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Author: Kevin Simler
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190495995
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 417
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Book Description
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.
Author: Kevin Simler
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190495995
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 417
Get Book Here
Book Description
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.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Civil service
Languages : en
Pages : 216
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Book Description
Author: VJ Taylor
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1504928253
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 269
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Book Description
Utburd is the story of a troubled teen who goes to live with her grandmother in Woodland, where her family has lived for over a hundred years. Willa has always been able to see and hear the dead, but Woodland brings that ability to a new level. Willa travels back in time to when her ancestors inadvertently create an Utburd, which will follow her back to her own time.
Author: Martin E. Ford
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108491650
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 543
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Book Description
This book integrates evidence from motivational and evolutionary science to explain the essential nature of human motivation. Scholars, professionals, leaders, and students in psychology, education, and business will learn how goal-life alignment and 'thriving with social purpose' can inspire optimal functioning and enhance life meaning.
Author: Susan Nance
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421408732
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 306
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Book Description
How the lives and labors of nineteenth-century circus elephants shaped the entertainment industry. Consider the career of an enduring if controversial icon of American entertainment: the genial circus elephant. In Entertaining Elephants Susan Nance examines elephant behavior—drawing on the scientific literature of animal cognition, learning, and communications—to offer a study of elephants as actors (rather than objects) in American circus entertainment between 1800 and 1940. By developing a deeper understanding of animal behavior, Nance asserts, we can more fully explain the common history of all species. Entertaining Elephants is the first account that uses research on animal welfare, health, and cognition to interpret the historical record, examining how both circus people and elephants struggled behind the scenes to meet the profit necessities of the entertainment business. The book does not claim that elephants understood, endorsed, or resisted the world of show business as a human cultural or business practice, but it does speak of elephants rejecting the conditions of their experience. They lived in a kind of parallel reality in the circus, one that was defined by their interactions with people, other elephants, horses, bull hooks, hay, and the weather. Nance’s study informs and complicates contemporary debates over human interactions with animals in entertainment and beyond, questioning the idea of human control over animals and people's claims to speak for them. As sentient beings, these elephants exercised agency, but they had no way of understanding the human cultures that created their captivity, and they obviously had no claim on (human) social and political power. They often lived lives of apparent desperation.
Author: Mohammad A. Chaudhry
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 508
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Book Description
"It was a pleasant surprise for me Ashraf Chaudhry, a capable and inspiring professor of English Literature and my friend and my colleague of 35 years, turn into a forceful political analyst, an enlightened commentator of national and international affairs, and an active sponsor of interfaith harmony in a foreign land. I have been reading his discourses on varied subjects with interest and am always impressed by the deep thinking and extensive reading that goes into writing them. This collection is a valuable contribution and should be welcomed by those who wish to read thoughts of a mature Pakistani mind in real perspective. Prof. M. H. Hamdani, former Principal, F. G. Syed College, Rawalpindi ****** Mr. Ashraf Chaudhry is one of Pakistan Link's most distinguished writers. His articles are studded with facts and figures that are strikingly revealing and wholly incontrovertible. The more learned and serious-minded readers admire Mr. Chaudhry for his insight, scholarship, and perspicacity. Akhtar Mahmud Faruqui, editor, Pakistan Link. ****** "In Rawalpindi, Professor Ashraf Chaudhry and I were neighbors. He was my senior. When the sub continent was divided in 1947, and PAkistan emerged as a new State, our parents migrated from the Indian territory to Pakistan. Prof. Chaundhry was a very brilliant and hard working student from his very childhood. He is a self-made man. I have read some of his articles and columns in the Pakistan Link. I was much impressed by the candidness and clarity of vision he brings to his writings. He supports democrary and condemns dictaorship. He writes on human rights and human values and believes in the presence of goodness in all human beings. He rejects sectarian and radical approach in religion, and stresses on the need of a pluralist aspect of religion. Often he underpins the problems, offers cautiously some solutions, and is never hesitant in naming the culprits. He rewards and censures the same political actors, depending on their performance, and hold no personal grudge against any one of them." Dr. Maqsood Jafri, author and political activist.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Public administration
Languages : en
Pages : 544
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Book Description
Author: Chip Heath
Publisher: Crown Currency
ISBN: 030759016X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 322
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Book Description
Why is it so hard to make lasting changes in our companies, in our communities, and in our own lives? The primary obstacle is a conflict that's built into our brains, say Chip and Dan Heath, authors of the critically acclaimed bestseller Made to Stick. Psychologists have discovered that our minds are ruled by two different systems - the rational mind and the emotional mind—that compete for control. The rational mind wants a great beach body; the emotional mind wants that Oreo cookie. The rational mind wants to change something at work; the emotional mind loves the comfort of the existing routine. This tension can doom a change effort - but if it is overcome, change can come quickly. In Switch, the Heaths show how everyday people - employees and managers, parents and nurses - have united both minds and, as a result, achieved dramatic results: • The lowly medical interns who managed to defeat an entrenched, decades-old medical practice that was endangering patients • The home-organizing guru who developed a simple technique for overcoming the dread of housekeeping • The manager who transformed a lackadaisical customer-support team into service zealots by removing a standard tool of customer service In a compelling, story-driven narrative, the Heaths bring together decades of counterintuitive research in psychology, sociology, and other fields to shed new light on how we can effect transformative change. Switch shows that successful changes follow a pattern, a pattern you can use to make the changes that matter to you, whether your interest is in changing the world or changing your waistline.
Author: Peter Verhezen
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 981126807X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 398
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Book Description
Good and smart decisions should be distinguished from wise decision-making — especially in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) where algorithms are increasingly used to automate business processes or to augment the accuracy and speed of decisions. This book argues why specific forms of intelligence as well as consciousness and enhanced conscience are crucial to make wise decisions — with consciousness to be clearly distinguished from intelligence. It also addresses why machine learning and smart computers (AI) are plausibly able to make 'smart' (and thus to a certain extent 'intelligent') decisions but definitely unable to help us to become wiser. In essence, optimizing a desired output in a business context will require a balanced approach with cognitive awareness and ethical reflection — synthesizing intuitive and algorithmic thinking — encompassing short-term profit and longer-term envisioning, and aiming to optimize created and captured value for shareholders while taking the concerns of those who have a real stake in the organization seriously. If business is about creating and sharing value in a future that is both 'digital' and 'relational', then innovative technologies like AI will play an increasingly important role. Consequently, mindful executives and their responsible boards therefore need to acknowledge the limitations of AI in business — especially when the uncertain future is estimated to be rather volatile or ambiguous than stable.
Author: Page A. Smith
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1475826257
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 157
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Book Description
Bullies don’t discriminate. They are equal opportunity abusers. In Bullying from streets to schools: Practical information for those who care, authors Smith and Kearney guide their readers through multiple facets of this growing and pervasive problem. Far beyond other books that simply explore the current research on the topic, Bullying from streets to schools: Practical information for those who care shapes the subject of bullying in both understandable and realistic ways. In chapter after chapter, the authors painstakingly direct their readers through numerous “peaks and valleys” of bullying situations, including the “who, what and where” of the subject. Bullying from streets to schools: Practical information for those who care features detailed information describing the three critical groups most affected by bullying, including perpetrators, victims and bystanders. The authors accompany their readers through home, school, virtual, and workplace environments, and directly relate how these areas influence the potential development of both bullies and victims. The realities of bullying hit home as readers also are provided with an intense glimpse into the mind of a bully though an actual interview. Practical suggestions in the Facts, Feelings and Facilitation sections at the end of each chapter encourage anti-bullying action by both school and community leaders, and a bullying “hotspot” map is included along with research-based suggestions for avoiding confrontations. Unlike other books, which deal in part with the issues surrounding bullying, Smith and Kearney engage readers in thoughtful and comprehensive ways that prompt action.
