Why We Believe: Evolution and the Human Way of Being - Couverture rigide

Fuentes, Agustin

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0300243995 ISBN 13 : 9780300243994

Editeur : Yale University Press, 2020

Synopsis

A wide-ranging argument by a renowned anthropologist that the capacity to believe is what makes us human

Why are so many humans religious? Why do we daydream, imagine, and hope? Philosophers, theologians, social scientists, and historians have offered explanations for centuries, but their accounts often ignore or even avoid human evolution. Evolutionary scientists answer with proposals for why ritual, religion, and faith make sense as adaptations to past challenges or as by-products of our hyper-complex cognitive capacities.

But what if the focus on religion is too narrow? Renowned anthropologist Agustín Fuentes argues that the capacity to be religious is actually a small part of a larger and deeper human capacity to believe. Why believe in religion, economies, love? A fascinating intervention into some of the most common misconceptions about human nature, this book employs evolutionary, neurobiological, and anthropological evidence to argue that belief--the ability to commit passionately and wholeheartedly to an idea--is central to the human way of being in the world.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Agustín Fuentes is a Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University. He is an active public scientist, a well-known blogger, lecturer, tweeter, and an explorer for National Geographic. Fuentes received the Inaugural Communication & Outreach Award from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, the President's Award from the American Anthropological Association, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Yale University Press
• Date d'édition: 2020
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0300243995
• ISBN 13: 9780300243994
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 280
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible