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Just Babies
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A must for everyone.
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Overall
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In The Righteous Mind, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explores the origins of our divisions and points the way forward to mutual understanding. His starting point is moral intuition - the nearly instantaneous perceptions we all have about other people and the things they do. These intuitions feel like self-evident truths, making us righteously certain that those who see things differently are wrong. Haidt shows us how these intuitions differ across cultures, including the cultures of the political left and right.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In his devastating new book The Madness of Crowds, Douglas Murray examines the 21st century’s most divisive issues: sexuality, gender, technology and race. He reveals the astonishing new culture wars playing out in our workplaces, universities, schools and homes in the names of social justice, identity politics and ‘intersectionality’. We are living through a postmodern era in which the grand narratives of religion and political ideology have collapsed.
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Overall
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An Important book marred by false "balance"
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-
How the Mind Works
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- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this delightful, acclaimed bestseller, one of the world’s leading cognitive scientists tackles the workings of the human mind. What makes us rational—and why are we so often irrational? How do we see in three dimensions? What makes us happy, afraid, angry, disgusted, or sexually aroused? Why do we fall in love? And how do we grapple with the imponderables of morality, religion, and consciousness?
-
-
How the World Works
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-
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- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 19 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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A must for everyone.
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Frustratingly incomplete edition and poorly read
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How the World Thinks: A Global History of Philosophy
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In How the World Thinks, Julian Baggini travels the globe to provide a hugely wide-ranging map of human thought. He shows us how distinct branches of philosophy flowered simultaneously in China, India and Ancient Greece, growing from local myths and stories - and how contemporary cultural attitudes, with particular attention to the West, East Asia, the Muslim World and Africa, have developed out of the philosophical histories of their regions.
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Really struggled with narration of audiobook
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The Happiness Hypothesis
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The Happiness Hypothesis is about ten Great Ideas. Each chapter is an attempt to savor one idea that has been discovered by several of the world's civilizations - to question it in light of what we now know from scientific research, and to extract from it the lessons that still apply to our modern lives and illuminate the causes of human flourishing. Award-winning psychologist Jonathan Haidt, the author of The Righteous Mind, shows how a deeper understanding of the world's philosophical wisdom and its enduring maxims can enrich and even transform our lives.
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Great book, shame about the narration
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In the book that he was born to write, provocateur and best-selling author Christopher Hitchens inspires future generations of radicals, gadflies, mavericks, rebels, angry young (wo)men, and dissidents. Who better to speak to that person who finds him or herself in a contrarian position than Hitchens, who has made a career of disagreeing in profound and entertaining ways.
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Lying
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As it was in Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, and Othello, so it is in life. Most forms of private vice and public evil are kindled and sustained by lies. Acts of adultery and other personal betrayals, financial fraud, government corruption - even murder and genocide - generally require an additional moral defect: a willingness to lie. In Lying, bestselling author and neuroscientist Sam Harris argues that we can radically simplify our lives and improve society by merely telling the truth in situations where others often lie.
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Very good essay. Very short
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The routine traffic stop that ends in tragedy. The spy who spends years undetected at the highest levels of the Pentagon. The false conviction of Amanda Knox. Why do we so often get other people wrong? Why is it so hard to detect a lie, read a face or judge a stranger's motives? Through a series of encounters and misunderstandings - from history, psychology and infamous legal cases - Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual adventure into the darker side of human nature, where strangers are never simple and misreading them can have disastrous consequences.
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Meanders into nowhere
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How Pleasure Works
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Yale psychologist Paul Bloom presents a striking new vision of the pleasures of everyday life. The thought of sex with a virgin is intensely arousing for many men. The average American spends over four hours a day watching television. Abstract art can sell for millions of dollars. Young children enjoy playing with imaginary friends and can be comforted by security blankets. People slow their cars to look at gory accidents and go to movies that make them cry.
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Brilliant
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Guns, Germs and Steel
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The definitive Audible purchase
- By Jim on 22-01-14
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The Three-Body Problem
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Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilisation on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them or to fight against the invasion.
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Dont be put off by the science!!
- By Thomas on 07-03-18
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The Growth Delusion
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- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
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A revelatory and entertaining book about the pitfalls of how we measure our economy and how to correct them, by an award-winning editor of The Financial Times. According to GDP, the economy is in a golden era: economic growth has risen steadily over the past 70 years and shows no sign of stopping. But if this is the case, why are we living in such fractured times, with global populism on the rise and wealth inequality as stark as ever?
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Great book made even better by great narration
- By KF on 08-08-18
Summary
A leading cognitive scientist argues that a deep sense of good and evil is bred in the bone.
From John Locke to Sigmund Freud, philosophers and psychologists have long believed that we begin life as blank moral slates. Many of us take for granted that babies are born selfish and that it is the role of society - and especially parents - to transform them from little sociopaths into civilized beings. In Just Babies, Paul Bloom argues that humans are in fact hardwired with a sense of morality. Drawing on groundbreaking research at Yale, Bloom demonstrates that, even before they can speak or walk, babies judge the goodness and badness of others’ actions; feel empathy and compassion; act to soothe those in distress; and have a rudimentary sense of justice.
Paul Bloom has a gift for bringing abstract ideas to life, moving seamlessly from Darwin, Herodotus, and Adam Smith to The Princess Bride, Hannibal Lecter, and Louis C.K. Vivid, witty, and intellectually probing, Just Babies offers a radical new perspective on our moral lives.
Critic reviews
"One comes to Paul Bloom for his unfailingly brilliant psychological research; one stays for the wise and relaxed way he writes about it."
--Jim Holt, author of Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story
"The rich cognitive and moral life of babies is among the most fascinating discoveries of twenty-first-century psychology. Paul Bloom explains how this work illuminates human nature, and does it with his trademark clarity, depth, discernment, and graceful style."
--Steven Pinker, professor of psychology, Harvard University; author of How the Mind Works
"Take a tour through the latest and most amazing research in child psychology, and come back with a better understanding of the strange things adults do. Bloom shows us how a first rate scientist integrates conflicting findings, broad scholarship, and deep humanity to draw a nuanced and often surprising portrait of human nature, with all its beauty, horror, and wonder."
--Jonathan Haidt, Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership, New York University Stern School of Business; author of The Happiness Hypothesis and The Righteous Mind
"Just Babies is an extremely important book. Today it is received wisdom that morality is unreal: our evolutionary instincts are purely selfish. We're also told that human society is built on irrational impulses, that reason and choice count for nothing. A leading experimental psychologist, but also a skilled reader of philosophy, Bloom authoritatively punctures both of these errors. Lively and deftly argued, with admirably fair treatment of opposing views, Just Babies shows that humans inherit a rich basis for morality, but also some disturbing tendencies. Making the best of the good and doing what we can to inhibit the bad is the job of history, culture and reason."
--Martha C. Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, University of Chicago; author of Political Emotions
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Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- A. Treffeisen
- 08-08-18
It's good
Good for anyone new to moral concepts. Maybe not so much new to someone who studied Philosophy or Psychology.
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- Je suis Charlie
- 14-02-16
Morality and it's origins.
The subject of morality and it's origins. Adds to the work of Stephen Pinker and Sam Harris, both of whom are authors I highly recommend, and this book deserves high praise for managing to expand on their already extensive coverage of the topic in new and interesting ways. (See "The Moral Landscape" and "Lying" by Sam Harris and "The better Angels Of Our Nature" by Stephen Pinker).
Unfortunately, Like other authors (Chris Stringer) he refers to the concept of group selection in a way that suggests he doesn't understand the group selection hypothesis (And why it's false), and therefore needs to read or re-read Dawkins "Selfish Gene". But this is an incredibly small nitpick of an excellent book that I would recommend to anyone, but is probably even more interesting to parents and teachers, or anyone who works with children.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful
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- Joshua
- 20-12-13
Interesting but short
Where does Just Babies rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
This is a great book for someone who can't stomach lets say a 30+ hour book by other notable authors on the same subject matter. Its very much a Malcom Gladwell like attempt to ad short story narrative to much larger subjects.
Any additional comments?
This book is an overall interesting but somewhat short and incomplete look at human behavioral psychology. It begins with a novel hook that fades somewhat early in the book and gives way to more classical information on the subject matter. A great read as a primer on the subject but dwarfed by the likes of Pinker etc.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
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- Aubrey
- 08-04-17
Loved it
The narrator was clear and articulate. The book was compelling and concise. It did a wonderful job of arguing a scientific foundation for inborn morality.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
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- CBlox
- 19-11-13
What the he!! do babies know?
Provocative and engaging, this book will make you think!
I really enjoyed this well-written and well presented book by Paul Bloom which takes the reader on a quick and sometimes cringe-worthy ride through the science behind moral decisions made in our infancy. Are we born evil or good? While that sub-title is slightly mis-leading it nevertheless portrays the idea behind the work.
I also liked the chapter on morality versus compassion and the pitfalls of over-compassion.
if this helped you in your Audible search, please hit YES below. Thanks
6 of 9 people found this review helpful
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- Christian M. Adriano
- 19-01-17
Feels like taking a hot shower
Author touches many scientific studies in a very fast pace. In my opinion this makes the book a good pointer to these studies.
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- M. M. Jack
- 20-11-13
This was so terrible I didn't make it past intro
What disappointed you about Just Babies?
The methodology behind Paul Bloom's research was unscientific to the point of ridiculousness. He bases his theories on "If I haven't seen it, it doesn't exist," which is a) stupid and b) a concrete example that his studies are nowhere near wide enough to support his sweeping generalizations.
What could Paul Bloom have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
Actually studied the cultures he dismissed as non-existent
What three words best describe Mike Chamberlain’s performance?
Engaging
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
No
Any additional comments?
The short time I listened to this was entirely wasted
2 of 11 people found this review helpful
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- Robyn
- 28-07-14
Excellent science, irritating narrator
I'm biased because I really dislike narrators with American accents and far prefer listening to the author read their own work. I found the narrator really grating on the ears. But the science and content of the book is excellent, as expected from Bloom who did an amazing MOOC on Coursera on morality (which led me to read the book)
0 of 5 people found this review helpful