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(as of Feb 11, 2025 10:26:41 UTC – Details)
“A critical overview of scientific orthodoxy in an attempt to answer the fundamental questions “what are we?” and “why are we here?” (Kirkus Reviews).
Specialist scientific fields are developing at incredibly swift speeds, but what can they really tell us about how the universe began and how we as humans evolved to play such a dominant role on Earth?
John Hands’s extraordinarily ambitious book merges scientific knowledge from multiple disciplines and evaluates without bias or preconception all the theories and evidence about the origin and evolution of matter, consciousness, and mankind. The result, a “pearl of dialectical reasoning” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), provides the most comprehensive account yet of current ideas such as cosmic inflation, dark energy, the selfish gene, and neurogenetic determinism. In the clearest possible prose, it differentiates the firmly established from the speculative and examines the claims of various fields to approach a unified theory of everything. In doing so it challenges the orthodox consensus in those branches of cosmology, biology, and neuroscience that have ossified into dogma. Its “shocking and invigorating” analysis (Daily Telegraph, A Best Science Book of 2015) reveals underlying patterns of cooperation, complexification, and convergence that lead to the unique emergence in humans of a self-reflective consciousness that enables us to determine our future evolution. This groundbreaking book is destined to become a classic of scientific thinking.
Praise for Cosmosapiens
“This is a truly exceptional piece of work.” —Tim Crane, Knightsbridge Professor of Philosophy, The University of Cambridge
“A game-changer. In the tradition of Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, this lucidly written, penetrating analysis challenges us to rethink many things we take for granted about ourselves, our society, and our universe. It will become a classic.” —Peter Dreier, E P Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics, Occidental College
“Hands is an astute observer of recent trends in scientific ideas bold enough to point out what he sees as sense and nonsense and intelligently explain why. Even in cases where one might disagree, the arguments are thought-provoking.” —Paul Steinhardt, Albert Einstein Professor in Science, Princeton University
ASIN : B07MW8T7LB
Publisher : ABRAMS Press; 1st edition (October 31, 2017)
Publication date : October 31, 2017
Language : English
File size : 9000 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 705 pages
Customers say
Customers find the book provides an encyclopedic overview of current scientific theories from cosmology to biology to psychology. They appreciate the well-written, simple yet precise language and concise summaries at the end of each chapter. The writing style is organized with meticulous explanations, though some parts are repetitive.
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