The Laws of Human Nature

The Laws of Human Nature
Author: Robert Greene
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 626
Release: 2018-10-23
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 0698184548

From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The 48 Laws of Power comes the definitive new book on decoding the behavior of the people around you Robert Greene is a master guide for millions of readers, distilling ancient wisdom and philosophy into essential texts for seekers of power, understanding and mastery. Now he turns to the most important subject of all - understanding people's drives and motivations, even when they are unconscious of them themselves. We are social animals. Our very lives depend on our relationships with people. Knowing why people do what they do is the most important tool we can possess, without which our other talents can only take us so far. Drawing from the ideas and examples of Pericles, Queen Elizabeth I, Martin Luther King Jr, and many others, Greene teaches us how to detach ourselves from our own emotions and master self-control, how to develop the empathy that leads to insight, how to look behind people's masks, and how to resist conformity to develop your singular sense of purpose. Whether at work, in relationships, or in shaping the world around you, The Laws of Human Nature offers brilliant tactics for success, self-improvement, and self-defense.

The Future of Human Nature

The Future of Human Nature
Author: Jürgen Habermas
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 121
Release: 2014-10-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 074569411X

Recent developments in biotechnology and genetic research are raising complex ethical questions concerning the legitimate scope and limits of genetic intervention. As we begin to contemplate the possibility of intervening in the human genome to prevent diseases, we cannot help but feel that the human species might soon be able to take its biological evolution in its own hands. ‘Playing God’ is the metaphor commonly used for this self-transformation of the species, which, it seems, might soon be within our grasp. In this important new book, Jürgen Habermas – the most influential philosopher and social thinker in Germany today – takes up the question of genetic engineering and its ethical implications and subjects it to careful philosophical scrutiny. His analysis is guided by the view that genetic manipulation is bound up with the identity and self-understanding of the species. We cannot rule out the possibility that knowledge of one’s own hereditary factors may prove to be restrictive for the choice of an individual’s way of life and may undermine the symmetrical relations between free and equal human beings. In the concluding chapter – which was delivered as a lecture on receiving the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for 2001 – Habermas broadens the discussion to examine the tension between science and religion in the modern world, a tension which exploded, with such tragic violence, on September 11th.

The Making of the Mind

The Making of the Mind
Author: Ronald T. Kellogg
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2013-07-16
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1616147342

Using the findings of recent neuroscience, a psychologist reveals what sets humans apart from all other species, offering a fascinating exploration of our marvelous and sometimes frightening cognitive abilities and potentials. According to human genome research, there is a remarkable degree of overlap in the DNA of humans and chimpanzees. So what accounts for the rapid development of human culture throughout history and the extraordinary creative and destructive aspects of human behavior that make us so different from our primate cousins? Kellogg explores in detail five distinctive parts of human cognition. These are the executive functions of working memory; a social intelligence with "mind-reading" abilities; a capacity for symbolic thought and language; an inner voice that interprets conscious experiences by making causal inferences; and a means for mental time travel to past events and imagined futures. He argues that it is the interaction of these five components that results in our uniquely human mind. This is especially true for three quintessentially human endeavors-morality, spirituality, and literacy, which can be understood only in light of the whole ensemble's interactive effects. Kellogg recaps the story of the human mind and speculates on its future. How might the Internet, 24/7 television, and smart phones affect the way the mind functions?

Suite for Human Nature

Suite for Human Nature
Author: Diane Charlotte Lampert
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2016-05-03
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1481463578

From the legendary songwriter Diane Lampert, based on a musical piece she wrote with Pulitzer Prize and nine-time Grammy–winning jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, comes an exquisitely illustrated folktale about how we humans got some of our…naughtier traits, and what overcomes them all. Mother Nature is a very busy woman. Her job is to tend to the Earth and all the creatures that dwell there—she must wake up the bulbs and warm the land in spring, she must freeze the ponds and create snow in winter. But more than anything, Mother Nature wanted children of her own. So with twigs and things she made five: Fear, Envy, Hate, Greed, and Fickle. She asks the most helpless of creatures—the poor, wingless humans—to watch over them as she works. But then her children’s wild personalities begin to seep into human nature in a way that Mother Nature never intended. A lilting, lyrical ode to all of our human shortcomings and the one trait—love—that can overcome them all.

Beast and Man

Beast and Man
Author: Mary Midgley
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2004-03
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1134438451

Philosophers have traditionally concentrated on the qualities that make human beings different from other species. In Beast and Man Mary Midgley, one of our foremost intellectuals, stresses continuities. What makes people tick? Largely, she asserts, the same things as animals. She tells us humans are rather more like other animals than we previously allowed ourselves to believe, and reminds us just how primitive we are in comparison to the sophistication of many animals. A veritable classic for our age, Beast and Man has helped change the way we think about ourselves and the world in which we live.

Human Nature in the Making

Human Nature in the Making
Author: Max Schoen
Publisher:
Total Pages: 298
Release: 1945
Genre:
ISBN:

"What is this thing we call human nature? Is it something one possesses simply by virtue of the fact that he was born a human being, or does one come into it only by striving and working for it? And, whether the human element in human nature is something we inherit or something we acquire, just what is it? How does human nature differ from the nature of the rest of living beings? These questions, and many others along the same line, must be raised by every person who desires to be called a human being not only because he looks like one, but because he deserves the name by the way he manages his life. This book tells the story of what is "human" in human nature as it is to be discovered by a wide and thoughtful reading in the fields of biology and psychology. It is the hope of the author that he has read the story truly and has succeeded in telling it well. The reader is warned that the story this book tells about himself will not help him to win friends, or influence people, or begin life at forty, or find an easy, quick and sure way to power, fame and fortune. But if he feels his obligation as a human being to lead the life that is worthy of a human being to lead because it is within his power to lead it, then he will find that these pages will help him discover what that life is and the road he must follow if he is to attain it"--Book. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

Green Nature/human Nature

Green Nature/human Nature
Author: Charles A. Lewis
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 180
Release: 1996
Genre: Gardening
ISBN: 9780252065101

"Why do gardeners delight in the germination and growth of a seed? Why are our spirits lifted by flowers, our feelings of tension allayed by a walk in a forest or park? What other positive influences can green nature bring to humanity?

The Good Book of Human Nature

The Good Book of Human Nature
Author: Carel van Schaik
Publisher:
Total Pages: 482
Release: 2016-05-24
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0465074707

"In The Good Book of Human Nature, evolutionary anthropologist Carel van Schaik and historian Kai Michel advance a new view of Homo sapiens' cultural evolution. The Bible, they argue, was written to make sense of the single greatest change in history: the transition from egalitarian hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies. Religion arose as a strategy to cope with the unprecedented levels of epidemic disease, violence, inequality, and injustice that confronted us when we abandoned the bush--and which still confront us today, "--Amazon.com.

The Science of Human Nature

The Science of Human Nature
Author: William Henry Pyle
Publisher: Binker North
Total Pages: 248
Release: 1917
Genre: Young Adult Nonfiction
ISBN:

This book is written for young students in high schools and normal schools. No knowledge can be of more use to a young person than a knowledge of himself; no study can be more valuable to him than a study of himself. A study of the laws of human behavior, --that is the purpose of this book. What is human nature like? Why do we act as we do? How can we make ourselves different? How can we make others different? How can we make ourselves more efficient? How can we make our lives more worth while? This book is a manual intended to help young people to obtain such knowledge of human nature as will enable them to answer these questions. I have not attempted to write a complete text on psychology. There are already many such books, and good ones too. I have selected for treatment only such topics as young students can study with interest and profit. I have tried to keep in mind all the time the practical worth of the matters discussed, and the ability and experience of the intended readers.

The Nature of Human Persons

The Nature of Human Persons
Author: Jason T. Eberl
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2020-06-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0268107750

Is there a shared nature common to all human beings? What essential qualities might define this nature? These questions are among the most widely discussed topics in the history of philosophy and remain subjects of perennial interest and controversy. The Nature of Human Persons offers a metaphysical investigation of the composition of the human essence. For a human being to exist, does it require an immaterial mind, a physical body, a functioning brain, a soul? Jason Eberl also considers the criterion of identity for a developing human being—that is, what is required for a human being to continue existing as a person despite undergoing physical and psychological changes over time? Eberl's investigation presents and defends a theoretical perspective from the thirteenth-century philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas. Advancing beyond descriptive historical analysis, this book places Aquinas’s account of human nature into direct comparison with several prominent contemporary theories: substance dualism, emergentism, animalism, constitutionalism, four-dimensionalism, and embodied mind theory. These theories inform various conclusions regarding when human beings first come into existence—at conception, during gestation, or after birth—and how we ought to define death for human beings. Finally, each of these viewpoints offers a distinctive rationale as to whether, and if so how, human beings may survive death. Ultimately, Eberl argues that the Thomistic account of human nature addresses the matters of human nature and survival in a much more holistic and desirable way than the other theories and offers a cohesive portrait of one’s continued existence from conception through life to death and beyond.