Vanity and Virtue: The Federalist Papers’ Insight into Human Nature
James Madison pinpointed the root cause of violent factionalism: the boundless desires and varying abilities of people to acquire, as Alexander Hamilton described in Federalist #12,
James Madison pinpointed the root cause of violent factionalism: the boundless desires and varying abilities of people to acquire, as Alexander Hamilton described in Federalist #12,
Million $ Smile
Our intense co-evolution for desire has led to our signature inclination for worship
Charismatic Tyrant
Shakespeare: “Life’s but a walking shadow”
It is truly as if dogs live inside our mind. In this same way, our human ancestors lived within the mind of the groups that domesticated them.
cellphone users push start button below Monogamy Facts: Approximately 85-95% of birds and 3-5% of mammals are monogamous. Among primates, about 15% are monogamous (Díaz-Muñoz, 2013). Monogamous social systems began evolving in some primates around 16 million years ago, emerging from promiscuous mating systems similar to those of chimpanzees and bonobos (Opie, 2012). Monogamy typically …
Franz deWaal: “That was out of the question, he said, and besides, their society would not suit me: it was much too harsh for a human being..—”Chimpanzee Politics”
William Butler Yeats: “We taste and feel and see the truth. We do not reason ourselves into it.”
Jesus and Marx on Truth
A byproduct of our species’ emergent desire for desirability (vanity).
Adam Smith: It is the vanity, not the ease, or the pleasure, which interests us.
They must have a sense of larger purpose, in one form or another, however intellectualized. They will refuse to yield to the despair of animal mortality. —Edward O. Wilson Cellphones: push start button below
Is mental illness a “chemical imbalance” or “All in the genes”
Embark with me on a journey delving deep into the relationship between severe mental illnesses and the primal emotions fueling our social interactions.
Why do we, alone among primates, retain rounded breasts when not nursing?
In the Beginning we were frightened, solitary, and nocturnal creatures. Then 50 million years ago, we drew together into groups, And left the dark of night to bask in the sunshine together. The fear of leaving (or being left) by one another Subdued the primal urge to fight or flee from one another Sufficiently for …
A lifeless collection of amino acids
acquires the rudiment of life, which is to replicate.
The similarity of ancestral humans and dolphins.
In the past several years, a series of books and studies by prominent scientists are quietly revolutionizing the human evolutionary narrative. Yuval Harari in his Sapiens (2014) makes no bones about his view: “The most important thing to know about prehistoric humans is that they were insignificant animals with no more impact on their environment …