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/lit/ - Literature

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2793348 No.2793348[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

Hey /lit/

I'm searching for life changing books like
Steven Pinker's "The Blank Slate"
Robin Baker's "Sperm Wars"
or
Peter Watson's "German Genius"

Books that give you really deep insights in human nature and how this explains the world we live in.

>> No.2793352

hary potter

>> No.2793353
File: 63 KB, 160x222, steven-pinker_press.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2793353

>Steven Pinker
Prepare for social constructionist butthurt.

>> No.2793359

>>2793353

please explain

>> No.2793509

>>2793359
Pinker is the antithesis of social constructionism.

>> No.2793530

Sperm Wars is based on evolutionary psychology which should not be confused with actual science but rather assumptions of information we do not actually know about the human race.

>> No.2793549
File: 9 KB, 200x306, The g Factor.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2793549

>Books that give you really deep insights in human nature and how this explains the world we live in.

<<< This

>> No.2793553

Although I don't like some of the tendencies Tooby & Cosmides imbued the field of ev-psych with, I think it gets a lot of undeserved flack.

inb4 "just-so stories", "biological determinism", "muh spandrels", etc.

>> No.2793559

there is no human nature.

arhuments from biology dont work. thats not human nature. thats just studying the mechanics of your existence.

human nature is to do with why you exist.


as usual science treading on ground its unqualified to talk about

>> No.2793567

>>2793549

Just a heads up, OP. Arthur Jensen is a racist and his 'science' is arguing for that racism.

>> No.2793580
File: 14 KB, 440x308, Arthur Jensen drawing a bell curve.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2793580

>>2793567
>Just a heads up, OP. Arthur Jensen is a racist and his 'science' is arguing for that racism.

Arthur Jensen placed 47th in Haggbloom, et al's scientometric ranking of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century, and this is almost entirely due to his work on individual and group differences in cognitive ability.

http://htpprints.yorku.ca/archive/00000064/00/eminence.pdf

>> No.2793590

>>2793549
>2012
>reading outdated, misleading books
ISHGGYDGGY

>> No.2793596

>>2793590
>Implying 'An Origin of Family, Private Property and The State', in its flaws shows an important insight into the founding ideologies of Marxism

>> No.2793602

>>2793590
>2012
>reading outdated, misleading books

The g Factor was published in 1998, hardly ancient. And it is still regularly cited favorably in reputable psychometric journals.

>> No.2793605

>>2793580

I don't really care, I'm just telling OP who you're recommending.

>> No.2793611
File: 12 KB, 200x254, W. D. Hamilton.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2793611

If such eminent scientists think there is merit in "racism", maybe "racism" isn't so bad after all.

>> No.2793616

>>2793602
14 years is a long time, not ancient of course, but you'll forgive my hyperbole hopefully. Being cited favourably isn't proof of anything when those citing you are using what you've said to prove their own little unfalsifiable theories.

>> No.2793619

>>2793611
their racism is impractical in its suggested implications and based on imperfect tests

>> No.2793631
File: 19 KB, 350x475, bias in mental testing.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2793631

>>2793619
>their racism is impractical in its suggested implications

What are the "suggested implications" you are referring to?

>and based on imperfect tests

A great deal of Jensen's work is dedicated to analyzing how reliable those tests are.

>> No.2793640

>>2793631

Do you see why it might be foolish to trust someone's analysis of their own tests?

>> No.2793663

>>2793640
>Do you see why it might be foolish to trust someone's analysis of their own tests?

Apart from his reaction time test (the Jensen box), the vast majority of psychometric tests he has analyzed were devised by others. To turn things around, do you see why it might be foolish to trust someones critical analysis when they clearly haven't read the work of the person they are analyzing? You, for instance?

>> No.2793667

>>2793663

You sure have low standards if what I'm posting constitutes a "critical analysis".

>> No.2793983
File: 40 KB, 210x315, 210px-TheBellCurve.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2793983

>> No.2793988

>>2793983
troll/10

>> No.2794018
File: 26 KB, 300x450, 147228667.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2794018

lol@ tha babby mechanistic scientist 'philosophers' itt

2 wat psychological model do u adhere?
plz read I Am a Strange Loop; The Age of Spiritual Machines etc

>> No.2794041

Could someone sum up Steven Pinker's work in a few words without trashing or worshipping him? What his "point"?

>> No.2794064

>>2794041
biological determinism

>> No.2794161

>>2794041

He says that genes play a bigger role in our lifes than we want to admit. For him there are to important factors for human behavior, the genetic potential and the enviroment that triggers it. He clearly speaks against determinism but says that depending on your line of ancestors there may be a greater potential for specific behavior. Those reflect the necessities of the past and can be useful or not useful in modern times. His approch to understanding human nature is a how to help everyone the best way. i.e. take out all the black kids from the inner cities because it's the worst possible place for the development of any human being who wants to interact with the rest of society.

>> No.2794171

>Nicolas Taleb's - The Black Swan

Will rip out your brain and shit in your skull.

>> No.2794184

Also: Society was created to cancel out violance and aggresion in human behavior. He's a huge fan of Hobbes.

He deconstructs the three very dominant views on human nature that the public has:
"The Noble Savage" - Humans are good by nature, society corrupts them. (Hippies believe that)
"The Blank Slate" - Humans have no inherent qualities, everything is a social construct (Socialists believe that)
"The Ghost in the Machine" - Every human has an immortal and good soul and the flesh corrupts the mind (Religious people believe that)

>> No.2794186

>>2794161
how readable is his prose? dry?

>> No.2794192

>>2794171

To give you Dicks the TLDR - The Black Swan discusses
>probability
>how full of shit economist are
>how broken the bell curve is
>how random everything really fucking is. and how much of a back-story we like to pin on it to make sense for us in hindsight.
>the unknown unknowns
>true randomness
>Mandelbrot
>"Black Swan" events or events that no one thought would or could ever happen that do happen and change everything.

>> No.2794194

>>2794064

Meaning, he failed at life and science. Next.

>> No.2794205

Three Scientists and their Gods by Robert Wright
I and Thou by Martin Buber
Pretty much every existential thinker. They've all tried, to varying degrees of success, to define human nature and society. I think Buber did it best, though.

>> No.2794234

>>2794186

I thought it was very readable, I'm German and understood everything. He touches a lot of subjects like arts, history and culture.