Cultural evolution - In Search of Wisdom

Natural Born Learners: Our Incredible Capacity to Learn and How We Can Harness It

Posted by Dr Terry Cooke-Davies | Sep 17, 2020 | Books |

Learning is the soul of our species. From our first steps to our last words, we are what we learn. But for all its obvious importance, learning has lost touch with human progress. We live in an information age, work in a knowledge economy, yet our schools are relics of an industrial era. Education insider Alex Beard takes us on a dazzling tour of the future of learning to show how we can – and why we must – do better. Tackling everything from artificial intelligence to our growing understanding of the infant brain, Natural Born Learners is a user’s guide to transforming learning in the twenty-first century and roadmap to accessing our better future selves.

For the Glory of God: How Monotheism led to Reformations, Science, Witch Hunts and the End of Slavery

Posted by Dr Terry Cooke-Davies | Sep 3, 2020 | Books |

Rodney Stark’s provocative new book argues that, whether we like it or not, people acting for the glory of God have formed our modern culture. Continuing his project of identifying the widespread consequences of monotheism, Stark shows that the Christian conception of God resulted–almost inevitably and for the same reasons–in the Protestant Reformation, the rise of modern science, the European witch-hunts, and the Western abolition of slavery. In the process, he explains why Christian and Islamic images of God yielded such different cultural results, leading Christians but not Muslims to foster science, burn “witches,” and denounce slavery.

In Gods We Trust

Posted by Dr Terry Cooke-Davies | Aug 1, 2020 | Books |

This ambitious, interdisciplinary book seeks to explain the origins of religion using our knowledge of the evolution of cognition. A cognitive anthropologist and psychologist, Scott Atran argues that religion is a by-product of human evolution just as the cognitive intervention, cultural selection, and historical survival of religion is an accommodation of certain existential and moral elements that have evolved in the human condition.

Humans: from the beginning.

Posted by Dr Terry Cooke-Davies | Jul 30, 2020 | Books |

In just a few years, our understanding of the human past has changed beyond recognition as new discoveries and advances in genetic techniques overturn long-held beliefs and make international news.

Drawing upon expert literature and the latest research, HUMANS: FROM THE BEGINNING is a rigorous but accessible guide to the human story, presenting an even-handed account of events from the first apes to the rise of the first cities and civilisations. Along the way, we learn about the emergence of modern human behaviour, prehistoric art, early modern human migrations from Africa, the peopling of the world, and how farming and agriculture replaced hunter-gathering.

Human Universe

Posted by Dr Terry Cooke-Davies | Jul 30, 2020 | Books |

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Issue: Cultural evolution

For the Glory of God: How Monotheism led to Reformations, Science, Witch Hunts and the End of Slavery

Humans: from the beginning.

Human Universe

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