Why the Reckless Survive...and other secrets of human nature - Softcover

Konner, Melvin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 014015289X ISBN 13: 9780140152890

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1991

Synopsis

Assesses the influence of human genetics on personality and behavior, and discusses human sexuality, childbirth, customs, mental illness, depression, utopian ideals, lobotomies, and criminal behavior

About this title

From Library Journal:

This collection of essays puts this reviewer in mind of the Beatles' ditty, "Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl, but she doesn't have a lot to say." Konner is a fine writer, but since publication of his genuinely original The Tangled Wing (LJ 9/15/82), he hasn't had much new to tell us about using Darwinian theory to explain human behavior. These essays recapitulate the work of others and strive relentlessly to fit them into the paradigm of sociobiology. But Konner works in a genre, the popularization of science, shaped by two giants, Stephen Jay Gould and Lewis Thomas, and his work seems somewhat ephemeral in contrast to theirs, which continues to enlighten and edify.
- Glenn Petersen, CUNY Graduate Center
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

Nigerian tribal elders react to Hamlet , brain surgery is discussed and the relationship between psychosis and creativity is considered in an effort to distinguish between cultural conventions and instinctive responses. "Konner felicitously combines humor and a facility for viewing material in a wide perspective with the stuff of technology and biological science in these essays of unfailing interest," said PW.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 014015289X
• ISBN 13: 9780140152890
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320