A foot in the river
Subtitle: why our lives change--and the limits of evolution
By: Felipe Fernández-Armesto
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 294
ISBN-13: 9780198744429
Subjects: Culture; Philosophy; Social change; Social evolution; Human evolution
Description: We are a weird species. Like other species, we have a culture. But by comparison with other species, we are strangely unstable: human cultures self-transform, diverge, and multiply with bewildering speed. They vary, radically and rapidly, from time to time and place to place. And the way we live - our manners, morals, habits, experiences, relationships, technology, values - seems to be changing at an ever accelerating pace. The effects can be dislocating, baffling,sometimes terrifying. Why is this? In A Foot in the River, best-selling historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto sifts through the evidence.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-278) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: The weird planet; title: 1. Challenging change; title: 2. The frustration of science; title: 3. The great reconvergence; title: 4. The chimpanzees' tea party; title: 5. The limits of evolution; title: 6. The imaginative animal; title: 7. Facing acceleration; title: 8. Towards the planet of the apes.