SOCECOL E8 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Jonah Lehrer, Stephen Greenblatt, Molecular Genetics
26 May 2016
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We have created a star wars civilization, with stone age emotions, medieval institutions, and god-life technology. We are terribly confused by the mere fact of our existence, and a danger to ourselves and to the rest of life. p. 7. The first is why advanced social life exist at all, and has occurred so rarely in the history of life. The second is the identity of the driving forces that bought it into existence. p. 10. What are the disciplines which are relevant to addressing these fundamental questions: These problems can be solved by bringing together information from multiple disciplines, ranging from molecular genetics, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology to archaeology, ecology, social psychology, and history. p. 10. At the core of the social conquest of earth is the unresolved, unresolvable tension in our species between selfishness and altruism. Stephen greenblatt, author, the swerve: how the world became modern.
