Sociobiology Books - Page 3

Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters: From Dating, Shopping, and Praying to Going to War and Becoming a Billionaire-- Two Evolutionary Psychologists Explain Why We Do What We Do

Alan S. Miller, Satoshi Kanazawa

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A lively and provocative look at how evolution shapes our behavior and our lives.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, our brains and bodies are hardwired to carry out an evolutionary mission that determines much of what we do, from life plans to everyday decisions.

With an accessible tone and a healthy disregard for political correctness, this lively and eminently readable book popularizes the latest research in a cutting- edge field of study-one that turns much of what we thought we knew about human nature upside-down.

Every time we fall in love, fight with our spouse, enjoy watching a favorite TV show, or feel scared--walking alone at night, we are in part behaving as a human animal with its own unique nature-a nature that essentially stopped evolving 10,000 years ago. Alan S. Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa re-examine some of the most popular and controversial topics of modern life-and shed a whole new light on why we do the things we do.

Reader beware: You may never look at human nature the same way again.

The social construction of reality;: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge,

Peter L Berger

By: Doubleday Amazon Marketplace: 2 new & used starting at $19.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An important work on how people come to know 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The book begins with the defining statement of its thesis (page 1): "The basic contentions of the argument of this book are implicit in its title, namely, that reality is socially constructed. . . ." The essence of this: our understanding of what is "real" is something that comes from our living in a social world. That social world is a major part of defining what "reality" is.

The book is not necessarily an easy read. But the authors' argument is important and the reader will be rewarded by "toughing it out." Even if one disagree with Berger and Luckmann, it is important to grapple with and address their arguments.

One of the major issues of the human condition is that we become convinced that we "know" reality" and reject other people's views of "reality"--when, in fact, as the authors argue, "reality is a construction of society." Much conflict, then, is a battle over constructions--and not a battle over objective reality.

Human nature's role? The book winds up with a telling comment here (page 183): "Man is biologically predestined to construct and to inhabit a world with others. This world becomes for him the dominant and definitive reality. Its limits are set by nature, but, once constructed, this world acts back upon nature. . . . In this same dialectic man produces reality and thereby produces himself."

This is an important work on how people come to understand the world around them and how that perception, in its turn, affects their behavior. Many readers will be uncomfortable with this argument, but it is an important issue to address. And this book is one of those key venues where such an interaction between readers and ideas can take place.

Editorial Review:

This book reformulates the sociological  subdiscipline known as the sociology of knowledge.  Knowledge is presented as more than ideology, including as  well false consciousness, propaganda, science and  art.

The Riverside Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

List Price: $60.36 By: Houghton Mifflin (T) Amazon Marketplace: 61 new & used starting at $3.27

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

great as a textbook, wonderful for personal use 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This edition of the Complete Works of Shakespeare is excellent. I bought it as a textbook, but if I were looking for a complete works right now, I would buy it simply for its excellence.

Not only does it contain all of Shakespeare's works, but it has extensive notes on the text as well.

Great purchase! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Not only was the book a great price, but I received the book w/in days of my initial online purchase! I am really happy that I purchased this particular book from it's original owner. I was worried that the book would not reach me in time for the first day of classes. I actually received it the "weekend" before classes started! Thanks for the great experience!

Editorial Review:

The Second Edition of this complete collection of Shakespeare's plays and poems features two essays on recent criticism and productions, fully updated textual notes, a photographic insert of recent productions, and two works recently attributed to Shakespeare. The authors of the essays on recent criticism and productions are Heather DuBrow, University of Wisconsin at Madison, and William Liston, Ball State University, respectively.

Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am?

John Powell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Admitted sexual child abuse 1 out of 5 stars.
12 of 24 people found this review helpful.

A settlement has been reached in connection this Roman Catholic priest accused of sexual abuse. At least six adults claimed father John Powell abused them in the late 60's and 70's. No criminal charges were filed against Powell but the priest has admitted to the abuse.

One of the best I've read 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

John Powell writes in such a way that he is easy to understand. What he writes makes sense. He uses examples and research to back up his points. I would suggest this to wanting to become more self aware.

Best Self-Help Bood 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I first read this book in 1972. It answered so many questions regarding my feelings, interations with others, and my view of life in general. I recently purchased another copy and the message holds true today as it did over 35 years ago. This is a timeless book.

A rare treasure 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

It is rare that I will seek out a book that I have owned and read after more than 30 years. I, however, lost my original copy and wanted to keep my "John Powell" collection in tact...that and it is a book that I think should be required reading for all 1st year counseling or social work students. It is truly a gift and a worthwhile read for anyone seeking a more mature & rewarding life.

Knowledge & Decisions

Thomas Sowell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

With a new preface by the author, this reissue of Thomas Sowell’s classic study of decision making updates his seminal work in the context of The Vision of the Annointed, Sowell, one of America’s most celebrated public intellectuals, describes in concrete detail how knowledge is shared and disseminated throughout modern society. He warns that society suffers from an ever-widening gap between firsthand knowledge and decision making—a gap that threatens not only our economic and political efficiency, but our very freedom because actual knowledge gets replaced by assumptions based on an abstract and elitist social vision f what ought to be.Knowledge and Decisions, a winner of the 1980 Law and Economics Center Prize, was heralded as a ”landmark work” and selected for this prize ”because of its cogent contribution to our understanding of the differences between the market process and the process of government.” In announcing the award, the center acclaimed Sowell, whose ”contribution to our understanding of the process of regulation alone would make the book important, but in reemphasizing the diversity and efficiency that the market makes possible, [his] work goes deeper and becomes even more significant.”

Social Psychology (A Transaction/Society reader)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Highly rated by users, this complete and integrative study of social psychology employs a real-world story-telling approach to convey the science of the field in a fascinating, memorable, and entertaining manner, helping readers understand the whole context of the field—how theories inspire research, why research is performed as it is, how further research triggers new avenues of study—and how all of this impacts their everyday lives. Brings material to life with real-life vignettes and "mini" stories within every chapter that include detailed descriptions of both classic and modern research (complete with hundreds of current references) plus example of a real-life phenomenon. Offers thorough chapters on methodology, social cognition, social perception, self-knowledge, self-justification, attitudes and attitude change, conformity, group processes, interpersonal attraction, prosocial behavior, aggression, and prejudice—with concluding sections on social psychology and heath, the environment, and the law. Includes "Try It!" exercises to promote critical thinking and help readers apply concepts to their everyday lives, and offers an interactive website for additional support and enrichment. For psychologists or those interested in an engagingly written, scientifically-oriented introduction to social psychology.

Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes

Jacques Ellul

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Orwell's 1984 = fiction; Ellul's Propaganda = prophecy 5 out of 5 stars.
41 of 43 people found this review helpful.

Jacques Ellul is meticulous and thoughtful, so this book is occasionally dense and hard to follow. In addition, most of the examples and allusions will strike modern Americans as dated and obscure. Nonetheless, Ellul saw long ago where moderns were headed. He saw that authoritarian use of modern technologies would mesmerize, stultify, and reduce humans to thralls, just as Orwell and Huxley, in far more hysterical prose, had dramatized.

Orwell's electronic miracles monitored citizens directly or indirectly. Huxley's miracles were far more therapeutic or medical. But routine surveillance or treatment is inefficient and overwhelms any state that would depend on omniscience or envelopment. Ellul foresaw tools both electronic and human that would so condition subject-audiences that close monitoring and careful prescriptions would be unneeded.

Ellul also argued that this "Brave, New World" could not but subvert democracy and decency. Once the will of the citizen is not his or her own, then democracy in any meaningful sense is at least devalued and perhaps transformed into reassuring internment.

Perhaps Ellul's most important insight was that the educated believed themselves immune to propaganda when, due to their proclivity for reading and watching news and other governmental outflow, such "intellectuals" were actually far more vulnerable than masses who did not receive propaganda as often.

So turn off the set and log off the internet and settle in with a truly life-changing read.

Maya Cosmogenesis 2012: The True Meaning of the Maya Calendar End-Date

John Major Jenkins, Terence McKenna

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Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 7 people found this review helpful.

This work of Jenkins was all and more than I thought it would be. I share his path to where we are going in 2012. I would purchase any work of Jenkins as I know I would not be disappointed.

The 'Zero Time' Is Upon Us 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Overall this book is pretty solid I think as far as the research.

The main point is that we are very close to the end of what people call "The Platonic Year". This is a 25,800 year period of time during which our solar system travels through the 12 signs of the zodiac.

On 12/21/12 a strange astronomical alignment will occur where our solar system will get lined up with the super massive black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The "black sun". I think I read somewhere else that an energy beam is emanating from the black sun and this beam will strike the earth on that date.

The author doesn't really say exactly what's supposed to happen on that date. Perhaps the change that occurs will be within all of us I don't know.

Another re-occuring point is the Mayan shamans' use of mind altering substances such as certain mushrooms. To avoid the upset stomach that these concoctions could cause they would sometimes inject the mixture directly into their intestines.

In appendix 6 he critiques some other books on this subject and compares them to his own research. He disagrees with others that the ancient Egyptians were more advanced that the Mayans. My own take is both cultures have a common source (Atlantis). The pyramid of Kukulcan compares very well to the other pyramids around the world. However the pyramids at Giza, especially when they were in their original condition, stand alone.

Nobody really knows how these pyramids were built by the way, much as traditional Egyptologists like to make us think they know.

He is correct that people in our modern world today may in some cases tend to underestimate the knowledge that these ancient cultures possessed.

Many people today have a feeling that something strange is going to happen soon. I do anyway. Perhaps a lot of people like to read those 'left behind' books because that's a Christian response to this feeling.

There are some truly tragic desecrations and destructions of culture and knowledge that stand out in human history. Here's my short list:

1) the Muslims destroying the surfaces of the pyramids at Giza in Egypt so they could use the limestone for their palaces for Mohammed

2) the burning of the library at Alexandria by the Christians

3) the Spanish burning all of the Mayan's ancient codex booklets and melting down all of the Aztec's priceless gold artifacts

So we see that no single religion or country had any monopoly on destroying knowledge and history.

Jeff Marzano

The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls: Unlocking the Secrets of the Past, Present, and Future

The Giza Power Plant : Technologies of Ancient Egypt

The Giza Death Star

Edgar Cayce's Egypt: Psychic Revelations on the Most Fascinating Civilization Ever Known

Edgar Cayce's Atlantis and Lemuria: The Lost Civilizations in the Light of Modern Discoveries

Lemuria & Atlantis: Studying the Past to Survive the Future

The Hunt for Zero Point: Inside the Classified World of Antigravity Technology

Initiation

Initiation in the Great Pyramid (Astara's Library of Mystical Classics)

Editorial Review:

While researching the 2012 end-date of the Maya Calendar, John Major Jenkins decoded the Maya's galactic cosmology. The Maya discovered that the periodic alignment of the Sun with the center of the Milky Way galaxy is the formative influence on human evolution. These alignments also define a series of World Ages. The fourth age ends on December 21, 2012, when an epoch chapter in human history will come to an end. Maya Cosmogenisis 2012 reveals the Maya's insight into the cyclic nature of time, and prepares us for oue own cosmogenesis--the birth of a new world.

The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans

G. J. Sawyer, Viktor Deak, Esteban Sarmiento, Richard Milner

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Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This book tells the story of human evolution, the epic of Homo sapiens and its colorful precursors and relatives. The story begins in Africa, six to seven million years ago, and encompasses twenty known human species, of which Homo sapiens is the sole survivor. Illustrated with spectacular, three-dimensional scientific reconstructions portrayed in their natural habitat developed by a team of physical anthropologists at the American Museum of Natural History and in concert with experts from around the world, the book is both a guide to extinct human species and an astonishing hominid family photo album.
The Last Human presents a comprehensive account of each species with information on its emergence, chronology, geographic range, classification, physiology, lifestyle, habitat, environment, cultural achievements, co-existing species, and possible reasons for extinction. Also included are summaries of fossil discoveries, controversies, and publications. What emerges from the fossil story is a new understanding of Homo sapiens. No longer credible is the notion that our species is the end product of a single lineage, improved over generations by natural selection. Rather, the fossil record shows, we are a species with widely varied precursors, and our family tree is characterized by many branchings and repeated extinctions.
Exhibition information:
Photographs of most of the reconstructions that appear in this book will be featured in exhibits appearing in the new Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.  The opening of the Hall is planned for November 2006.

The Human Condition

Hannah Arendt

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Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A work of striking originality bursting with unexpected insights, The Human Condition is in many respects more relevant now than when it first appeared in 1958. In her study of the state of modern humanity, Hannah Arendt considers humankind from the perspective of the actions of which it is capable. The problems Arendt identified then—diminishing human agency and political freedom, the paradox that as human powers increase through technological and humanistic inquiry, we are less equipped to control the consequences of our actions—continue to confront us today. This new edition, published to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of its original publication, contains an improved and expanded index and a new introduction by noted Arendt scholar Margaret Canovan which incisively analyzes the book's argument and examines its present relevance. A classic in political and social theory, The Human Condition is a work that has proved both timeless and perpetually timely.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was one of the leading social theorists in the United States. Her Lectures on Kant's Political Philosophy and Love and Saint Augustine are also published by the University of Chicago Press.