August 25
- Paul Seabright (2012). The War of the Sexes: How Conflict and Cooperation Have Shaped Men and Women from Prehistory to the Present. Princeton University Press.
- Some may recall that Seabright has visited us in the past. He is an economist who can write books and here he provides a valuable contribution to a better understanding of the essence of life: conflict.
- Christopher Boehm (2012). Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame. Basic Books.
- Jonathan Haidt praises the book stating that “[a]stronomers have the Hubble telescope to look back through time, and social scientists have Chris Boehm”.
- David Sloan Wilson (2015). Does Altruism Exist? Culture, Genes, and the Welfare of Others. Yale University Press.
- Wilson looks at various aspects such as psychological altruism, altruism and religion, altruism and economics or altruism in everyday life.
- Alexander Field (2007). Altruistically Inclined? The Behavioral Sciences, Evolutionary Theory, and the Origins of Reciprocity. The University of Michigan Press.
- Highly acclaimed book that won the 2003 Alpha Sigma Nu National Book Award in the Social Sciences. Elinor Ostrom referred to it as a feast for scholars who are trying to develop a coherent theory of human behaviour grounded in evolutionary biology.
- Frans de Waal (1996). Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals. Harvard University Press.
- One of the most influential primatologists makes the case for a morality grounded in biology.
- Michael Tomasello (2009). Why We Cooperate. MIT Press.
- A short book based on the 2009 Tanner Lecture on Human Values at Stanford. Tomasello derives interesting conclusions based on research on young children and chimpanzees. The book is supplemented with forum comments by Joan Silk, Carol Dweck, Brian Skyrms, and Elizabeth Spelke. See also his book A Natural History of Human Morality.
- Martin A. Nowak with Roger Highfield (2011). Super Cooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed. Free Press.
- Martin Nowak, Professor of Mathematics and Biology at Harvard is one of the most productive contemporary scholars. His group “Evolutionary dynamics” holds some ambitious goals: curing the world of cancer, infectious diseases, selfishness and inclusive fitness theory! This book, Super Cooperators is easily digested, and provides a nice overview of his research path and key findings in the area of cooperation. The book starts with a quote from Bertrand Russell: “The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation” and Nowak frequently points out that “cooperation is the fabric of the universe”.
- Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis (2011). A Cooperative Species: Human Reciprocity and Its Evolution.
- Two household names in economics and behavioural economics. In this insightful book they approach the topic of cooperation.
- Richard D. Alexander (1987). The Biology of Moral Systems. Aldine de Gruyter.
- This is a classic that has been cited more than 3000 times (Google Scholar). The book aims to show that evolved human nature and morality are compatible.
- Leonard D. Katz (2000). Evolutionary Origins of Morality: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives.
- A fascinating edited volume that includes articles from the key scholars in that area. The beauty of this book is that it consists of principal papers and a large number of commentary discussions on the principal paper.
- James Q. Wilson (1993). The Moral Sense. Free Press.
- An important book on morality.
- C. Daniel Batson (2011). Altruism in Humans. Oxford University Press.
- Martha Nussbaum argues that the “book is simply one of the most important books of our time for anyone who wants to ponder the problems and prospects of our species”.
- David P. Barash (2008). Natural Selections: Selfish Altruists, Honest Liars, and Other Realities of Evolution. Bellevue Literary Press.
- Witty, funny, and according to Dawkins “tonic for the mind”.
- Robert Trivers (2011). The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life. Basic Books.
- The powerhouse of Trivers approaches a still poorly understood topic applying an evolutionary approach.
- David Livingstone Smith (2004). Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind. St. Martin’s Griffin.
- Another accessible contribution to understand a fascinating subject.
- Robin Dunbar (1996). Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language. Harvard University Press.
- Dunbar’s most cited work with more than 3000 citations providing an insightful perspective on the purpose of language.
- Michael Tomasello (2010). Origins of Human Communication. MIT Press
- Tomasello has conducted substantial theoretical empirical work in this area. A volume based on the Jean Nicod Lectures which received the Eleanor Maccoby Book Award in Developmental Psychology.