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Title : Cultural Evolution and its Discontents (Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory)

Author : Robert Watson

category : Books,Medical Books,Medicine

Publisher : Robert Watson

ISBN-10 : 0367476568

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Cultural Evolution and its Discontents (Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory) by Robert Watson

Read Online and Download Cultural Evolution and its Discontents (Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory) by Robert Watson. People worry that computers, robots, interstellar aliens, or Satan himself – brilliant, stealthy, ruthless creatures – may seize control of our world and destroy what’s uniquely valuable about the human race. Cultural Evolution and its Discontents shows that our cultural systems – especially those whose last names are "ism" – are already doing that, and doing it so adeptly that we seldom even notice. Like other parasites, they’ve blindly evolved to exploit us for their own survival. Creative arts and humanistic scholarship are our best tools for diagnosis and cure. The assemblages of ideas that have survived, like the assemblages of biological cells that have survived, are the ones good at protecting and reproducing themselves. They aren’t necessarily the ones that guide us toward our most admirable selves or our healthiest future. Relying so heavily on culture to protect our uniquely open minds from cognitive overload makes us vulnerable to hijacking by the systems that co-evolve with us. Recognizing the selfish Darwinian functions of these systems makes sense of many aspects of history, politics, economics, and popular culture. What drove the Protestant Reformation? Why have the Beatles, The Hunger Games, and paranoid science-fiction thrived, and how was hip-hop co-opted? What alliances helped neoliberalism out-compete Communism, and what alliances might enable environmentalism to overcome consumerism? Why are multiculturalism and university-trained elites provoking working-class nationalist backlash? In a digital age, how can we use numbers without having them use us instead? Anyone who has wondered how our species can be so brilliant and so stupid at the same time may find an answer here: human mentalities are so complex that we crave the simplifications provided by our cultures, but the cultures that thrive are the ones that blind us to any interests that don’t correspond to their own.

Cultural Evolution and its Discontents (Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory) by Robert Watson Review

We are living in a time of short attention spans and short-lived memes. A tweet, a video, a post will spread around the world in a virtual instant, only to disappear from our collective conscience almost as fast. We are vaguely aware that something in our culture propels not only the passing fads, but also more deeply-rooted shared beliefs. But the engine behind it all, always hidden for those living within its orbit, seems increasingly elusive.Robert N. Watson’s Cultural Evolution and its Discontents: Cognitive Overload, Parasitic Cultures, and the Humanistic Cure is both a frontal attack on the veiled mechanisms that underlie our beliefs and a bold and comprehensive theory of how cultures emerge, compete, survive and spread. He argues compellingly that Darwinian logic—variation, heritability and selection—can be extended into the realm of competing memes. In so doing, the capricious, and frequently maladaptive character of many of our deepest held beliefs and behaviors suddenly appear as features, and not bugs of the system. Seen in this light, the dehumanizing effects of the globalization of capital, the environmentally catastrophic consequences of consumer capitalism, the rise of xenophobia, the explosion of fanciful conspiracy theories all result from the struggle of belief systems to ensure their own survival and transmission.The invocation of Darwinian logic to understand both individual and collective human behavior is a tradition as old as Darwin himself. What is new here is the fierce humanism that undergirds this book’s approach. Far from the reductive “if we do it, it must be adaptive” approach that has bedeviled most previous attempts, the author illustrates how cultural memes compete to ensure their persistence and expansion, largely independent of their consequences on the fitness and well-being of the planet or its inhabitants.Were this clear-eyed analysis the book’s sole contribution, it would be a major contribution, if perhaps disheartening contribution to cultural studies. But there is much more to this book. At its core, Cultural Evolution and its Discontents is a convincing and empowering defense of humanistic learning as the single best hope against the relentless spread of pernicious beliefs and behaviors that threaten us all. The humanities—at least in American universities—are under siege, increasingly portrayed as a needless luxury that cannot be readily monetized. Here, at last, is an impassioned and tightly reasoned counterargument: only the humanities can save us from the self-serving consequences of the struggle for primacy amongst cultural memes. Making use of examples that span from Shakespeare to the Sex Pistols, equally comfortable with evolutionary theory and recent brain science, Watson demonstrates the extent to which our very humanity depends on the humanities. For him, the stories we create (in fiction and in art) break the grip of cultural beliefs that would otherwise enslave us. Our creativity stems from and nurtures our empathy, and, in so doing, gives us and our planet a fighting chance.A full-throated and tightly-argued defense of the humanities, and of the institutions that nurture and protect them, is long overdue. The short-sighted notion that universities should be training workers and conferring “useful skills” threatens to derail the most successful educational experiment ever conceived. This book belongs in the hands of every professor, administrator, legislator and student: at a time when the university, and specifically the humanities within the academy are under attack, this is the book we need.

How can we humans be so stupid and so brilliant at the same time? Do art, music and philosophy have the power to overcome the angry divides between us? These are especially important questions in the midst of the culture wars that are warping our country. Rob Watson's book helps us understand how culture can open our brains instead of shuttering our minds to those around us.There are several parts of this book that deserve special mention. First, soak in Watson's rollicking introduction, which is basically a big nerd party where Jorge Luis Borges, the Syrian poet Adonis, and Hamlet and his skull all get down and boogie.Then, as you read about Watson's view on the ideas of a university, marvel that a leftist cultural critic can WRITE SO WELL! No jargon here unless it's explained with flair! Watson takes on the higher education social justice battles with emotion and empathy. You will want to push his chapters into the hands of all those tiresome Frank Bruni types who tsk-tsk at students for actually expressing their minds.Finally, as a bonus, Watson shows you Aristotle can teach us how to win at college football betting. Come away feeling like your skull has been dilated by this complex, exuberant book.

"Cultural Evolution and its Discontents" is an excellent and important book. Its core idea is something I have not seen before—that influential cultural constructs referred to as “memeplexes” evolve for their own preservation even at the expense of human society’s needs—and it goes a long way to explaining many of the woes that we are experiencing today, on both the left and the right ends of the political spectrum. Professor Watson does a very thorough, even-handed, comprehensible, and convincing job of explaining what these memeplexes are, how they come about—and, most importantly, how we can work to change them to better meet our own needs.Highly recommended.

How did we get to such a polarized society where intelligent debate has been replaced by soundbites that fly past one another? Watson provides a compelling and eye-opening explanation for the current state of things: the world is so complex that we need simplified cultural constructs to make sense of it all, and these end up reinforcing themselves in a way that makes it hard for us to take in new/conflicting information. Throughout the book, Watson elegantly draws from a wide range of disciplines, from evolutionary biology to systems science to literary theory. While he thoroughly sets up the magnitude of the challenges preventing the more expansive thinking our society needs, he also ends on a note of hope, showing how the imaginative arts and educated inquiry can help our brains get unstuck.

Cultural Evolution and its Discontents: Cognitive Overload Your browser indicates if you've visited this linkhttps routledge com/Cultural-Evolution-and-its-Discontents-Cognitive-Overload-Parasitic-Cultures/Watson/p/book/9780367476564Cultural Evolution and its Discontents shows that our cultural systems - especially those whose last names are "ism" - are already doing that, and doing it so adeptly that we seldom even notice Like other parasites, they've blindly evolved to exploit us for their own survival Creative arts and humanistic scholarship are our best tools com: Cultural Evolution and its Discontents Your browser indicates if you've visited this linkhttps com/Cultural-Evolution-its-Discontents-Humanistic/dp/0367030241 com: Cultural Evolution and its Discontents: Cognitive Overload, Parasitic Cultures, and the Humanistic Cure (Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory) (9780367030247): Watson, Robert N : BooksCultural Evolution and its Discontents: Cognitive Overload Your browser indicates if you've visited this linkhttps com/Cultural-Evolution-its-Discontents-Humanistic-ebook/dp/B07KTFGHY5Cultural Evolution and its Discontents: Cognitive Overload, Parasitic Cultures, and the Humanistic Cure (Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory) - Kindle edition by Watson, Robert N Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Cultural Evolution and its Discontents: Cognitive Overload (PDF) Cultural evolution in Vietnam's early 20th century Your browser indicates if you've visited this linkhttps researchgate net/publication/335631228_Cultural_evolution_in_Vietnam's_early_20th_century_A_Bayesian_networks_analysis_of_Hanoi_Franco-Chinese_house_designsCultural evolution in Vietnam's early 20th century: A Bayesian networks analysis of Hanoi Franco-Chinese house designs September 2019 Social Sciences & Humanities Open 1(1):100001(PDF) Introduction: What Is Critical Theory?Your browser indicates if you've visited this linkhttps researchgate net/publication/312674815_Introduction_What_Is_Critical_Theorybecome known and self-described as critical theory A critique of culture, a cri- theory and its discontents the process of natural social evolution Its consequences reflect in deformed Cultural evolution in Vietnam's early 20th century: A Your browser indicates if you've visited this linkhttps sciencedirect com/science/article/pii/S2590291119300014CE: Short for "Cultural evolution " This categorical variable is about the cultural evolution and acculturation being represented on a façade It takes on one of these values: beginning, strong representation of cultural evolution (evolving), or complete (coded as "C_B," "C_E" and "C_C" respectively) (PDF) Islam and Evolution Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Your browser indicates if you've visited this linkhttps academia edu/47762640/Islam_and_Evolution_Al_Ghazālī_and_the_Modern_Evolutionary_ParadigmThis book attempts to equip the reader with a holistic and accessible account of Islam and evolution It guides the reader through the different variables that have played a part in the ongoing dialogue between Muslim creationists and evolutionists (PDF) Responses of South Asian Muslims to the Theory of Your browser indicates if you've visited this linkhttps academia edu/211854/Responses_of_South_Asian_Muslims_to_the_Theory_of_EvolutionDie Welt des Islams 49 (2009) 212-247 Responses of South Asian Muslims to the eory of Evolution Martin Riexinger Göttingen Abstract Of all scientific theories the theory of evolution arguably poses the greatest challenge to theistic religions because it threatens to undermine teleology and the central position of mankind in nature Nicholas Ray | University of Leeds - Academia eduYour browser indicates if you've visited this linkhttps leeds academia edu/NicholasRayIn a career spanning more than five decades the distinguished French psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche (1924-2012) elaborated a distinctive methodology for the reading of Freud's corpus and evolved, in connection with it, a radical new metapsychology - one that critically recast Freud's early 'seduction' theory of trauma and placed at the heart of psychic life a particular model of 7 Nineteenth Century: Vitalist-Mechanist and Psychic Your browser indicates if you've visited this linkhttps sciencedirect com/science/article/pii/S0166411508614454Isaac Ray even anticipated Freud's Ciiilizrrtion nnd its Discontents, when in 1852 h e expressed t h c view that mental disease was the "price" of civilization William Awl in 1851 attributed the high rate of insanity t o the development of a rcfincd civilization, and linked it to the demands made upon the Anglo-Saxon ethnic group (1851) More results

Cultural Evolution and its Discontents (Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory) by Robert Watson

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