Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite : : Evolution and the Modular Mind / / Robert Kurzban.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Kurzban, Robert,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2011]; ©2012
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Edition: Course Book
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (288 p.) :; 2 halftones. 1 line illus.

We're all hypocrites. Why? Hypocrisy is the natural state of the human mind. Robert Kurzban shows us that the key to understanding our behavioral inconsistencies lies in understanding the mind's design. The human mind consists of many specialized units designed by the process of evolution by natural selection. While these modules sometimes work together seamlessly, they don't always, resulting in impossibly contradictory beliefs, vacillations between patience and impulsiveness, violations of our supposed moral principles, and overinflated views of ourselves. This modular, evolutionary psychological view of the mind undermines deeply held intuitions about ourselves, as well as a range of scientific theories that require a "self" with consistent beliefs and preferences. Modularity suggests that there is no "I." Instead, each of us is a contentious "we"--a collection of discrete but interacting systems whose constant conflicts shape our interactions with one another and our experience of the world. In clear language, full of wit and rich in examples, Kurzban explains the roots and implications of our inconsistent minds, and why it is perfectly natural to believe that everyone else is a hypocrite.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Prologue -- Chapter 1. Consistently Inconsistent -- Chapter 2. Evolution and the Fragmented Brain -- Chapter 3. Who Is "I"? -- Chapter 4. Modular Me -- Chapter 5. The Truth Hurts -- Chapter 6. Psychological Propaganda -- Chapter 7. Self-Deception -- Chapter 8. Self-Control -- Chapter 9. Morality and Contradictions -- Chapter 10. Morality Is for the Birds -- Epilogu -- Notes -- References -- Index