|
Product Description
Human beings are primates, and primates are political animals. Our brains, therefore, are designed not just to hunt and gather, but also to help us get ahead socially, often via deception and self-deception. But while we may be self-interested schemers, we benefit by pretending otherwise. The less we know about our own ugly motives, the better - and thus we don't like to talk or even think about the extent of our selfishness. This is "the elephant in the brain." Such an introspective taboo makes it hard for us to think clearly about our nature and the explanations for our behavior. The aim of this book, then, is to confront our hidden motives directly - to track down the darker, unexamined corners of our psyches and blast them with floodlights. Then, once everything is clearly visible, we can work to better understand ourselves: Why do we laugh? Why are artists sexy? Why do we brag about travel? Why do we prefer to speak rather than listen?Our unconscious motives drive more than just our private behavior; they also infect our venerated social institutions such as Art, School, Charity, Medicine, Politics, and Religion. In fact, these institutions are in many ways designed to accommodate our hidden motives, to serve covert agendas alongside their "official" ones. The existence of big hidden motives can upend the usual political debates, leading one to question the legitimacy of these social institutions, and of standard policies designed to favor or discourage them. You won't see yourself - or the world - the same after confronting the elephant in the brain.
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
- The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts
- The Case against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money
- Stubborn Attachments: A Vision for a Society of Free, Prosperous, and Responsible Individuals
- The Rhetorical Act: Thinking, Speaking, and Writing Critically
- Cracks in the Ivory Tower: The Moral Mess of Higher Education
- Sniffy the Virtual Rat Lite, Version 3.0 (with CD-ROM)
- Inadequate Equilibria: Where and How Civilizations Get Stuck
- How to Actually Change Your Mind (Rationality: From AI to Zombies)
- Map and Territory (Rationality: From AI to Zombies)
- The Age of Em: Work, Love, and Life when Robots Rule the Earth
*If this is not the "The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life" product you were looking for, you can check the other results by clicking this link. Details were last updated on Oct 27, 2024 10:15 +08.