Emotional Amoral Egoism: A Neurophilosophical Theory of Human Nature and its Universal Security Implications - Softcover

Nayef R.F. Al-Rodhan

4.29

17 ratings by Goodreads

9783825809546: Emotional Amoral Egoism: A Neurophilosophical Theory of Human Nature and its Universal Security Implications

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3825809544 ISBN 13: 9783825809546

Publisher: LIT Verlag, 2008

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The enduring assumption that human behaviour is governed by innate morality and reason is at odds with the persistence of human deprivation, injustice, brutality, inequality and conflict. This book offers a fresh look at human nature and universal security by proposing a new general theory of human nature, "emotional amoral egoism", and a specific theory of human motivation that draw on a wide range of philosophical, psychological and evolutionary approaches as well as neuroscientific research. It argues that human behaviour is governed primarily by emotional self-interest and that the human mind is a predisposed tabula rasa. The author argues that most human beings are innately neither moral nor immoral but rather amoral. Circumstances will determine the survival value of humankind's moral compass. This insight has profound implications for the re-ordering of governance mechanisms at all levels with a strong emphasis on the role of society and the global system. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the substrates of human nature and its universal security implications in relation to identity, conflict, ethnocentrism, xenophobia, morality and global governance.

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About the Author:

NAYEF R.F. AL-RODHAN is Senior Member of St. Antony's College, University of Oxford, UK. He is also Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for the Geopolitics of Globalization and Transnational Security at the Geneva Center for Security Policy, Geneva, Switzerland. He is a philosopher, neuroscientist, and geostrategist. A prize-winning scholar, he has published 21 books proposing many innovative concepts and theories in global politics and security. He was educated at Yale University, the Mayo Clinic and Harvard University. He is best known for several philosophical and analytic books on global politics that include: The Role of the Arab-Islamic World in the Rise of the West; Meta-Geopolitics of Outer Space; Sustainable History and the Dignity of Man; Emotional Amoral Egoism; Neo-Statecraft and Meta-Geopolitics; The Politics of Emerging Strategic Technologies and Symbiotic Realism.

Review:

"This ambitious and wide-ranging book offers both a synthesis of philosophical and scientific approaches to human nature and a strong plea for a set of universal human values. Its attraction lies in its forceful argument that the emotional aspects of human nature should be taken seriously if we are to design effective systems of political and moral cooperation, and that our political thinking needs to be inspired by the neuro-psychological consequences of our brain chemistry." -- Professor Michael Freeden, Professor of Politics, Director of the Centre for Political Ideologies, Professorial Fellow, Mansfield College, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom

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