Minds Make Societies

Name: Minds Make Societies
Brand: Unknown
SKU: 9780300248548
Price: 35.99 NZD
Availability: InStock

How Cognition Explains the World Humans Create

By Pascal Boyer

0.0 (0 reviews)

3.91

( 386 ratings, 53 reviews)

Summary

In Minds Make Societies, Pascal Boyer explores how human minds shape societies by examining cognitive processes and evolutionary psychology. The book delves into how our mental patterns influence social behaviours, cultural norms, and belief systems, offering a scientific understanding of how societies form and evolve. Boyer provides insights into the invisible forces of cohesion and conflict within human communities.
Read More

Format: Paperback / softback

$35⁹⁹

AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 3-4 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Minds Make Societies

$35⁹⁹

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you are curious about how human minds shape societies and how societies, in turn, influence thought processes. It may appeal to you if you're interested in understanding the psychological mechanisms behind social structures, cultural patterns, and human cooperation. Engaging with topics in philosophy and psychology, it offers insightful analysis into the cognitive foundations of social life, perfect for readers fascinated by the intersection of mind and society.

Minds Make Societies

Description

Minds Make Societies is a watershed book that masterfully integrates insights from evolutionary biology, genetics, psychology, economics, and more to explore the development and workings of human societies.

“There is no good reason why human societies should not be described and explained with the same precision and success as the rest of nature.” Thus argues evolutionary psychologist Pascal Boyer in this uniquely innovative book.

Integrating recent insights from evolutionary biology, genetics, psychology, economics, and other fields, Boyer offers precise models of why humans engage in social behaviours such as forming families, tribes, and nations, or creating gender roles.

In fascinating, thought-provoking passages, he explores questions such as, Why is there conflict between groups? Why do people believe low-value information such as rumours? Why are there religions? What is social justice? What explains morality?

Boyer provides a new picture of cultural transmission that draws on the pragmatics of human communication, the constructive nature of memory in human brains, and human motivation for group formation and cooperation.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Pascal Boyer's Minds Make Societies offers an incisive investigation into understanding social phenomena by integrating various research areas, as praised by Nature. Sarah Lane Ritchie notes that Boyer constructs a textured narrative, while Olivier Morin highlights its valuable introduction to cognitive and evolutionary anthropology. Lauded as a significant work on human culture, Leda Cosmides describes it as essential, and Hugo Mercier finds it wide-ranging and convincing. Herbert Gintis commends its balanced evaluation of social theories, and Dan Sperber assures it will change perceptions of society and culture, with John Tooby recommending it to those interested in contemporary scientific discoveries.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780300248548

Publisher: Yale University Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 10 March 2020

Country: United States

Imprint: Yale University Press

Illustration: 20 b-w illus.

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 156.0mm

Height: 235.0mm

Weight: 0g

Pages: 376

Collections

Education & Reference Non-Fiction Pascal Boyer Philosophy & Psychology Science & Nature

About the Author

Pascal Boyer is the Henry Luce Professor of Collective and Individual Memory and professor of anthropology and psychology at Washington University in St. Louis.