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Mar 26

Book Review: Nature via Nurture by Matt Ridley

by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 0 comments tags: Comprehensive Analysis, Defining Life, Foolishness, Human Condition, Human History
Being intrigued by the title, I picked up this book to learn finally once and for all which side was right – Are humans a product of biology of genes or social environment? Spoiler Alert: Its both. As a society we have witnessed a longstanding feud between two camps – one set of people believes that genes and nature determines our destiny while their opponents insist that socialization and nurture is our sole determinant. Like the title suggests and as Ridley states almost immediately, it is both nature and nurture that affects human development. The two sides may have valid contributions to understanding human development, but neither side gets it completely right because of sectarian/institutional thinking. The problem is that we are all victim of a media that thrives on reporting the controversial and extremist positions of the Naturists and Nurturist camps. That debate has been an ivory tower battle that has spilled over into Pop-psychology books that teach parents how to parent, how to find a partner, etc. This book proves the level of inanity that academics can resort to. Ridley demonstrate how neither side got it right and how humans are both genes and social mores wrapped together […]
Mar 04

Book Review: Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 0 comments tags: Human History, Meta History, Western Ascendance
Why does the West have a more materialistic wealth than the rest of the world? Why did the West influence every continent and people on this planet instead of the other way around? In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist’s answer: Ecology, particularly geography, fauna, animal availability, and climate. Diamond almost seems to say that human choice and desire had little to contribute but he does explain its relative importance near the end of this 480 page book. Diamond reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age in a style that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ideas. He does not talk about linear progression of human history but about the handful of critical factors that pivotly change the trajectory of history for certain societies. Diamond writes that “History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves.” The people who domesticated plants and animals early got a head start on developing agriculture and an immunity to deadly germs. He demonstrates how this leads to the development of government, writing, and technology. Diamond further argues that human ingenuity is simply the result […]
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