The Runaway Brain by Christopher Willis
Christopher Wills has written a fascinating chronicle of human evolution in a style that will keep the reader glued to the book to find out what happened next. The Runaway Brain is organized into four sections. First Wills addresses The Dilemmas, the many problems that students of evolution encounter mainly from public perception of the subject and from the many prejudices of those involved with the work. The question of where our species first appeared is a particularly contentious one, although it is now widely accepted that the species originated out of Africa. There are, regardless, those who still disagree and especially at first, many dismissed an African origin out of hand. Wills' second main issue is that of the transition to actual "humanity" and if it occurred once or twice. As he discusses in the chapter entitled "An Obsession with Race", those who deride those of African descent often use the multiple origin theory as one that justifies racism. Wills decries this abuse of the science and firmly argues against those that would use evolution to further racist propaganda. He also takes issue with those who insist on believing that all of humanity came from one Eve and one Adam, instead putting forth the theory of the "mitochondrial Eve"; that we all descend from the mitochondrial DNA, but that we do not in fact descent from two individuals.
Wills' own slant on the issue is that humans are involved in a feedback loop which he calls the "runaway brain". Wills claims that humans are unique in that they have culture which has developed. The culture injects an otherwise unknown into the evolutionary process. Humans, Wills says, had advanced brains which allowed them to create a complex culture. The culture challenged their brains and led to more complex brains as the species involved. This process continued to repeat and is still repeating today. This is what Wills claims is driving us towards our ultimate best.
The second section of the book is titled The Bones and tells the story of the archeological remains of the ancestors of humanity. Wills creates a fascinating tale as he describes the lives, feelings and desires of the people involved in finding these bones. Not only does he describe the find and its significance to the understanding of evolution, he also tells the story of the finder making the section more of a human drama than a dry telling of facts.
Leon F. Litwack is the author of Trouble in Mind. Litwack is an American historian and professor of history at the University of California at Berkeley. He was born in 1929 in Santa Barbara, California. In 1951, Litwack received is Bachelor Degree and then continued to further his education. In 1958, he received his Ph. D. from the University of California at Berkeley. Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager wrote the book that sparked Litwack's curiosity in history. The book was The Growth of the American Republic. Litwack was in the eleventh grade when he first discovered his interest in history. In 1964, Litwack began teaching at the University of California, where he taught an excess of 30,000 students. Litwack has written other books besides Trouble in Mind. One of the books he wrote was Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery in 1979. In 1980, Litwack was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for history of this book and in 1981 he was the winner of the National Book Award. He also wrote North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free State, 1790-1860, Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America, and The Harvard Guide to African-American History. Litwack has also won many including, the Francis Parkman Prize, the American Book Award, and he was elected to the presidency of the Organization of American Historians. In addition to this, Litwack has been an outstanding teacher and received two notable teaching awards. Litwack's first teaching position was at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he taught from 1958 to 1964. He also taught at the University of South Carolina, Louisiana State University, and the University of Mississippi. As one can see, not only has Litwack been an exceptionally outstanding author, he has also been a very popular and influential teacher.
Everything is criticized at every level in this story, the people by the main character, the main character by the author and even the story by the author as well. The cruel egoistic personality of Anders is definitely identifiable through these different levels of criticism. I will prove that the inner motivation of this behaviour derives from Anders' egoistic personality which sometimes makes him cruel against others, sometimes against himself. Furthermore, I will prove that whenever Anders criticizes somebody or something he actually tries to punish because of the imperfectness of the object. In order to make the referring to the different part of the story easier I divide it into three parts. The first part ends when the robbers appear at the door of the bank, the second ends when one of the robbers shoots at Anders and the left is the third part.
Saint Augustine once said, “Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.” (Augustine). Augustine's belief that it is the duty of the individual to assist those less fortunate than themselves is expressed in the essay "The Singer Solution to World Poverty" by Peter Singer. Singer shares his conviction that those living in luxury should support those struggling to survive in poverty. Singer adopts the persona of a sage utilitarian philosopher who judges the morality of actions based on the consequences that are wrought by them. Singer utilizes powerful pathos, rhetorical questions, ethos, and a bold tone which contributes to his purpose of persuading his intended audience of American consumers to live only on necessity rather than luxury as well as to donate their discretionary income to the impoverished.
In the article “The Coddling of the American Mind” the authors Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt express that college campuses in America are dealing with emotional discomfort every day. They point out whether we are too emotional on certain topics in our lives or we need to change something on college campuses to have students feel more comfortable. College student have experienced a lot in life so I think that campuses should help college students through traumatic experiences in their past instead of not acknowledging certain topics and banning them to discuss in class like rape and domestic violence which happens in our everyday life. Colleges need to step up and talk about these things so students can feel more comfortable.
The evolution of man is constantly in question. While we are reasonably sure that modern humans and primates are both related to the same common ancestor, there is constant debate over what initially caused the two species to split into early hominids and apes. According to some, our longest and most popular theory on the division of man and ape is profoundly wrong. However, those same individuals usually offer an equally controversial theory as a substitute, one that is almost impossible to scientifically test or prove. Both the Savanna Theory and the Aquatic Ape Theory offer solutions to how and why humans evolved into bipedal toolmakers. But with enough questioning, each loses its accountability to rhetorical science.
Singer, Peter. “The Singer Solution to World Poverty.” in The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing. John D. Ramage, John C. Bean, and June Johnson. 5th ed. New York: Longman, 2009. 545-49. Print.
Often times, the middle and upper classes underestimate the amount of poverty left in our society. In “The Singer Solution to World Poverty,” Peter Singer reaches out to the lucrative to help the misfortune. Although Singer believes that, the wealthy has a responsibility in providing help to the less fortunate, Singer conducts theories in which he explains how we as Americans spend more on luxuries rather than necessities. If the wealthy are fortunate enough to go out to fancy meals, they should be able to provide food for a poor family or medicine for the children. The negative attributes outweigh the positive due to the lack of supporting detail from the positive in which helps us better understand that helping people is the right thing to do rather than sitting back and doing nothing but demands that Americans donate every cent of their extra money to help the poor. According to Singer, if we provide a foundation for the misfortune we will not only make the world a better place but we will feel a relief inside that world poverty will soon end. The argument singer gives has no supporting details in which he tries and persuade the wealthy to donate money to the poor without clear thoughts.
As far as I could remember I was never really any good at school. I couldn’t concentrate on things for no more than 5 minutes at a time I would either get discouraged or find it too easy and just give up. An author by the name of Carol Dweck wrote an article called “Brainology” in it Dweck describes that there are two types of mindsets fixed and growth. Those who are afraid to fail so they never try anything new are ones with a fixed mindset and the growth mindset are those who are not afraid to fail and find a new challenge an opportunity to learn something new. I guess you can say that I had a bit of a fixed mindset growing up I was always too scared to look stupid that I didn’t want to fail because I didn’t want to disappoint my siblings
In the article “The Singer Solution to World Poverty” by Peter Singer talks about how Americans don’t donate money to the poor like the children when they have the luxury lifestyle, such as a big flat screen TV or a Bugatti. The author tries to make arguments that Americans should donate money and do not need the luxury lifestyle to survive. Peter Singer is trying to get us to open our eyes and hopefully we will donate money to the needy. He will try to open our eyes by showing two different situations.
“Without Conscience" by Robert D. Hare is one aimed towards making the general public aware of the many psychopaths that inhabit the world we live in. Throughout the book Hare exposes the reader to a number of short stories; all with an emphasis on a characteristic of psychopaths. Hare makes the claim that close monitoring of psychopathy are vital if we ever hope to gain a hold over Psychopathy- A disorder that affects not only the individual but also society itself. He also indicates one of the reasons for this book is order to correctly treat these individuals we have to be able to correctly identify who meets the criteria. His ultimate goal with the text is to alleviate some of the confusion in the increase in criminal activity by determining how my of this is a result of Psychopathy.
In the article “The Singer’s Solution to World Poverty”, Pete Singer responds to the issue of world poverty and how to minimize the growing gap between the rich and poor. “Prosperous people should donate to overseas aid organizations…all money not needed for the basic requirements of life”(Singer). The money that is not spent on necessities, including, investments should be donated. Singer’s solution is unrealistic and controversial; it questions moral views and people’s rights to their own money. Through his use of hypothetical situations Singer persuades the reader to donate to overseas organizations, but it weakens the argument because of his accusatory tone. Singer’s takes an extreme stance that if you are not donating all your extra money you are responsible for a child’s death. Some readers may find it insulting and refuse to accept his views. Singer successfully rebuttals many counter-arguments, but does not include the effects on America or explain why we should focus on overseas poverty and not our own. This weakens his argument and his message to help the poor.
Everyday wealthy American’s splurge on what some would consider unnecessary items such as electronics, foreign cars, gaming systems and other luxury items to go into their grand homes. In Peter Singer’s, “The Singer Solution to World Poverty,” he states that Americans that can afford excessive amounts of high-priced items should be able to donate to the less fortunate. Though Singer cannot force anyone to donate he creates two theoretical situations to support his argument and leaves the reader wondering if they should donate or not. The theoretical situation persuades the reader into donating but slowly loses their persuasion as the article goes on when Singer demands not only a certain amount but all of their extra money but all.
In 1758 a Swedish botanist named Carolus Linnaeus established the classification system still in use for various forms of life. He listed four categories that he labeled as "varieties" of the human species. To each he attributed inherited biological as well as learned cultural characteristics. He described Homo European as light-skinned, blond, and governed by laws; Homo American was copper-colored and was regulated by customs; Homo Asiatic was sooty and dark-eyed and governed by opinions; Homo African was black and indolent and governed by impulse. We can in retrospect recognize the ethnocentric assumptions involved in these descriptions, which imply a descending order of prestige. Most striking is the labeling of the four varieties as governed by laws, customs, opinions, and impulse, with Europeans on the top and Africans at the bottom. In fact, different populations within all four varieties would have had all four forms of behavior. (8).
According to a World Bank report, 9.6% of the world’s population in 2015 lives in poverty, which is classified as living under $1.90 per day [CITE]. Suffice it to say, poverty is a major issue and everyone has an opinion, including Princeton Bioethics professor Peter Singer, who has PhD in Philosophy from the University of Oxford. Singer is best known for his Controversial application of Utilitarian philosophy on range of issues from animal cruelty to religion, and is also known for his much talked about book Animal Liberation, but this is not about that. This is about Singer’s opinion piece titled “The Singer Solution to World Poverty”. In Singer’s piece he talks about the the moral implications of not donating discretionary income and proposes “...that each one of us with wealth surplus to his or her essential needs should be giving most of it to help people suffering from poverty...” [CITE]. His goals are admirable, but his ideas fall flat with a modicum of scrutiny because his rigid moral stance does not allow him to view the topic from the evolutionary psychological and economic side of the issue, that are essential to understanding how to fix them. Even if it was a possible solution it wouldn’t do what he claims it would do, and it is not the right direction for the world to go in
This documentary is about mysteries of the brain. First, the documentary mentioned one of the first theories about the human brain made by a philosopher named Aristole. Aristole claimed that the brain controls the temperature of our bodies. He then realized it also controlled our emotions too because our hearts beat faster when we got excited. What we knew about the brain later evolved from the time of Aristole thanks to a machine called the MRI. MRI stands for magnetic resonance imaging; this machine shows us images of our brains. Which leads us to the next subject mentioned in the documentary, how the brain works. In your brain you can find approximately 100 billion nerve cells called neurons. Neurons are cells that send and receive signals