On Power: Neurophilosophical Foundations and Policy Implications

On Power: Neurophilosophical Foundations and Policy Implications
Author: Nayef R. F. Al-Rodhan
Publisher: Vernon Press
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2022-02-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1648893309

‘On Power: Neurophilosophical Foundations and Policy Implications’ seeks to provide a historical, contemporary and predictive analysis of power. It aims to explain the history of political power in a unique way by approaching the concept of power through the lens of neurophilosophy – the application of neuroscientific principles to practical questions of governance, ethics, political and moral philosophy. In this book, Professor Nayef Al-Rodhan provides an accessible, incisive, and provocative take on the history, nature, and future of power. His insights go beyond conventional wisdom by exploring some of the themes that will become increasingly relevant to analysing power in the decades to come. A central idea of the book is the highly addictive universal nature of power at the neurochemical level, the craving for it, and the intense resistance to giving it up in all walks of life and circumstances. This can be applied directly to thinking about governance, political change, public policy, national and international peace, security, and prosperity. Al-Rodhan formulates an innovative conceptual picture of power by integrating the findings of neuroscience with the broader implications of power in the era of digital connectivity and cognitive and physical enhancement technologies. In doing so, he guides our approach to political power and public policy, influenced by ubiquitous, disruptive, and intrusive technologies. This book will appeal to students and scholars of neuroscience, philosophy, government, business, and international relations. It will also hold particular interest for politicians, public servants, think-tankers, policy-makers, and journalists, as well as senior executives from the corporate, sports, media and entertainment world.

On Power

On Power
Author: Nayef R. F. Al-Rodhan
Publisher:
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2021-09-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781648891458

'On Power: Neurophilosophical Foundations and Policy Implications' seeks to provide a historical, contemporary and predictive analysis of power. It aims to explain the history of political power in a unique way by approaching the concept of power through the lens of neurophilosophy - the application of neuroscientific principles to practical questions of governance, ethics, political and moral philosophy. In this book, Professor Nayef Al-Rodhan provides an accessible, incisive, and provocative take on the history, nature, and future of power. His insights go beyond conventional wisdom by exploring some of the themes that will become increasingly relevant to analysing power in the decades to come. A central idea of the book is the highly addictive universal nature of power at the neurochemical level, the craving for it, and the intense resistance to giving it up in all walks of life and circumstances. This can be applied directly to thinking about governance, political change, public policy, national and international peace, security, and prosperity. Al-Rodhan formulates an innovative conceptual picture of power by integrating the findings of neuroscience with the broader implications of power in the era of digital connectivity and cognitive and physical enhancement technologies. In doing so, he guides our approach to political power and public policy, influenced by ubiquitous, disruptive, and intrusive technologies. This book will appeal to students and scholars of neuroscience, philosophy, government, business, and international relations. It will also hold particular interest for politicians, public servants, think-tankers, policy-makers, and journalists, as well as senior executives from the corporate, sports, media and entertainment world.

Emotional Amoral Egoism

Emotional Amoral Egoism
Author: Nayef Al-Rodhan
Publisher: Lutterworth Press
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2021-09-30
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0718848349

What makes us who we are? Are we born good or evil? Do we have free will? What drives our behaviour and why? Can technology change what it means to be human? In this thoroughly revised second edition of Emotional Amoral Egoism, Professor Nayef Al-Rodhan demonstrates the impact of our innate predispositions on key issues, from conflict, inequality and transcultural understanding to Big Data, fake news and the social contract. However, it is the societies we live in and their governance structures that largely determine how we act on our innate predispositions. Consequently, Al-Rodhan proposes a new and sustainable good governance paradigm, which must reconcile the ever-present tension between the three attributes of human nature ('Emotional Amoral Egoism') and the nine critical needs of human dignity. This book is a perfect resource for enlightened readers, academics and policy makers interested in how our innate instincts and tendencies shape the world we live in, and how the interplay between neurophilosophy and policy can be harnessed for pragmatic and sustainable peace, security and prosperity solutions for all, at all times and under all circumstances.

Emotional Amoral Egoism

Emotional Amoral Egoism
Author: Nayef R.F. Al-Rodhan
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2022-01-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0718895738

What makes us who we are? Are we born good or evil? Do we have free will? What drives our behaviour and why? Can technology change what it means to be human? In this thoroughly revised second edition of Emotional Amoral Egoism, Professor Nayef Al-Rodhan demonstrates the impact of our innate predispositions on key issues, from conflict, inequality and transcultural understanding to Big Data, fake news and the social contract. However, it is the societies we live in and their governance structures that largely determine how we act on our innate predispositions. Consequently, Al-Rodhan proposes a new and sustainable good governance paradigm, which must reconcile the ever-present tension between the three attributes of human nature (‘Emotional Amoral Egoism’) and the nine critical needs of human dignity. This book is a perfect resource for enlightened readers, academics and policy makers interested in how our innate instincts and tendencies shape the world we live in, and how the interplay between neurophilosophy and policy can be harnessed for pragmatic and sustainable peace, security and prosperity solutions for all, at all times and under all circumstances.

Symbiotic Realism

Symbiotic Realism
Author: Nayef R. F. Al-Rodhan
Publisher:
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2007
Genre: Globalization
ISBN:

Symbiotic Realism is a theory of relations in a globally-anarchic world of instant connectivity and interdependence. It aims to provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the character of relations generated by four interlocking facets of the global system: the neurobiological substrates of human nature: global anarchy: instant connectivity: and interdependence. It provides a way of understanding how a myriad of actors, including states, transnational corporations, women, the biosphere, and civilizations, help to shape and are shaped by the global system. It also contains a clear normative commitment to moving beyond the present limits of the structure and political organization of the global system towards a more just and peaceful global order.

Sustainable History and Human Dignity

Sustainable History and Human Dignity
Author: Nayef R.F. Al-Rodhan
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 506
Release: 2022-01-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0718895711

In Sustainable History and Human Dignity, Professor Nayef Al-Rodhan shows that it is the human quest for sustainable governance, balancing the ever-present tension between nine human dignity needs and three human nature attributes (emotionality, amorality & egoism), that has and will most profoundly shape the course of history. Beginning with an ‘Ocean Model’ of a single collective human civilisation, Al-Rodhan constructs a common human story comprised of multiple geo-cultural domains and sub-cultures with a history of mutual borrowing and synergies. If humanity as a whole is to flourish, all of these diverse geo-cultural domains must succeed. Only thus can lasting peace and prosperity be achieved for all, especially in the face of ‘Civilisational Frontier Risks’ and highly disruptive technologies in the twenty-first century.

Inventing the Future

Inventing the Future
Author: Nick Srnicek
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2015-11-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1784780987

This major new manifesto offers a “clear and compelling vision of a postcapitalist society” and shows how left-wing politics can be rebuilt for the 21st century (Mark Fisher, author of Capitalist Realism) Neoliberalism isn’t working. Austerity is forcing millions into poverty and many more into precarious work, while the left remains trapped in stagnant political practices that offer no respite. Inventing the Future is a bold new manifesto for life after capitalism. Against the confused understanding of our high-tech world by both the right and the left, this book claims that the emancipatory and future-oriented possibilities of our society can be reclaimed. Instead of running from a complex future, Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams demand a postcapitalist economy capable of advancing standards, liberating humanity from work and developing technologies that expand our freedoms. This new edition includes a new chapter where they respond to their various critics.

I Am a Strange Loop

I Am a Strange Loop
Author: Douglas R. Hofstadter
Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
Total Pages: 544
Release: 2007-03-27
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0465030785

Argues that the key to understanding ourselves and consciousness is the "strange loop," a special kind of abstract feedback loop that inhabits the brain.

The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination

The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination
Author: Anna Abraham
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 865
Release: 2020-06-18
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1108429246

The human imagination manifests in countless different forms. We imagine the possible and the impossible. How do we do this so effortlessly? Why did the capacity for imagination evolve and manifest with undeniably manifold complexity uniquely in human beings? This handbook reflects on such questions by collecting perspectives on imagination from leading experts. It showcases a rich and detailed analysis on how the imagination is understood across several disciplines of study, including anthropology, archaeology, medicine, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and the arts. An integrated theoretical-empirical-applied picture of the field is presented, which stands to inform researchers, students, and practitioners about the issues of relevance across the board when considering the imagination. With each chapter, the nature of human imagination is examined - what it entails, how it evolved, and why it singularly defines us as a species.

The Ego Tunnel

The Ego Tunnel
Author: Thomas Metzinger
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
Total Pages: 442
Release: 2010-05-21
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1458759164

We're used to thinking about the self as an independent entity, something that we either have or are. In The Ego Tunnel, philosopher Thomas Metzinger claims otherwise: No such thing as a self exists. The conscious self is the content of a model created by our brain - an internal image, but one we cannot experience as an image. Everything we experience is ''a virtual self in a virtual reality.'' But if the self is not ''real,'' why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct it? Do we still have souls, free will, personal autonomy, or moral accountability? In a time when the science of cognition is becoming as controversial as evolution, The Ego Tunnel provides a stunningly original take on the mystery of the mind.