Rating: 
Summary: It will change the way you think about your mind
Review: This book has so far been the most insightful look into the evolution of the human mind I've ever encountered. These new discoveries will break the hold that "modern" theories have on you. You will find that survival of the fittest actually means survival of the most flexible. You will learn about how nature and nurture play a marvelous game crafting our mind by feeding back on each other. You will learn that components in your brain grow and adapt at different paces. And most important for me, I learned that the human mind is so flexible it can adapt throughout its lifetime beyond the years of childhood. This 'plasticity' of the brain can actually be stimulated by rich environments. You are more flexible than you think. I really recommend this book for parents with newborns. By exploring its pages you will get a peek into the wonder that your baby is experiencing. It might also help you along the way to find better way to teach your baby new and seemingly complex concepts.
Rating: 
Summary: interesting but too superficial
Review: This book is a very well written, reasonably exaustive eposition on the state of the art on brain sciences, combining history, evolution science and neuroscience. It delves in the most crucial problems of today, advancing the Authors' opinion whitout any presumption of having the real solution (like some writers on the subject). They unravel the complexities of human brain development whit crystalline clarity. A book very learned, that make you learn and think.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books on the subject
Review: This book is a very well written, reasonably exaustive eposition on the state of the art on brain sciences, combining history, evolution science and neuroscience. It delves in the most crucial problems of today, advancing the Authors' opinion whitout any presumption of having the real solution (like some writers on the subject). They unravel the complexities of human brain development whit crystalline clarity. A book very learned, that make you learn and think.
Rating:
Summary: Great Read!
Review: This book was a real eye opener. I had read a bunch of evolutionary psychology books and thought they were on to something, then this book exposed all the gaps in that approach and showed how different things looked once you take the brain into account. I think it will revolutionize thinking about the mind and how it evolved. The authors also do a great job making their discussion relevant for issues today...
Rating:
Summary: New insights into the human condition
Review: This excellent new book tackles some of the oldest and most important questions about what it means to be human--who we are and how we came to be the way we are. The authors are prominent neuroscientists who know what they are talking about, and are able to write about it clearly and vividly. They set out to trace the findings and implications of a new science, cultural biology. The authors believe that cultural biology can "demystify the dynamic engagement between brain and world," and provide new insights into vital questions such as "why we live together, love, ..., and sacrifice ourselves for others." Cultural biology attempts to synthesize the contributions of biology--our genes, the course of development, and our brains--with the effects of environment and culture. In the authors hands, it often succeeds in breaking out of old dichotomies such as nature vs. nurture, genetic vs. cultural determinism, humans as fundamentally social or fundamentally selfish, to provide a new, significantly more balanced understanding of how our biological raw material interacts with the world throughout our lives. The book lives up to its promise to shed new light on the rich interplay between genes and environment throughout the course of development, the limits that our biology locks us into, and the potentials it provides. Although you may not agree with everything the authors say, Liars, Lovers, and Heroes will make you take a fresh look at the assumptions we all make about "human nature." You may walk away with genuinely new insights about why we humans love, hate and nurture. The book is important, informative and a pleasure to read. Robert Adler, author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation (Wiley, 2002).
Rating: 
Summary: contemporary thoughts on human interaction - brain science.
Review: This is a great book, that gives a solid argument against evolutionary psychology's rigid and rapidly outdated theorised argument that our genes determine our nature.
Liars, Lovers, and Heroes and the discipline that it adheres to - Cultural Biology, explains that culture is a precursor to our evolution tract, that at times can go against evolutionary determinism. In the sense that our brains build the determined path to evolve. That we are not essentially hard-wired with mental capabilities, nor can we sustain on primitive gene like impulses. The authors Steven Quartz, Terrence Sejnowski explain, human adaptation is linked to brain chemistry; that if we lose a limb, or other body function, our brain resources other parts of the body to compensate. That brain damage is far more prevalent in our society, that leads to cultural problems, such as murder, murderous cults and even mass hysteria. Which is important to understand, that evolutionary psychology falls short in explaining the details, which are the most important in our human biology. Liars, Lovers, and Heroes reveals the hypocrisy and the inconstancy of Evolutionary Psychology's gender differences, especially the ever changing cultural pressures that confront us. Why is cultural genital mutilation so highly valued in countries consumed with cultural identification? Chapter 4 explains the problem with relying on evolutionary psychology's connection that cultural identity lies within reproductive desires. That if clitoris removal occurs, it is done without any genetic purpose - that its a purely a cultural restraint against women, which could be argued enforced by religious dominance in cultural behaviour. How religious/cultural motivated ceremony's (such as clitoral removal) can be justified using evolutionary psychology logic,is something that evolutionary psychology must be struggling to answer, since according to evolutionary psychology theory, that all our actions are based on replicating our genes. The authors go on in later chapters, and explain the complex connection that culture and cultural identity have huge impacts of how we define our existence. As the brain is constantly up dating, and renewing thoughts an actions, and adapting to new perceptions. Steven Quartz, Terrence Sejnowski , also go on to explain the aggression in humans, is not always a need to exercise superiority over other humans from a genetic or competitive instinct. Which is highly dangerous for evolutionary psychology to make assumption's that most "male" aggressive traits are based on genetic impulses. Liars, Lovers, and Heroes, explains that babies act more aggressively at a more rapid rate, than adults. Although not as physically devastating as a full grown adult, Cultural Biology dismiss the notion that enhanced aggression is solely a male testosterone trait. The end chapters and the afterword (which was written after September 11), reveals some fascinating incite into eugenics and its impact of industrialised society. That the negative of eugenics, has lead to presumption of intellectual capabilities - by using simplistic IQ tests. According to the authors, this has lead to the expectation that our society has inherited, and praised, racist, class and intellectual divisions. To insure industrial productively. Not to mention huge health problems, under the pretext, that as humans we continue to learn; that our minds are not meant for mundane, or tedious work practises. As eugenics suggested, some were born with it, and some weren't. Incredible backward thinking, yet still with us. And dismissed appropriately within the book The afterword which was written a month after September 11. Which was fascinating and insightful, even though it was written so soon after that tragedy.
The authors expressed that alienation, and cultural isolation can lead to mental breakdown, that leads to identifying with extremist, and destructive, self destructive conformist views. That class and educational status had nothing essentially to do with the profile of the hijackers. Which is to say that our culture now is creating even more isolation aspects, and that is transcending over class, and educational so called superiority. Considering that one of some of the hijackers when middle class, and well educated. I recommend Liars, Lovers, and Heroes, to anyone who is interested in cultural biology, and brain science.
Rating:
Summary: contemporary thoughts on human interaction - brain science.
Review: This is a great book, that gives a solid argument against evolutionary psychology's rigid and rapidly outdated theorised argument that our genes determine our nature.
Liars, Lovers, and Heroes and the discipline that it adheres to - Cultural Biology, explains that culture is a precursor to our evolution tract, that at times can go against evolutionary determinism. In the sense that our brains build the determined path to evolve. That we are not essentially hard-wired with mental capabilities, nor can we sustain on primitive gene like impulses. The authors Steven Quartz, Terrence Sejnowski explain, human adaptation is linked to brain chemistry; that if we lose a limb, or other body function, our brain resources other parts of the body to compensate. That brain damage is far more prevalent in our society, that leads to cultural problems, such as murder, murderous cults and even mass hysteria. Which is important to understand, that evolutionary psychology falls short in explaining the details, which are the most important in our human biology. Liars, Lovers, and Heroes reveals the hypocrisy and the inconstancy of Evolutionary Psychology's gender differences, especially the ever changing cultural pressures that confront us. Why is cultural genital mutilation so highly valued in countries consumed with cultural identification? Chapter 4 explains the problem with relying on evolutionary psychology's connection that cultural identity lies within reproductive desires. That if clitoris removal occurs, it is done without any genetic purpose - that its a purely a cultural restraint against women, which could be argued enforced by religious dominance in cultural behaviour. How religious/cultural motivated ceremony's (such as clitoral removal) can be justified using evolutionary psychology logic,is something that evolutionary psychology must be struggling to answer, since according to evolutionary psychology theory, that all our actions are based on replicating our genes. The authors go on in later chapters, and explain the complex connection that culture and cultural identity have huge impacts of how we define our existence. As the brain is constantly up dating, and renewing thoughts an actions, and adapting to new perceptions. Steven Quartz, Terrence Sejnowski , also go on to explain the aggression in humans, is not always a need to exercise superiority over other humans from a genetic or competitive instinct. Which is highly dangerous for evolutionary psychology to make assumption's that most "male" aggressive traits are based on genetic impulses. Liars, Lovers, and Heroes, explains that babies act more aggressively at a more rapid rate, than adults. Although not as physically devastating as a full grown adult, Cultural Biology dismiss the notion that enhanced aggression is solely a male testosterone trait. The end chapters and the afterword (which was written after September 11), reveals some fascinating incite into eugenics and its impact of industrialised society. That the negative of eugenics, has lead to presumption of intellectual capabilities - by using simplistic IQ tests. According to the authors, this has lead to the expectation that our society has inherited, and praised, racist, class and intellectual divisions. To insure industrial productively. Not to mention huge health problems, under the pretext, that as humans we continue to learn; that our minds are not meant for mundane, or tedious work practises. As eugenics suggested, some were born with it, and some weren't. Incredible backward thinking, yet still with us. And dismissed appropriately within the book The afterword which was written a month after September 11. Which was fascinating and insightful, even though it was written so soon after that tragedy.
The authors expressed that alienation, and cultural isolation can lead to mental breakdown, that leads to identifying with extremist, and destructive, self destructive conformist views. That class and educational status had nothing essentially to do with the profile of the hijackers. Which is to say that our culture now is creating even more isolation aspects, and that is transcending over class, and educational so called superiority. Considering that one of some of the hijackers when middle class, and well educated. I recommend Liars, Lovers, and Heroes, to anyone who is interested in cultural biology, and brain science.
Rating:
Summary: finally!
Review: this is the book I've been waiting for. It's the first to look at who we are from the point of view of cutting edge brain science. The authors write in an enjoyable, engaging way and extend their discussions to include everyday events, news items, and provide an afterword on 9/11 that is more insightful than anything I've read in the media. I found myself learning something valuable about myself on just about every page--the discussion on happiness was especially interesting.
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic integration of science and insight
Review: Unlike the (typical) proponents of evolutionary psychology, Quartz and Sejnowski have carefully constructed plausible hypotheses based on recent evidence regarding brain function. This book is a welcome antidote to the endless parade of frustrating, methodologically flawed, and often factually wrong books and articles produced by evolutionary psychologists. While I don't agree with some interpretations of results in the last few chapters, the general 'cultural biology' framework has much to recommend it. Only with the kind of careful consideration of converging results displayed by Q&S are we going to make progress on understanding complex aspects of human mentality (like emotion, motivation, intelligence, etc). The book is nicely written, clear, and full of fascinating anecdotes and reports of experimental results. I heartily recommend reading this great book!
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