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The Testosterone Hypothesis: How Hormones Regulate the Life Cycles of Civilization
Sex. Life. Death.
What is it that drives us toward sex, fuels life, and makes death inevitable? …as it turns out, it’s the same thing: Testosterone.
Not only does testosterone fuel the passion for reproduction and play a critical role in the length of our lives, it is an integral component to the mechanism of human civilization—its triumphs and its tragedies. In order to understand the forces that drive the life cycles of human cultures and that form the engine of history, The Testosterone Hypothesis goes to the most fundamental building blocks of human neuroscience. Our hormones are the impetus for our history.
This groundbreaking research proposes that the profound transformations in social mood that bring the rise and fall of civilizations is caused by biological cycles and directed by hormones. Hormones regulate and control the way the human mind perceives the world, understands the nature of the good, and forms social organizations and political orders accordingly.
At a time when the course of civilization seems to be more uncertain than ever, driven toward pessimism and even despair, it is enlightening to take a new multi-disciplinary approach to studying the history of Western civilization. Overthrowing the conventional, reductionist approach to science by integrating different disciplines—from evolution, biology, neuroscience, and psychology to the history and philosophy of Western civilization—we can reach a new understanding of the human mind and of our civilization as a complex, adaptive, living system. To subdue the animalistic impulses that motivate our actions means to be guided by rational thought rather than primordial instincts and behavior; and this will propel man to the next leap forward in human evolution.
Our civilization is aging into a pathological state of depression. The insights of The Testosterone Hypothesis can guide us to solutions with which we can restore the vibrant mindset that built the modern world.
What is it that drives us toward sex, fuels life, and makes death inevitable? …as it turns out, it’s the same thing: Testosterone.
Not only does testosterone fuel the passion for reproduction and play a critical role in the length of our lives, it is an integral component to the mechanism of human civilization—its triumphs and its tragedies. In order to understand the forces that drive the life cycles of human cultures and that form the engine of history, The Testosterone Hypothesis goes to the most fundamental building blocks of human neuroscience. Our hormones are the impetus for our history.
This groundbreaking research proposes that the profound transformations in social mood that bring the rise and fall of civilizations is caused by biological cycles and directed by hormones. Hormones regulate and control the way the human mind perceives the world, understands the nature of the good, and forms social organizations and political orders accordingly.
At a time when the course of civilization seems to be more uncertain than ever, driven toward pessimism and even despair, it is enlightening to take a new multi-disciplinary approach to studying the history of Western civilization. Overthrowing the conventional, reductionist approach to science by integrating different disciplines—from evolution, biology, neuroscience, and psychology to the history and philosophy of Western civilization—we can reach a new understanding of the human mind and of our civilization as a complex, adaptive, living system. To subdue the animalistic impulses that motivate our actions means to be guided by rational thought rather than primordial instincts and behavior; and this will propel man to the next leap forward in human evolution.
Our civilization is aging into a pathological state of depression. The insights of The Testosterone Hypothesis can guide us to solutions with which we can restore the vibrant mindset that built the modern world.
223 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 27, 2015
15 people are currently reading
216 people want to read
About the author
Roy Barzilai
9 books15 followersRoy Barzilai is an independent scholar, who studied both Ayn Rand's
philosophy of Objectivism and Rivka Schechter's philosophy of
language, rooted in the Hebrew Bible. The synthesis of Rand's
Aristotelian philosophy, and the biblical creed of ethical monotheism
provides profound insights into the ideas that shaped the Western
mind. By exploring the intellectual history of Western civilization,
Roy seeks to reach a greater understanding of the human mind.
As a financial analyst for more than a decade, Roy became aware of the
herd mentality in financial markets. He studied the Wave Principle of
Human Social Behavior and the new science of Socionomics, focusing on
how change in social mood affects society, its ideas, philosophy,
culture, and economy. This dynamism is the engine of history.
Roy holds undergraduate degrees from Tel Aviv University in Law,
accounting, and computer science.
philosophy of Objectivism and Rivka Schechter's philosophy of
language, rooted in the Hebrew Bible. The synthesis of Rand's
Aristotelian philosophy, and the biblical creed of ethical monotheism
provides profound insights into the ideas that shaped the Western
mind. By exploring the intellectual history of Western civilization,
Roy seeks to reach a greater understanding of the human mind.
As a financial analyst for more than a decade, Roy became aware of the
herd mentality in financial markets. He studied the Wave Principle of
Human Social Behavior and the new science of Socionomics, focusing on
how change in social mood affects society, its ideas, philosophy,
culture, and economy. This dynamism is the engine of history.
Roy holds undergraduate degrees from Tel Aviv University in Law,
accounting, and computer science.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 18, 2021
The Testosterone hypothesis is a rigorous, interesting, at times tedious book added to a long line of books dissecting the decline of complex societies (civilizations). The Testosterone hypothesis suggests a theorem with both a meta-historical cyclical explanation for civilizational decline, and within the super-frame he suggests there's a curvilinear random aggregate modulation which regulates internal societal events, like technological progress or political instability that inevitably effect the fate of civilizations. At the core, author Barzilai writes that Civilization is finite, and much like any sentient life form on earth, civilization is subject to the laws of nature and quasi-biological cycle of life. The next postulation is that society and civilization are affected by transformative changes in hormonal levels in both sexes, in particular the level of the male hormone Testosterone.
According to the author (and many other previous authors) higher civilization, and it's peak and zenith the Enlightenment, is a sexist phenomenon. Progress, the key achievement of the Age of Enlightenment was the product of masculine activities and intellectual endeavors. When men cease to be men, that is - having the drive, ambition, strength and resilience to carry out the necessary actions for maintaining and advancing Western civilization, societies all across the West become lethargic and steep into degeneration. The author, Roi Barzilai uses both deductive logical reasoning and empirical evidence to illuminate how civilizational progress and social mood suffer due to the steady and cyclical drop in testosterone levels and a looming crisis of mascuilinity. This trend, holds the author, can be stopped by rethinking and undoing collectivist and egalitarian (as opposed to rationalistic and indvidualistic) mores dominating in the West.
The very suggestion civilizational prosperity and even survival is heavily reliant upon males and not females, contradicts everyday social convictions and beliefs ('political correctness'), and certainly academic norms, about gender equality and is thus likely to be met with suspicion and outright hostility. Nevertheless, it is a hypothesis worth considering and a very interesting and fluid reading experience.
According to the author (and many other previous authors) higher civilization, and it's peak and zenith the Enlightenment, is a sexist phenomenon. Progress, the key achievement of the Age of Enlightenment was the product of masculine activities and intellectual endeavors. When men cease to be men, that is - having the drive, ambition, strength and resilience to carry out the necessary actions for maintaining and advancing Western civilization, societies all across the West become lethargic and steep into degeneration. The author, Roi Barzilai uses both deductive logical reasoning and empirical evidence to illuminate how civilizational progress and social mood suffer due to the steady and cyclical drop in testosterone levels and a looming crisis of mascuilinity. This trend, holds the author, can be stopped by rethinking and undoing collectivist and egalitarian (as opposed to rationalistic and indvidualistic) mores dominating in the West.
The very suggestion civilizational prosperity and even survival is heavily reliant upon males and not females, contradicts everyday social convictions and beliefs ('political correctness'), and certainly academic norms, about gender equality and is thus likely to be met with suspicion and outright hostility. Nevertheless, it is a hypothesis worth considering and a very interesting and fluid reading experience.
April 5, 2020
Interesting hypothesis with some clear applicable knowledge however the synthesis of themes could have been clearer as the author tends to jump across domains without laying a firm foundation of understanding.
October 30, 2021
a wild ride into history
This is an interesting book that takes you into the history of testosterone and how it affects civilization, sometimes the author repeats himself. But all in all interesting and fascinating read.
This is an interesting book that takes you into the history of testosterone and how it affects civilization, sometimes the author repeats himself. But all in all interesting and fascinating read.
November 15, 2019
I discovered this book when it was mentioned in a video on YouTube about Asian masculinity, uploaded by the BPS channel.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews