Homo Prospectus

by Martin E.P. Seligman, Peter Railton, Roy F. Baumeister

Our species is misnamed. Though sapiens defines human beings as "wise" what humans do especially well is to prospect the future. We are homo prospectus . In this book, Martin E. P. Seligman, Peter Railton, Roy F. Baumeister, and Chandra Sripada argue it is anticipating and evaluating future possibilities for the guidance of thought and action that is the cornerstone of human success.

Much of the history of psychology has been dominated by a framework in which people's behavior is driven by past history (memory) and present circumstances (perception and motivation). Homo Prospectus reassesses this idea, pushing focus to the future front and center and opening discussion of a new field of Psychology and Neuroscience.

The authors delve into four modes in which prospection the implicit mind, deliberate thought, mind-wandering, and collective (social) imagination. They then explore prospection's role in some of life's most enduring Why do people think about the future? Do we have free will? What is the nature of intuition, and how might it function in ethics? How does emotion function in human psychology? Is there a common causal process in different psychopathologies? Does our creativity change with age?

In this remarkable convergence of research in philosophy, statistics, decision theory, psychology, and neuroscience, Homo Prospectus shows how human prospection fundamentally reshapes our understanding of key cognitive processes, thereby improving individual and social functioning. It aims to galvanize interest in this new science from scholars in psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy, as well as an educated public curious about what makes humanity what it is.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Health

400 pages, Hardcover

Published July 13, 2016

About the author

Seligman is the Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology in the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Psychology. He was previously the Director of the Clinical Training Program in the department. Seligman was elected President of the American Psychological Association by the widest margin in its history and served in that capacity during the 1998 term.[4] He is the founding editor-in-chief of Prevention and Treatment Magazine (the APA electronic journal), and is on the board of advisers of Parents.

Seligman has written about positive psychology topics such as The Optimistic Child, Child's Play, Learned Optimism, Authentic Happiness," and in 2011, "Flourish."

Reviews

[Alina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book after listening to Railton's John Locke Lectures. I was impressed by those; there, Railton gives a theory of reasons we have in practical deliberation, or the particular, forceful status a thing has for us when we care about it, or take it as having bearing on what we should do. Philosophers have traditionally thought that belief and desire are wholly distinct entities that figure as reasons in deliberation, but Railton shows that beliefs are essentially affect-laden like desire, and desire are essentially evaluative or involve predicative claims about things in the world, like beliefs.

With this familiarity in the background, I was sorely disappointed with this book. First, it is extremely disorganized. There is no overall theory or point being made; it is a hodgepodge of many different studies and ideas found in empirical psychology. Second, the authors try to thematically unify the chapters by the theme of our human capacity to anticipate the future; but they do this in a gimmicky, faux-profound way, and moreover it is contrived; most of the content of this book doesn't have to do with this forward-looking part of our human condition.

This is what I mean by the book's premise being gimmicky. The authors claim that the future is never emphasized in psychology and philosophy of mind; instead there's much focus on the present and past. This simply isn't true. Desire and expectation have been central to many thinkers, and these inherently involve future-lookingness. It seems that the authors try to sound profound by categorizing all previous theorizing in terms of each theory's focusing on either past, present, or future; such temporal categories are very general, and they are readily understandable by most people. But this is both reductive and misleading. Most theories about various mental phenomena take into consideration causal factors related to all three temporal tenses.

Moreover, what does the past, present, and future really refer to for the authors? Is it whether a subpersonal causal factor or mechanism makes appeal to a certain tense, or is it that at a personal level we're preoccupied by something located in a certain tense? If the former, obviously all three tenses are integral to most mental phenomena (memory informs background knowledge and skill; the present offers contextual factors that shape whatever shows up to us; desire and interest also are part of this context, and make appeal to the future).

The only thing I could appreciate about this book is that it offers nice citations for covering the classics on certain topics in psychology. For example, I'd be interested in reading more into mental maps constructed by rats, and a part of one of the chapters gives an entrypoint into the literature on this.

The only usefulness I see of this book is for general readers who know very little about psychology, and who aren't interested in any idea in particular, or who aren't looking for a unified theory of some mental phenomenon. This book will deliver a smattering of diverse (and random) topics in psychology. I wasn't looking for that. I was familiar with most of the ideas presented (they're all pretty commonplace in psychology, like cognitive biases of various sorts, forward processing systems, dual systems theories), so it was uninformative and disappointing, given my background.

If there are potential readers who enjoyed Railton's John Locke lectures, or who are looking for an integrative theory of the role of affect and desire in judgment and found themselves at this book instead, Railton's paper "At the Core of Our Capacity to Act for a Reason: The Affective System and Evaluative Model-Based Learning and Control" is great. Read that rather than waste time combing through this disorganized book for ideas to piece together.

[Devon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely fascinating study of the human mind and behaviors. The authors dive into very compelling arguments detailing how our brains function as prospective machines, showing how dated the psychological studies focusing on the past and present really are (though still important in their own right). I highly recommend this read to anyone who is even slightly interested in psychology and philosophy. My hope is that this field opens up so we can dig deeper into this theory and gain a better understanding of ourselves and how we can tackle our future by finding creative ways to expand the possibilities before us.

[Alberto Lagomarsini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un buen libro que recoge artículos sobre psicología positiva, inteligencia emocional y neuropsicología. Pero no profundiza lo suficiente para tener una idea clara del tema. Pero puede ser un referente sobre el tema.

[Hom Sack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative and forward looking. This new field of Prospective Psychology looks promising.

[Mattyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Due back at library so had to read it too fast.

[ReConnect · Rating 5 out of 5]

First book the year ... Great book !

[Roy Kenagy · Rating 3 out of 5]

RK KINDLE. IMAGINATION