I haven't read the book, but it's already in my to-buy-list :)
When I was reading your review, the main thing that I was thinking about was the chance that it could be a bit reductionist on the approach. And well, it appears that the concern has already been expressed.
With my low speed reading and the good number of books you tend to recommend, I suspect the pile will keep growing.
I am not an anthropologist, psychologist or historian, but I loved this book. I can't judge the validity of some of the social science experiments the author presents, but his arguments are very convincing and his conclusions very surprising to me. The very comparison of the ordinary Darwinian evolution of our species with the evolution of our psychology (on another time scale) has amazed me. I wish politicians would read this book and truly become convinced of the importance of scientific societies and universities as well as knowledge per se, far above just plain money. Great book and excellent review.
I haven't read the book, but it's already in my to-buy-list :)
When I was reading your review, the main thing that I was thinking about was the chance that it could be a bit reductionist on the approach. And well, it appears that the concern has already been expressed.
With my low speed reading and the good number of books you tend to recommend, I suspect the pile will keep growing.
I am not an anthropologist, psychologist or historian, but I loved this book. I can't judge the validity of some of the social science experiments the author presents, but his arguments are very convincing and his conclusions very surprising to me. The very comparison of the ordinary Darwinian evolution of our species with the evolution of our psychology (on another time scale) has amazed me. I wish politicians would read this book and truly become convinced of the importance of scientific societies and universities as well as knowledge per se, far above just plain money. Great book and excellent review.