| Description |
xii, 401 pages ; 24 cm |
|
regular print |
| Contents |
Machine generated contents note: 1.The Nature-Nurture Debate -- Where Do Traits Come From? -- 2.Putting the Genome Back in the Bottle -- 3.Get Smart -- Where Does Knowledge Come From? -- 4.What Babies Know -- 5.Sensible Ideas -- Where Does Language Come From? -- 6.The Gift of the Gab -- 7.Words and Worlds -- Where Does Thinking Come From? -- 8.The Tao of Thought -- 9.Gender and Geometry -- Where Do Feelings Come From? -- 10.Fear and Loathing in Micronesia -- 11.Gladness and Madness -- Where Do Values Come From? -- 12.Coping with Cannibalism -- 13.In Bed with Darwin |
| Summary |
In this provocative, revelatory tour de force, Jesse Prinz reveals how the cultures we live in - not biology - determine how we think and feel. He examines all aspects of our behaviour, looking at everything from our intellects and emotions, to love and sex, morality and even madness. This book seeks to go beyond traditional debates of nature and nurture. He is not interested in finding universal laws but, rather, in understanding, explaining and celebrating our differences. Why do people raised in Western countries tend to see the trees before the forest, while people from East Asia see the forest before the trees? Why, in South East Asia, is there a common form of mental illness, unheard of in the West, in which people go into a trancelike state after being startled? Compared to Northerners, why are people in the American South more than twice as likely to kill someone over an argument? And, above all, just how malleable are we? Prinz shows that the vast diversity of our behaviour is not engrained. He picks up where biological explanations leave off. He tells us the human story |
| Notes |
Cover subtitle: How culture and experience shape our lives |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical referenes and index |
| Subject |
Ethnopsychology.
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Human behavior.
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Individuality.
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Nature and nurture.
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Personality and culture.
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| ISBN |
0713998172 (paperback) |
|
9780713998177 (paperback) |
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