Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite (eBook)

Evolution and the Modular Mind

Robert O. Kurzban (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2011
288 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4008-3599-7 (ISBN)

Infos

The evolutionary psychology behind human inconsistencyWe're all hypocrites. Why? Hypocrisy is the natural state of the human mind.Robert Kurzban shows us that the key to understanding our behavioral inconsistencies lies in understanding the mind's design. The human mind consists of many specialized units designed by the process of evolution by natural selection. While these modules sometimes work together seamlessly, they don't always, resulting in impossibly contradictory beliefs, vacillations between patience and impulsiveness, violations of our supposed moral principles, and overinflated views of ourselves.This modular, evolutionary psychological view of the mind undermines deeply held intuitions about ourselves, as well as a range of scientific theories that require a "e;self"e; with consistent beliefs and preferences. Modularity suggests that there is no "e;I."e; Instead, each of us is a contentious "e;we"e;--a collection of discrete but interacting systems whose constant conflicts shape our interactions with one another and our experience of the world.In clear language, full of wit and rich in examples, Kurzban explains the roots and implications of our inconsistent minds, and why it is perfectly natural to believe that everyone else is a hypocrite.

Autor

Robert Kurzban is associate professor of psychology and founder of the Pennsylvania Laboratory for Experimental Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2008, he won the inaugural Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution from the Human Behavior and Evolution Society.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 3.1.2011
• Zusatzinfo: 2 halftones. 1 line illus.
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Allgemeine Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Verhaltenstherapie
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Evolution
• Schlagworte: Abortion • Altruism • Analogy • awareness • Behavior • Cartesian theater • Cognition • cognitive dissonance • cognitive science • Comparative Advantage • Computation • Computer Scientist • Consciousness • Cost–benefit analysis • Cranium Command • Crime • Criticism • Decision-Making • deed • depressive realism • Economics • Engineering • estimation • Evolutionary Psychology • Explanation • Feeling • Finding • Footbridge • foraging • human behavior • Human Brain • human eye • hypocrisy • illusion of control • Incest • inference • Jerry Fodor • Lateralization of brain function • Literature • Lunch • Magic 8-Ball • Mechanism Design • Morality • moral psychology • Multitude • Nudge (book) • Opportunism • opportunity cost • optical illusion • optimism • organism • Ostracism • Paradox • perception • Persuasion • phenomenon • Philosopher • Physiology • plausible deniability • Polygyny threshold model • predation • Predictably Irrational • Prediction • press secretary • psychologist • Psychology • Quantity • Rational Choice Theory • Rationality • reason • Reputation • result • Richard Dawkins • Richard Thaler • Roe v. Wade • Roy Baumeister • sadness • Science • Scientist • Self-control • self-deception • self-esteem • sexual intercourse • Sexually Transmitted Infection • Sexual partner • Social Psychology • spacecraft • Split-Brain • Subroutine • The Beak of the Finch • The Philosopher • the selfish gene • The Various • The Wisdom of Crowds • Thought • Thought experiment • Trade-off • trolley problem • Vehicle • Visual Field
• ISBN-10: 1-4008-3599-2 / 1400835992
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4008-3599-7 / 9781400835997