Unique: The New Science of Human Individuality
by David Linden
Inspired by the abundance of unique
personalities available on dating websites, a renowned neuroscientist examines
the science of what makes you, you.
David J. Linden has
devoted his career to understanding the biology common to all humans. But a few
years ago he found himself on OkCupid. Looking through that vast catalog of
human diversity, he got to wondering: What makes us all so different? Unique is
the riveting answer. Exploring everything from the roots of sexuality, gender,
and intelligence to whether we like bitter beer, Linden shows how our
individuality results not from a competition of nature versus nurture, but
rather from a mélange of genes continually responding to our experiences in the
world, beginning in the womb. And he shows why individuality matters, as it is
our differences that enable us to live together in groups.
Told with Linden's unusual combination of authority and openness, seriousness
of purpose and wit, Unique is the story of how the factors
that make us all human can change and interact to make each of us a singular
person: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/50358529-unique
Martha Nussbaum Political Emotions: Why Love Matters for Justice
Nussbaum
stimulates readers with challenging insights on the role of emotion in
political life. Her provocative theory of social change shows how a truly just
society might be realized through the cultivation and studied liberation of
emotions, specifically love. To that end, the book sparkles with Nussbaum’s
characteristic literary analysis, drawing from both Western and South Asian
sources, including a deep reading of public monuments. In one especially
notable passage, Nussbaum artfully interprets Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro,
revealing it as a musical meditation on the emotionality of revolutionary
politics and feminism. Such chapters are a culmination of her passion for
seeing art and literature as philosophical texts, a theme in her writing that
she profitably continues here. The elegance with which she negotiates this
diverse material deserves special praise, as she expertly takes the reader through
analyses of philosophy, opera, primatology, psychology, and poetry. In contrast
to thinkers like John Rawls, who imagined an already just world, Nussbaum
addresses how to order our society to reach such a world. A plea for
recognizing the power of art, symbolism, and enchantment in public life,
Nussbaum’s cornucopia of ideas effortlessly commands attention and debate.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17804353-political-emotions
by Brian Hare and Vanessa
Woods
A powerful new theory of human nature
suggests that our unique friendliness is the secret to our success as a
species.
For most of the approximately 300,000 years that Homo sapiens have
existed, we have shared the planet with at least four other types of humans.
All of these were smart, strong, and inventive. But around 50,000 years
ago, Homo sapiens made a cognitive leap that gave us an edge
over other species. What happened?
Since Charles Darwin wrote about "evolutionary fitness," the idea of
fitness has been confused with physical strength, tactical brilliance, and
aggression. In fact, what made us evolutionarily fit was a remarkable kind of
friendliness, a virtuosic ability to coordinate and communicate with others
that allowed us to achieve all the cultural and technical marvels in human
history. Advancing what they call the "self-domestication theory,"
Brian Hare, professor in the department of evolutionary anthropology and the
Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University and his wife, Vanessa
Woods, a research scientist and award-winning journalist, shed light on the
mysterious leap in human cognition that allowed Homo sapiens to
thrive.
But this gift for friendliness came at a cost. Just as a mother bear is most
dangerous around her cubs, we are at our most dangerous when someone we love is
threatened by an "outsider." The threatening outsider is demoted to
sub-human, fair game for our worst instincts. Hare's groundbreaking research,
developed in close coordination with Richard Wrangham and Michael Tomasello,
giants in the field of cognitive evolution, reveals that the same traits that
make us the most tolerant species on the planet also make us the cruelest.
Survival of the Friendliest offers us a new way to look at our
cultural as well as cognitive evolution and sends a clear message: In order to
survive and even to flourish, we need to expand our definition of who belongs.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/48635421-survival-of-the-friendliest
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