherhood, the relations between mothers and babies, and sometimes tough choices mothers have to make. This work is, in my opinion, magnificent.
NOTE TO REVIEWERS: If one starts off a review with phrases like "goofy liberal", "ranting conservative", or "clueless libertarian", readers like me read no further. Plus my estimation of the reviewer's intelligence is halved.
Book Description
"Civilization is a term used by literary circles, historians, and publicists to describe a superior level of accomplishments of certain nations. After many later attempts to refine the definition, references are made to the difficulty posed by the physical environment and nature's physical challenges, which had to be overcome because they presented a danger to the human race.
"Astonishingly, ignored was the importance of morality and the influence it exercised on the way humans treat each other within the framework of a social setting.
"For the actions of men and women, if unhindered in the struggle for self-preservation and seeking material prosperity to attain the desired level of creature comforts, give rise to self-made obstacles in their quest to defy the natural order. We humans are the cause of hazards to our existence created by overpopulation, environmental degradation, and injecting various toxic substances into the food supply; we are the designers of an unbalanced economy whose stratification favors the well-to-do to the detriment of the disadvantaged, keeping most in a state of turmoil; we are the contrivers of religious systems, some of which are responsible for the most unnatural crimes committed by humans against humans; last but not least, we are the instigators of mass slaughters resulting from wars fought in anger, causing ever increasing casualties and destruction reaching totally destabilizing magnitudes. These acts bode ill for civilization.
"Humanity, that flawed creation of a flawed nature, in bondage to survival instincts and a virtual slave to circumstances beyond its control, nevertheless possesses the capacity to free itself from some of the burdens imposed by the natural order to rise above the gravitational pull confining all living species. We must discover that our welfare and that of society depend on the rejection of the natural order, so as to be freed, however moderately, from nature's evolutionary competition and the struggle for the survival of the fittest, an order totally in conflict with morality. For the aims of morality are antithetical to nature's imposed scheme of things, reflecting the conflict between our aims and nature's designs." —Arthur Blech
Customer Reviews:
Must Read.......2005-11-26
Want to know how humankind got to be the way it is today? Want to know how to fix it? Then read this book. Arthur Blech clearly points hout how our civilization got to be the way it is today, and how to fix it step by step. This is a very interesting book and a must read.
If you care then you must read.......2005-11-26
This is a book that everyone that cares at all about our world and humankind as it is now and wants to change and make a difference. Arthur Blech talks about the things that made our world the way it is today as well as tells us exactly how we can change it. All I can say is that this book is a must read for EVERYONE.
Read This Book, Save the World.......2005-10-15
Arthur Blech's latest book, Toward a New Civilization, is a welcome light in a world darkened by humankind's incessant march to self-destruction. Blech ably describes the sins of our past that affect our present...and then offers a clear roadmap for our future.
This is a very important book, one that every politician and policymaker ought to read post haste before it's too late. Anyone with an interest in bettering humankind will find this a great read full of viable solutions.
Book Description
In times of crisis and upheaval, our responses to stress become especially important. We have long heard about the fight or flight response, but renowned psychologist Shelley E. Taylor points out that fight or flight may be distinctly male, and that femalesboth humans and those of other speciesare hardwired to respond to stress differently. Their tend and befriend response is not only demonstrable but, as Taylor deftly explains in this eye-opening work, a key ingredient in human social life.Accessibly and engagingly, Taylor draws on biology, evolutionary psychology, physiology, and neuroscience to show how this tending process begins virtually at the moment of conception and literally crafts the biology of offspring through genes that rely on caregiving. Taylor also examines what drives women to seek each others company, and to tend to the young and the infirmacts that greatly benefit the group but often at great cost to the individual. In the tradition of works such as Daniel Golemans Emotional Intelligence and Steven Pinkers The Language Instinct, Taylors book will forever change the way we view ourselves, and will revolutionize our understanding of the role of women and nurturing in maintaining a stable society.
Customer Reviews:
Solid, scientific and eminently readable.......2003-10-28
Shelley Taylor has pulled off a coup, integrating scientific research with anecdotes from her own life and translating academic jargon into readable prose.
Men and women differ in the way they respond to stress. After a hard day's work, men want to be alone; women spend more time with the children. And it is this tending instinct that keeps a society together and makes individuals healthier.
Men and women differ in other ways that influence social interaction, says Taylor. Men's groups are more hierarchical, women's more informational. Married men live longer than single men, and women fare better during times of major crisis, such as the dissolution of the Communist bloc.
Another key theme: Nurturing is essential to well-being. A nurturant parent can override genes that would predispose a child toward aggression, depression or other disorders.
Much of what Taylor writes will not seem radically new, but cumulatively, chapter to chapter, she builds a case for recognizing the importance of nurturing and the style of interaction known as traditionally female.
Because Taylor is a psychologist, rather than sociologist, it's not surprising that she omits suggestions and implications. Many well-educated citizens, for instance, resent payments to welfare mothers, yet Taylor's findings emphasize that paying women to nurture their children can save millions of dollars by keeping those children out of the criminal justice system.
A sociologist could point out that in fact tending seems to be punished by society. "Nurturant" occupations, such as teaching and social work, typically pay less than more aggressive occupations, such as policing. In medicine, surgeons make the most while pediatricians and psychiatrists earn the least, on average.
Taylor also ignores outliers -- the non-nurturing female and the nurturing male. -- who occupy ambivalent roles in many societies. And while she says that friends will become the most important social relationship, as we move farther from families, I find that friendship bonds often are formed based on family status. A married but childless woman says, "People my age are having babies!" and I say, "Women my age are getting visits from the grandchildren!"
As an academic, Taylor herself anticipates comments on what's working and what's missing, and she has made an exceptionally strong contribution here. I am recommending this book to readers who want to learn more about stress as well as those who are fascinated by the eternal "how men differ from women" puzzle.
Mrs. Mankind.......2003-04-09
If you have ever wondered about how the other half of the sky copes with stress! If you have ever given any thought to the science of anthropology & how it has neglected the study of how women look at life. If you have had this needling question that "What if society is a lie?" & couldn't find any answers...then this book's for you, because Shelley E. Taylor asked a seemingly innocuous question which unearthed a fascinating idea!
THE TENDING INSTINCT is a powerful, transformative read. It deals with both old & new ideas about community, society, morality & how women & men think about their lives, how we interact & cope with stress.
Very good stuff! Well written, well-researched, informative & everso interesting. You will find yourself nodding & saying "Of course! I knew that!"
Redressing the balance.......2003-02-24
When Darwin wrote that man attains "a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than can woman - whether requiring deep thought, reason, or imagination, or merely the use of the senses and hands," he was echoing what had been known to be true since the time of Aristotle. Taylor explains clearly and with compelling authority why this traditional viewpoint is so wide of the mark.
In marketing, the discipline in which I work it is quite evident that the world of consumer commerce revolves around the tending and befriending instincts of woman. Taylor grasps the fundamental principles of marketing better than all the commonly used textbooks. The reason is they all start out from the Darwinian perspective that humans are at core selfish. If the human brain was a computer that was programmed by evolution then the dog-eat-dog perspective might be tenable. However mammals tend their young - they have to, so the urge to nurture is a necessary part of human nature. Taylor makes it abundantly clear that it is a feminine trait - not masculine.
This book is excellent at explaining the connection between befriending and stress. It makes an excellent companion book to Hrdy's book "Mother Nature," an anthropologist, also from UCLA, that explains more details about lactation and mothering.
For woman readers this book should be inspiring and validating. For men... well it is sobering and in spots embarassing.
Thank you Shelley!
well-written discussion of hard-to-quantify material.......2002-08-12
The Tending Instinct is a seminal work, tying together ideas and data from difficult-to-quantify areas such as the psychology of stress, the emotional and physical aspects of the act of nuturing, and its [especially long-term] effects, and the biochemistry of stress response in humans and other primates, in both the long and short term. She also discusses tending in society as a whole -- that is, the nurturing infrastructure of a society, those elements of day-to-day life that make it easy to tend or be tended. Ease of access to trusted caregivers for working parents, or medical care, educational or mentorship opportunities, for example.
Taylor is synthesizing, spanning disciplines to draw together different strands of research in biochemistry, psychology, and other arenas, to propose they demonstrate human beings are overridingly a tending species, a nurturing species. Success, for h. sapiens, is existing in a strong network of support, giving and taking as one's needs require. Our most successful humans are those who inspire, those who persuade, those who build coalitions to achieve a good for the entire group.
Fascinating stuff.
Greatly informative & highly recommended!.......2002-06-04
Human beings are very complex individuals -- we are all driven to make a place in the world, yet we have different means to achieve this place...different behaviors that allow us to "survive."
In the book, "The Tending Instinct," the author shows how men and women differ in their responses in times of need. According to the author, women are born with a "nurturing" quality and tend to seek support from others during times of stress. During these times, women will also reach out to help others. This natural "tending instinct" that women have, is vital in a society and also beneficial to children who are exposed to this instinctive behavior at an early age.
MyParenTime.com highly recommends the book, "The Tending Instinct" -- this book is wonderful! It is clearly written and very interesting. Readers will find it greatly informative!
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Gentlemen of Instinct and Breeding: Architecture at the American Academy in Rome, 1894-1940
Fikret K. Yegul
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
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Reference
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
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General
| History & Periods
| Architecture
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General
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ASIN: 019506349X |
Book Description
The American Academy in Rome developed out of the pioneering spirit of an American artistic Renaissance at the turn of the century. At the time, the predominate view held that classical and renaissance styles in architecture represented the most refined taste and were best suited to meeting
the future needs of America. The Academy was considered to be the final stage in the education of promising young Americans. Between its founding in 1894 and World War II, some 46 Fellows in architecture and landscape architecture studied at the Academy. This book presents the first historical
overview of the education the Fellows received, placing their work in the context of the time, and discussing their relationship and changing obligations to the institution. The text is accompanied by 150 outstanding architectural renderings, many of which have not been reproduced before.
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The Study of Instinct
Manufacturer: Oxford Univ Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000B78R3Y |
Average customer rating:
- Excellent, insightful self-help
|
Walk Like a Chameleon: Use Your Animal Instincts to Improve Your Relationships and Your Life
Gary S. Aumiller
Manufacturer: Plume
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Interpersonal Relations
| Relationships
| Health, Mind & Body
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General
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ASIN: 0452282497
Release Date: 2001-07-31 |
Book Description
When a coworker takes credit for a job you did, do you go on the attack, like a shark? Do you run away like a rabbit after an argument with your boyfriend?
There are eight instinctual survival personalities that are found in the animal kingdom: the Clinger (remora fish), the Blender (chameleon), the Caretaker (dolphin), the Combiner (dog), the Asserter (porcupine), the Competitor (fox), the Avoider (rabbit), and the Attacker (shark). By understanding the imprint nature has made on our personalities, Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D., believes we can improve our relationships and gear our lives toward greater success. In this one-of-a-kind guide you'll discover:
• In-depth profiles of every animal type-including positive and negative traits
• How to figure out which animal personality fits you
• Which animal type would be your ideal mate
• Quizzes for testing your primary survival strategy
• Tips on using your animal instincts to make positive changes
From avoiding someone of an animal type that could cause your emotional extinction to using your instinctual skills to impress your boss, Walk Like a Chameleon will show you how to tap into your unique animal qualities to improve your relationships and your life.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent, insightful self-help.......2001-08-08
The author uses a metaphor of animal patterns to talk about human patterns and it really works. It is strange but also refreshing to see how much of what you do may actually be a pattern because you are part of the animals. I was fascinated by seeing myself and friends and family, almost like he knew us. At the end he does the combinations of two people with the different patterns in a realtionship and that was really great. This book will really get you thinking.
Book Description
Cultures of the Death Drive is a comprehensive guide to the work of pioneering psychoanalyst Melanie Klein (1882–1960) and to developments in Kleinian theory to date. It is also an analysis and a demonstration of the distinctive usefulness of Klein’s thought for understanding modernist literature and visual art. Esther Sánchez-Pardo examines the issues that the seminal discourses of psychoanalysis and artistic modernism brought to the fore in the early twentieth century and points toward the uses of Kleinian thinking for reconceptualizing the complexities of identity and social relations today.
Sánchez-Pardo argues that the troubled political atmosphere leading to both world wars created a melancholia fueled by âcultures of the death driveâ and the related specters of object lossâloss of coherent and autonomous selves, of social orders where stability reigned, of metaphysical guarantees, and, in some cases, loss and fragmentation of empire. This melancholia permeated, and even propelled, modernist artistic discourses. Sánchez-Pardo shows how the work of Melanie Klein, the theorist of melancholia par excellence, uniquely illuminates modernist texts, particularly their representations of gender and sexualities. She offers a number of readingsâof works by Virginia Woolf, René Magritte, Lytton Strachey, Djuna Barnes, and Countee Cullenâthat reveal the problems melancholia posed for verbal and visual communication and the narrative and rhetorical strategies modernist artists derived to either express or overcome them. In her afterword, Sánchez-Pardo explicates the connections between modernist and contemporary melancholia.
A valuable contribution to psychoanalytic theory, gender and sexuality studies, and the study of representation in literature and the visual arts, Cultures of the Death Drive is a necessary resource for those interested in the work of Melanie Klein.
Books:
- The Reef Aquarium: A Comprehensive Guide to the Identification and Care of Tropical Marine Invertebrates (Volume 1)
- The Reef Aquarium: A Comprehensive Guide to the Identification and Care of Tropical Marine Invertebrates (Volume 1)
- The Te of Piglet
- The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth
- The Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America's Greatest Female Spy
- Training the Three-day Event Horse and Rider: Doubleday Equestrian Library
- Tree of Origin: What Primate Behavior Can Tell Us about Human Social Evolution
- Veterinary Medicine: A textbook of the diseases of cattle, horses, sheep, pigs and goats
- Walter the Farting Dog
- We were Soldiers Once...And Young: Ia Drang--The Battle That Changed The War In Vietnam
Books Index
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