It's a belief that unites the left and right, psychologists and philosophers, writers and historians. It drives the headlines that surround us and the laws that touch our lives. From Machiavelli to Hobbes, Freud to Dawkins, the roots of this belief have sunk deep into Western thought. Human beings, we're taught, are by nature selfish and governed by self-interest. Humankind makes a new argument: that it is realistic, as well as revolutionary, to assume...

Examines the civilized world's achievements in controlling famine, disease, and war while making provocative predictions about the evolutionary goals of the twenty-first century.

"Our troubled relationship with being an animal-and why we need a better one." Humans are the most inquisitive, emotional, imaginative, aggressive animals on the planet. And we also happen to be the only animal that doesn't like to think it's an animal. So how well do we really know ourselves? 'How to Be Animal' argues that at the heart of our existence is a profound struggle with being animal. We possess a psychology that seeks separation between...

Modern humans have come a long way in the seventy thousand years they've walked the earth. Art, science, culture, trade -- on the evolutionary food chain, we're true winners. But it hasn't always been smooth sailing, and sometimes -- just occasionally -- we've managed to truly f*ck things up. Weaving together history, science, politics and pop culture, Phillips offers a panoramic exploration of humankind in all its glory, or lack thereof. From Lucy,...

"From Silicon Valley boardrooms to rural communes to academic philosophy departments, a seemingly inconceivable idea is being seriously discussed : that the end of humanity's reign on earth is imminent, and that we should welcome it"--

Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, arrives at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend the unveiling of a discovery that "will change the face of science forever". The evening's host is his friend and former student, Edmond Kirsch, a forty-year-old tech magnate whose dazzling inventions and audacious predictions have made him a controversial figure around the world. This evening is to be no exception: he claims he...

"Once upon an apocalypse, there lived an obscenely handsome American crow named S.T., which was, of course, short for Sh*t Turd . . . When the world last checked-in with its beloved Cheeto addict, the planet had been overrun by flesh-hungry, zombie-like beasts, and all things natural had started staking claim to territory that had previously been inhabited by humans. And S.T., alongside his Bloodhound-bestie Dennis, had set about saving pets that...

"One of the most stunning achievements of moral philosophy is something we take for granted: moral universalism, or the idea that every human has equal moral worth. In What We Owe the Future, Oxford philosopher William MacAskill demands that we go a step further, arguing that people not only have equal moral worth no matter where or how they live, but also no matter when they live. This idea has implications beyond the obvious (climate change) - including...

A Dartmouth anthropologist whose team discovered two ancient human species explores how our evolution toward bipedalism rendered us dominant, innovative, more compassionate, and more susceptible to health problems.