The World's Best Book Summaries
What were the different types of human species? How were these early human species similar, and how did they differ? The different types of human species were Homo soloensis, Homo floresiensis, Homo denisova, Homo rudolfensis, Homo neanderthalensis, Home erectus, Homo ergaster, and Homo sapiens. Of these eight human species, only one survived: Homo sapiens, us. We’ll cover the different human species and what they had in common.
What is the origin of government? How does the government rely on “fictions” to do its job? The origin of government was in the era shortly after the Agricultural revolution. As groups of people got bigger, they needed an organizing structure to help them live peacefully. We’ll cover why the origin of government (and government today) depends on shared fictions, myths we all buy into.
A dollar bill is just a piece of paper. Why is a piece of paper with Alexander Hamilton’s or Benjamin Franklin’s face on it worth more than the paper of books filled with words? In other words, why does money have value? How does money get its value? Money has value because we all believe it’s valuable. We trust other people value it, and trust is the foundation of our economic system. We’ll cover the varying values of ancient currencies, the role of mutual trust, and the difference between inherent and noninherent value in money.
What is the anchoring effect? How do we use it in everyday decision making? The anchoring effect is a cognitive bias where you depend too heavily on an initial piece of information when making decisions. This can lead to bad judgments and allows you to be biased by information that’s often irrelevant to the decision at hand. Learn how the anchoring effect in psychology works, why it can lead to bias, and how to overcome the anchoring effect.
What is the history of capitalism? How did it originate? How is it tied to science and imperialism? What are some of its problems? We’ll cover the history of capitalism, from the invention of credit to the codependency of science and capitalism.
What is humanism? What are the different types of humanism philosophies? Do humanist beliefs require a God? Humanism is the term for religions or belief systems that worship man rather than God or gods. This doesn’t mean that humanists don’t believe in God. There are four general types of humanism: liberal humanism, socialist humanism, and evolutionary humanism. We’ll cover how these three types of humanistic beliefs differ from one another, humanism meaning, and what the future of humanism looks like.
How did early humans communicate with each other? What features of Homo sapiens language made this species successful? Early humans communicated through complex language, gossip, and shared fictions. These advancements in language allowed our species to dominate the animal kingdom, and the later invention of writing allowed people to leave a written legacy. We’ll cover why linguistic advancements such as gossip were such an important form of communication for early humans, and we’ll look at how writing was invented.
In The Art of War, Sun Tzu says, “All warfare is based on deception.” What does Tzu mean by this? Deception was an important element of Sun Tzu’s battle strategies. Learn why all warfare is based on deception.
What caused the Industrial Revolution? How did it shape the modern world? The causes of the Industrial Revolution were the discovery of energy conversion and development of new resources. The idea that human beings had the capacity to convert matter to energy was a significant cause of the Industrial Revolution. We’ll cover what caused the Industrial Revolution and how it changed society.
What is the social constructionist theory? How does the fact that our reality is socially and culturally constructed influence our beliefs and behaviors? The social constructionist theory is the theory that our societies function on shared assumptions and collective “myths.” These assumptions and beliefs aren’t natural–rather, they are created by society and culture itself. We’ll cover the origin of social constructs and how social constructionist theory explains many of your beliefs about what is “natural” or common sense, and what isn’t.