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Minds Make Societies
How Cognition Explains the World Humans Create
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Check link for latest rating. ( 386 ratings, 53 reviews)
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Description
Minds Make Societies is a watershed book that masterfully integrates insights from evolutionary biology, genetics, psychology, economics, and more to explore the development and workings of human societies.
“There is no good reason why human societies should not be described and explained with the same precision and success as the rest of nature.” Thus argues evolutionary psychologist Pascal Boyer in this uniquely innovative book.
Integrating recent insights from evolutionary biology, genetics, psychology, economics, and other fields, Boyer offers precise models of why humans engage in social behaviours such as forming families, tribes, and nations, or creating gender roles.
In fascinating, thought-provoking passages, he explores questions such as, Why is there conflict between groups? Why do people believe low-value information such as rumours? Why are there religions? What is social justice? What explains morality?
Boyer provides a new picture of cultural transmission that draws on the pragmatics of human communication, the constructive nature of memory in human brains, and human motivation for group formation and cooperation.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Pascal Boyer's Minds Make Societies offers an incisive investigation into understanding social phenomena by integrating various research areas, as praised by Nature. Sarah Lane Ritchie notes that Boyer constructs a textured narrative, while Olivier Morin highlights its valuable introduction to cognitive and evolutionary anthropology. Lauded as a significant work on human culture, Leda Cosmides describes it as essential, and Hugo Mercier finds it wide-ranging and convincing. Herbert Gintis commends its balanced evaluation of social theories, and Dan Sperber assures it will change perceptions of society and culture, with John Tooby recommending it to those interested in contemporary scientific discoveries.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780300248548
Publisher: Yale University Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 10 March 2020
Country: United States
Imprint: Yale University Press
Illustration: 20 b-w illus.
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 156.0mm
Height: 235.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 376
About the Author
Pascal Boyer is the Henry Luce Professor of Collective and Individual Memory and professor of anthropology and psychology at Washington University in St. Louis.
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