Religion and Ethics Forum

General Category => Literature, Music, Art & Entertainment => Topic started by: Samuel on March 09, 2016, 10:05:02 PM

Title: Sapiens: a brief history of human kind
Post by: Samuel on March 09, 2016, 10:05:02 PM

Just reading this and it's really interesting. The author is a historian and takes a wide perspective on human history from our emergence as the dominant and sole surviving homo species to the modern age and draws heavily on science.

I'm only in a little way in but Im really enjoying it. So far he has argued that our initial successes as a species are due to our sharing of complex information, gossiping about each other and believing in things that don't exist (not just gods but pretty much everything our society is based on) Brilliant. Things I sort of knew or had heard befor but he puts them together in a very compelling way. A great story teller.

Title: Re: Sapiens: a brief history of human kind
Post by: Shaker on March 10, 2016, 05:06:26 AM

This has been on my wish list for a while - you've just prompted me to buy it at last.

Title: Re: Sapiens: a brief history of human kind
Post by: torridon on March 10, 2016, 06:37:39 AM

Yes Harari is worth listening to; if you don't have the time to read the books, he has run a MOOC on Coursera covering his ground; not sure if it is still available.

Title: Re: Sapiens: a brief history of human kind
Post by: john on March 10, 2016, 09:45:10 AM

Samuel

Thanks for the pointer

Just ordered this book from Amazon £4.49 paperback

Cheers
John