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It’s Complicated: Unraveling the mystery of why people act as they do

theamericanscholar.org

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Re: It’s Complicated: Unraveling the mystery of why people act as they do

#41

Post by felipeko »

robotresearcher wrote: post #34
felipeko wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a) World gdp per capita is less than $18.000, hardly what i would call abundance. We are still a few good decades away from abundance. b) I bet that rich countries, where people have all they need, will not provoke wars or engage on unprovoked wars (unless for humanitarian reasons).

The richest country in the world has been at war overseas almost constantly since the end of WWII.

And it went to war for the following reasons:

a) scarcity of resource (oil) / humanitarian reasons (whichever you prefer to believe)

b) was provoked into it (because of cold war or terrorists)

Re: It’s Complicated: Unraveling the mystery of why people act as they do

#42

Post by TheCowboy »

amasad wrote: post #38

The schism between our science and politics is finally getting airtime. Liberal western politics are based on individual liberty and free will. However, mainstream science maintains that we're neither individuals nor have free will. Do we try to reconcile both views? Or do we drop one in favor of the other? This, by the way, is also the subject of Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, by the same author behind Sapi…

You could argue that it has been shown that it isn't so black and white, not all decisions are a result of pure free will in all cases. But there has not been some conclusion that there is no free will by "mainstream science" as it is still an open topic.

It's also not necessarily contradictory for it to be a bit of both.

Re: It’s Complicated: Unraveling the mystery of why people act as they do

#43

Post by mabub24 »

tucif wrote: post #2

What would be a good book to read before this book? Or is it friendly enough for someone new to behavioral science?

I would highly recommend [P.M.S. Hacker's "Human Nature: The Categorical Framework](https://www.amazon.com/Human-Nature-Categorial-Framework-Hac...).

Hacker is an excellent philosopher and a very clear writer. He starts from broad categories to look at human nature and what it makes sense to say of the nature of sentient animals, insentient animals, and inanimate things.

The main relevant chapters are:

1. "Agents and Actors", 2. "Teleological Explanation", and 3. "Reasons and Explanation of Human Action".

His main point is that many "unanswerable" questions in neuroscience and behavioral science are simply nonsensical because they play with conceptual confusions.

I would also highly recommend his sequel book "The Intellectual Powers: A Study of Human Nature".

Re: It’s Complicated: Unraveling the mystery of why people act as they do

#45

Post by felipeko »

dragonwriter wrote: post #31
felipeko wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I call it scarcity of resources. You won't see wars and what not when you have humanity with abundance of resources.

Scarcity is a universal (more abundance doesn't cure scarcity, it just changes expectations of what is acceptable.)

Not really. Most people on most developed countries don't have scarcity for water, food, clothes, transport... It wasn't always like that. Things do become more abundant and people will dot not always change expectation on the same amount.

Re: It’s Complicated: Unraveling the mystery of why people act as they do

#46

Post by BurningFrog »

amasad wrote: post #38

The schism between our science and politics is finally getting airtime. Liberal western politics are based on individual liberty and free will. However, mainstream science maintains that we're neither individuals nor have free will. Do we try to reconcile both views? Or do we drop one in favor of the other? This, by the way, is also the subject of Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, by the same author behind Sapi…

> mainstream science maintains that we're neither individuals nor have free will

Citation needed!

Re: It’s Complicated: Unraveling the mystery of why people act as they do

#47

Post by amasad »

BurningFrog wrote: post #46
amasad wrote: post #38

The schism between our science and politics is finally getting airtime. Liberal western politics are based on individual liberty and free will. However, mainstream science maintains that we're neither individuals nor have free will. Do we try to reconcile both views? Or do we drop one in favor of the other? This, by the way, is also the subject of Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, by the same author behind Sapi…

> mainstream science maintains that we're neither individuals nor have free will Citation needed!

How about the article you're commenting on? It said exactly the same thing, just different words.

Re: It’s Complicated: Unraveling the mystery of why people act as they do

#48

Post by [deleted] »

amasad wrote: post #38

The schism between our science and politics is finally getting airtime. Liberal western politics are based on individual liberty and free will. However, mainstream science maintains that we're neither individuals nor have free will. Do we try to reconcile both views? Or do we drop one in favor of the other? This, by the way, is also the subject of Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, by the same author behind Sapi…

[deleted]

Re: It’s Complicated: Unraveling the mystery of why people act as they do

#49

Post by int_handler »

amasad wrote: post #38

The schism between our science and politics is finally getting airtime. Liberal western politics are based on individual liberty and free will. However, mainstream science maintains that we're neither individuals nor have free will. Do we try to reconcile both views? Or do we drop one in favor of the other? This, by the way, is also the subject of Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, by the same author behind Sapi…

> Liberal western politics are based on individual liberty and free will.

> However, mainstream science maintains that we're neither individuals nor have free will.

You are conflating government control and social interactions. Liberal western politics is based on individual liberty and free will in the context of government policy. Such policies are focused on reducing the control that governments have on individual rights and not how individuals are influenced by other individuals within societies, which is the topic that Homo Deus and Sapiens focus on.

Re: It’s Complicated: Unraveling the mystery of why people act as they do

#50

Post by 0xfeba »

amasad wrote: post #38

The schism between our science and politics is finally getting airtime. Liberal western politics are based on individual liberty and free will. However, mainstream science maintains that we're neither individuals nor have free will. Do we try to reconcile both views? Or do we drop one in favor of the other? This, by the way, is also the subject of Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, by the same author behind Sapi…

Not having free will and being capable of acting on it are two very different things. That is, it doesn't matter if we have free will or not, we can't base any immediate decisions on it since we are not Laplace's demon.
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