Issue: Homo Sapiens

The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently — and Why

When Richard Nisbett showed an animated underwater scene to his American students, they zeroed in on a big fish swimming among smaller fish. Japanese subjects, on the other hand, made observations about the background environment…and the different “seeings” are a clue to profound underlying cognitive differences between Westerners and East Asians. As Professor Nisbett shows in The Geography of Thought people actually think – and even see – the world differently, because of differing ecologies, social structures, philosophies, and educational systems that date back to ancient Greece and China, and that have survived into the modern world.

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The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies

In this landmark book, Scott Page redefines the way we understand ourselves in relation to one another. The Difference is about how we think in groups–and how our collective wisdom exceeds the sum of its parts. Why can teams of people find better solutions than brilliant individuals working alone? And why are the best group decisions and predictions those that draw upon the very qualities that make each of us unique? The answers lie in diversity–not what we look like outside, but what we look like within, our distinct tools and abilities.

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Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion will Transform Your Life and Our World

Few issues have revealed deeper divisions in our society than the debate between creationism and evolution, between religion and science. Yet from the fray, Reverend Michael Dowd has emerged as a reconciler, finding faith strengthened by the power of reason.

With evidence from contemporary astrophysics, geology, biology, anthropology, and evolutionary psychology, Thank God for Evolution lays out a compelling argument for how religion and science can be mutually enriching forces in our lives.

Praised by Nobel laureates in the scientific community and religious leaders alike, Thank God for Evolution will expand the horizon of what is possible for self, for relationships, and for our world

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Seeing Ourselves: Reclaiming Humanity from God and Science

In Seeing Ourselves, humanist philosopher and neuroscientist Raymond Tallis goes in search of what kind of beings we are, and where we might find meaning in our lives. If we reject religion, asks Tallis, what should we put in its place? How do we ensure, if we accept the death of God, that something within us does not also die? And where do we find meaning if, as some scientists claim, we are simply organisms shaped by the forces of evolution, with no reason to exist and with no objective value? Tallis begins his quest by establishing what it is we know of our fundamental nature. He examines our relationship to our own bodies, to time, our selfhood and our agency – all manifestations of the unique nature of human consciousness – and shows why human beings are like nothing else in the universe.

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