The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday LifeOxford University Press, 01/12/2017 - 288 من الصفحات Human beings are primates, and primates are political animals. Our brains, therefore, are designed not just to hunt and gather, but also to help us get ahead socially, often via deception and self-deception. But while we may be self-interested schemers, we benefit by pretending otherwise. The less we know about our own ugly motives, the better - and thus we don't like to talk or even think about the extent of our selfishness. This is "the elephant in the brain." Such an introspective taboo makes it hard for us to think clearly about our nature and the explanations for our behavior. The aim of this book, then, is to confront our hidden motives directly - to track down the darker, unexamined corners of our psyches and blast them with floodlights. Then, once everything is clearly visible, we can work to better understand ourselves: Why do we laugh? Why are artists sexy? Why do we brag about travel? Why do we prefer to speak rather than listen? Our unconscious motives drive more than just our private behavior; they also infect our venerated social institutions such as Art, School, Charity, Medicine, Politics, and Religion. In fact, these institutions are in many ways designed to accommodate our hidden motives, to serve covert agendas alongside their "official" ones. The existence of big hidden motives can upend the usual political debates, leading one to question the legitimacy of these social institutions, and of standard policies designed to favor or discourage them. You won't see yourself - or the world - the same after confronting the elephant in the brain. |
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الصفحة 23
... sense. When baboons groom each other, they may happen not to be thinking about the political consequences (perhaps they're simply acting on instinct), but their lack of awareness isn't strategic. They have no need to conceal the ...
... sense. When baboons groom each other, they may happen not to be thinking about the political consequences (perhaps they're simply acting on instinct), but their lack of awareness isn't strategic. They have no need to conceal the ...
الصفحة 25
... sense. But in addition to biases in the evidence itself, we are also biased in the way we approach it. In this respect, we're not so much drunk as we are vain; we want our species to be seen in the most flattering light. There are ...
... sense. But in addition to biases in the evidence itself, we are also biased in the way we approach it. In this respect, we're not so much drunk as we are vain; we want our species to be seen in the most flattering light. There are ...
الصفحة 28
... sense, as tall as arboreally possible.1 Height, however, doesn't come cheap, whether for a redwood or any other tree. It takes a lot of energy and material to grow upward and remain standing in the face of wind and gravity— energy and ...
... sense, as tall as arboreally possible.1 Height, however, doesn't come cheap, whether for a redwood or any other tree. It takes a lot of energy and material to grow upward and remain standing in the face of wind and gravity— energy and ...
الصفحة 29
... sense, but only given the right context. Now consider the human being. Like the redwood, our species has a distinctive feature: a huge brain. But if we think of Homo sapiens like the lone redwood in the open meadow, towering in ...
... sense, but only given the right context. Now consider the human being. Like the redwood, our species has a distinctive feature: a huge brain. But if we think of Homo sapiens like the lone redwood in the open meadow, towering in ...
الصفحة 43
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