July 28
- Joseph Henrich (2016). The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter, Princeton University Press.
- Henrich’s recent book is probably the best one on human evolution so far. It covers a broad range of topics, such as the origin of faith, prestige, dominance, taboos, norms, or communication. He is able to successfully integrate insights from social and biological sciences when studying human nature and human evolution.
- Edward O. Wilson (2004). On Human Nature. Harvard University Press.
- Edward O. Wilson is the founding father of sociobiology, known today as evolutionary psychology. His seminal work Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, published in 1975, answers a key question that is also relevant to economics: how altruism can evolve by natural selection, which may nonetheless reduce personal fitness. This exploration of diverse social species – including social insects (ants are his speciality), cold-blooded vertebrates, birds, elephants, nonhuman primates, and humans – raised substantial controversy and a firestorm of suspicion, resentment, and protest from those who opposed his arguments for human instinct and gene-based nature. Public demonstrations demanded his dismissal from Harvard, his classes were interrupted, with one individual even pouring ice water over his head as he lectured, making Wilson (as he delighted in recounting for interviewers) probably the only scientist in modern times to be physically attacked for an idea. Feeling misunderstood, he was persuaded to delve deeper into the behavioural genetics of human nature, producing the 1977 book On Human Nature, which earned a Pulitzer Prize.
- R. C. Lewontin, Steven Rose, and Leon J. Kamin (1984). Not in Our Genes: Biology, Ideology, and Human Nature. Pantheon books.
- The opposite camp. A powerful attack against biological determinism and sociobiology.
- Paul R. Ehrich (2002). Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect. Penguin Books.
- Jared Diamond defines Paul Ehrich’s book as the “The one book to read on human evolution”. It provides a lot of information and is well written. “Evolving Brains, Evolving Minds”, “From Grooming to Gossip”, “The Dominance of Culture”, “Gods, Dive-Bombers, and Bureaucracy” or “Evolution and Human Values” and more.
- David Buss (2012). Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind. Pearson
- This is one of the most prominent textbooks in the field of evolutionary psychology. Thus, it is worth reading in order to get a good understanding of the foundation of the discipline.
- Kevin Laland and Gillian Brown (2011). Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour. Oxford University Press.
- A well-crafted introduction to the ideas, methods, and findings of an evolutionary perspective on human behaviour.
- Henry Plotkin (2004). Evolutionary Thought in Psychology: A Brief History. Blackwell
- Over the years, Plotkin has acquired an impressive amount of knowledge in the area of human cognition and behaviour, which he nicely integrates in this historical overview.
- Henry Plotkin (1998). Evolution in Mind: An Introduction to Evolutionary Psychology. Harvard University Press.
- Another read to increase the understanding of the evolutionary bases of human cognition and behaviour and challenges faced by the field of evolutionary psychology.
- David Buller (2006). Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature. MIT Press.
- A critical discussion arguing that the conventional wisdom in evolutionary psychology is misguided.
- Jared Diamond (1992). The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal. Harper.
- Diamond – the man with the bird’s-eye view of a great naturalist – gives us a book that explores what it means to be human.
- Clive Gamble, John Gowlett, and Robin Dunbar (2014). Thinking Big: How Evolution of Social Life Shaped the Human Mind. Thames and Hudson.
- When the British Academy celebrated its centenary, the authors of this book won funding to draw together the humanities and the social sciences. The goal of the book is to better understand the past and the present, where we come from and why we act the way we do.
- Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd (2005). Not By Genes Alone: how Culture Transformed Human Evolution. University of Chicago Press.
- A book by the two leading figures on culture and evolutionary process.
- Steven Pinker (2002). The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial Human Nature. Penguin.
- Pinker is one of the most dominant intellectual forces of the last few decades and an excellent writer. In this book he takes a closer look at human nature.
- Jonathan B. Losos and Richard E. Lenski (Eds.) (2016). How Evolution Shapes our Lives: Essays on Biology and Society. Princeton University Press.
- Insightful edited book covering many aspects such as human evolution, evolution in health and disease, evolution in agriculture, computing, conservation, and climate change, or evolution in the public sphere. The editors argue that we are in a golden time for evolutionary science in which understanding evolution has never been more important.
- Rob Brooks (2011). Sex Genes & Rock ‘n’ Roll: How Evolution Has Shaped the Modern World. University of Hampshire Press.
- Brooks has visited QUT in the past and is collaborating with members of the QuBE. In this book he explores several issues of modern civilization, applying key principles of evolutionary psychology. The book is well written, easy to digest and fun to read. It was awarded with the 2012 Queensland Literary Award (Science Writers prize).
- Robin Dunbar (2010). How Many Friends Does One Person Need? Dunbar’s Number and Other Evolutionary Quirks. Harvard University Press.
- A series of articles that Dunbar wrote for the New Scientist magazine and the Scotsman newspaper, offering a colourful discussion of topics around the evolutionary study of human behaviour. You will enjoy the power and wittiness of a clear thinker.
- Roy Baumeister (2005). The Cultural Animal: Human Nature, Meaning, and Social Life. Oxford University Press.
- Baumeister just recently moved to the University of Queensland. A highly cited psychologist (more than 118,000 citations on Google Scholar), he is an expert on human motivation, emotions, and self-regulation. Here he tries to provide a comprehensive picture of human nature.
- Robert N. Bellah (2011). Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age. Belknap Press.
- A wide-ranging and rich (746 pages) tour de force.