Homo Generosus: Warum Wir Schönes Lieben Und Gutes Tun

by Tor Nørretranders

When it comes to sex, Darwin didn't go far enough.Whereas his theory of natural selection dictates that species adapt the most efficient and logical traits (a streamlined fin, say, or a long wingspan), Generous Man makes the case that an animal's success, sexually, depends on developing the least efficient traits. Nørretranders uses as the central symbol of his theory the peacock's plumage. It's cumbersome, showy, and inefficient — and therefore terribly attractive to peahens. Put more simply, nothing shows a potential mate just how worthy you are as a partner than your ability to be wasteful and inefficient. It's like a man with money to burn.But money isn’t humans really measure their worth by doing something that’s difficult. This is a central — though hitherto overlooked — factor in evolution. In order to win a partner to mate with, humans display their best sides. We strive for perfection, prove we are willing to help others, show consideration, and go out of our way. In other words, we are generous.This book shows how our nobler traits derive from our need for sex and are, in fact, the best way to get more of it.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Danish, Social Science, Psychology

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Tor Nørretranders is a Danish author of popular science. His books and lectures have primarily been focused on light popular science and its role in society, often with Nørretranders' own advice about how society should integrate new findings in popular science. He introduced the notion of exformation (explicitly discarded information) in his book The User Illusion.


Academic background:
cand.techn.soc. (M.Sc.) from Roskilde University 1982 (philosophy and sociology of science applied to socio-economic planning). Academically employed at Technical University of Denmark (1982-83), Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (1990-91), Risø National Laboratory (1993). Director of the Mindship Foundation (1995-96). Adjunct Professor of the Philosophy of Science at Copenhagen Business School from 2003.

Journalistic background:
Science writer at leading Copenhagen daily and weekly newspapers (Information, Weekendavisen, Børsens Nyhedsmagasin, Politiken) and the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (Danmarks Radio), hosting the tv-show “Hvælv”. Received the non-fiction prize of the Danish Writers Union, 1985, and the publicist prize of of the Danish Publicist Club, 1988.

Reviews

[Eva]

This is one of the books where all the point is given in the first paragraph of the introduction. Be kind, be generous, be non-rational if you're male and you'll get the best female there is in the community. For those less fortunate in intellectual understanding there's a whole book to read in addition to the introduction, full of examples from animal kingdom and a sort of radical remake of Darwin's theory. Poor guy, Darwin, has been misinterpreted by people who follow to the category "in need to read the whole book", therefore it is refreshing to educate the general public.

So I don't know how to rate this one - the idea it carries deserves 5+ stars, on the other hand the narrative is very, very poor if not primitive. You cannot tell the whole story with the first sentence and expect people to actually read your book! (And even if you choose to do so, you must be careful no reader actually understands that you did it.)

PS. From my personal perspective it takes a bit more than being just a nice guy to win someone's heart. Male attraction is trickier than most men think. Let's just say that you have to know very well when to show your kinder side in order to win a woman's heart, no need to become a living saint, really. According to my experience most men do it spontaneously when they love the woman.

[Dorum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, so this is an optimistic book but a little bit boring. I rate this book about 6.5 out of 10 . It really looks like it has been written by an old teacher in a well-to-do country.

First of all it is obvious that the author is not exactly in contact with the latest studies on altruism and so on. For example, in the very first chapter he tells about the famous experiment in game theory which describes how people can be very altruistic. This goes something like this: There are two players. Player A and player B. Player A gets 10 dollars and can share a part of it with player B. If player B rejects the offer none of the player gets any money. It seems that on average we tend to get quite a lot, even though it would be logical to only give as little as possible.

This is all fine and dandy but it seems that the author doesn't know about the experiments of John List at the University of Chicago. This debunks a lot about the generous man idea upon which this book is predicated.

There are a lot more issues with the book. For example, it takes 3 full chapters to describe an idea which was described by Darwin 100+ years ago. The idea of sexual selection. Let's discuss this a little bit. So Darwin has written this book: The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. Now everyone agrees with the part about the descent via natural selection but nobody is agreeing with the selection in relation to sex. Now this I find mind boggling... AND YET, after about 100 years, people come back to it and think: "You know what? That guy Darwin, he was probably right." This to me is an interesting show of scientific hubris. I mean, come on! The main idea explained in half of this book by this author is something along the lines: "Darwin was right! How fascinating!" Are 100+ years old ideas really that new? We are really living in a stupid world.

In my opinion the interesting part of this is the idea relating to gift and gift giving. The exposition of those ideas is very interesting and worth reading. The rest not so much.

When I have time perhaps I will write a bit more on this book.

[Rasmus Dahl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tor dækker et meget bredt område af forskningsfeltet for at få sin pointe igennem, og det er egentligt ret fedt. God læsværdig bog.

[lodkarq · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting ideas in this book about how sexes make their selection in reproducing but it got repetitive at times.

[Kairi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pealkiri kontekstist lähtuvalt peaks olema pigem - helde inimene. Suurepärane raamat antropoloogilise huviga inimesele.

[Martin J · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book ignores, among other things, the fact that in animals among which both sexes help raise offspring, displays of inefficiency are restricted to seasons without offspring to raise. Birds stop their mating display after mating. This is explainable by the fact that just because an individual can survive despite its inefficiency does not mean that said individual can add the extra load of raising offspring too. Therefore, inefficiencies retreat during times of raising offspring. This adds extra force to the argument that many artists, scientists, charity-related people and so on continue their work even after getting a mate, and in many cases even after becoming parents. I think the best theory of the origin of human intelligence is a critical threshold for metadistinctions between relevant distinctions and irrelevant distinctions, arising after a long animal-stage period of selection for more and more precise distinctions. The fact that humans make more precise distinctions than dogs have been known since Pavlov's experiments with metronomes of adjustable rates to tick.

[Magda Sandulescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

redau un singur citat din cap 4: "Reciprocitatea. A ne ajuta unul pe celalt este natural: Darwin catre botanistul Asa Grey: este curios ca imi amintesc bine vremea cand gandul ochiului ma ingheta, dar am trecut peste acest stadiu al observatiei, iar acum mici particularitati neinsemnate ale structurii ma pun adesea in incurcatura. Vederea unei pene din coada unui paun, de fiecare data cand ma uit la ea, imi face rau ! Dar asta era in 1860" - si acum ?...

[Chet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty fun science writing.

[Morten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting book -

[Ng'n · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel clever now.

[Kristian Staalø · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and based on facts.