The Moral Animal

We've been doing morality since long before we had words to describe it...

Way back in 1994, Robert Wright did a fine job of communicating the many complex ideas underpinning evolutionary psychology and offered a very accessible biography of Charles Darwin while doing so.  Being both well-written and covering an essentially timeless topic, The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology, has aged well.  If anything, research conducted in the decade since reinforces the core arguments found in The Moral Animal.  

Read this book.

Nothing Succeeds Like Success

My podcast feeds remain largely unchanged in 2013…

The holidays have been hard on my podcast listening.  It’s like everyone has been on vacation or something.  A week in the deer blind erased my Gresham College, LSE, and RSA backlog, so I’m anxiously awaiting each program’s weekly serving.  I ought to have a look at iTunes U to find some fresh classes to listen in on.  Until then, these programs comprise my drive-time listening:

American Freethought - religion

Astronomy Cast - science

Atheist Talk  - religion

Big Picture Science - science 

Books and Ideas Podcast - ideas

Brain Science Podcast - science 

For Good Reason - critical thinking

Gresham College - ideas

Ideas from CBC Radio - uhh, ideas

LSE- ideas

Monster Talk - critical thinking

On Being - religion

Point of Inquiry - critical thinking

PopTech - ideas

Quackcast - science

Rationally Speaking - critical thinking

Reasonable Doubts - religion 

Reasonable Faith - religion 

RSA - ideas

Skeptiko - science (sort of), religion (at least spirituality), critical thinking (examples of how to do it wrong)

Skeptoid - critical thinking

TED - ideas

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe - critical thinking

Token Skeptic - science

Unbelievable - religion

If you have a suggestion for other listening, I'm open to influence.

Great Expectations

A partial reading list for 2013...

This year, instead of creating a master list from which I will be distracted by other acquisitions, new releases, and recommendations, I am identifying a shorter list of some 25 core books, all of which I already own, that I intend to complete.  The other half will be the fiction I consume between serious reads and those presented to me by serendipity.

In the fiction category I intend to read more horror, more science fiction, some literature, and maybe even some poetry.

A People's History of the Hmong, by Paul Hillmer

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Calculated Risks, by Gerd Gigerenzer

Done

Farthest North: The Epic Adventure of a Visionary Explorer, by Fridtjof Nansen

From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present, by Jaques Martin Barzun
  

From Jesus to Christianity: How Four Generations of Visionaries & Storytellers Created the New Testament and Christian Faith, by L. Michael White

Done

The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions by Karen Armstrong

 

How Intelligence Happens, by John Duncan 

Kerygma and Myth: A Theological Debate, by Rudolf Karl Bultmann

Done

Modern Man in Search of a Soul, by C.G. Jung

Done

Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive, by Bruce Schneier

Done 

Lincoln's Virtues: An Ethical Biography, by William Lee Miller

Looking For Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, And The Feeling Brain, by Antonio Damasio

The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, by Iain McGilchrist

The Qur'an: Arabic Text and English Translation, by M.H. Shakir (translator) 

In Process

The Radicalism of the American Revolution, by Gordon S. Woods

The Stuff of Thought: Language As a Window Into Human Nature, by Steven Pinker

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, by Jon Meachum

Done

The Upanishads, by Anonymous

In Process

The Vanquished Gods: Science, Religion, and the Nature of Belief (Prometheus Lecture Series), by Richard H. Schagel

Done

The Varieties of Religious Experience, by William James

Done 

The War of the World, by Niall Ferguson

Why the West Rules--for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future, by Ian Morris

Wondrous Healing: Shamanism, Human Evolution, and the Origin of Religion, by James McClenon

Done

Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness, by James H. Austin

Hmmn, 25; that's a nice round number.  Science: nine. Religion: eight.  History: eight.  Interesting spread, and these are the books I know I want to read.  C'mon, serendipity! 

Image credit: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/living_room/10382/

The Best of Intentions

And their alternates...

In 2012 I planned to read 40 books.  I read 39, but not all were those I had aspired to complete.

Three of the my unplanned reads were textbooks for classes I was asked to lead this summer.  There was also more science fiction and horror than I'd planned.  I'm coming to remember that some bracing fiction is a fine way to cleanse the palate between the heavy stuff.  Otherwise, I mostly skipped some history, psychology, and religion books in order to read different volumes on religion and more science.

Time to plan for 2013.  If I skip television and cut back on my Netflix perhaps I can read 52...

The books I meant to read in 2012, but didn’t:

• A History of Managing for Quality, by Joseph M. Juran
• An Introduction to Western Philosophy, by Anthony Flew
• The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present, by Jaques Martin Barzun
• The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions, by Karen Armstrong
• How Intelligence Happens, by John Duncan
• Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive, by Bruce Schneier
• The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, by Iain McGilchrist
• The Qur'an: Arabic Text and English Translation, by M.H. Shakir (translator)
• The Stuff of Thought: Language As a Window Into Human Nature, by Steven Pinker
• The Varieties of Religious Experience, by William James
• The War of the World, by Niall Ferguson
• Under the Dome, by Stephen King
• Why the West Rules--for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future, by Ian Morris
• Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness, by James H. Austin

The books I meant to read in 2012, and did:

• Answer to Job, by Carl Jung
• Buddha, by Karen Armstrong
• Forged: Writing in the Name of God--Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are, by Bart D. Ehrman
• How Designers Think, by Bryan Lawson
• Judas: The Definitive Collection of Gospels and Legends About the Infamous Apostle of Jesus, by Marvin Meyer
• The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir, by Kao Kalia Yang
• Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts, by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson
• The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values, by Sam Harris  
• Night, by Elie Wiesel
• The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, by Julian Jaynes
• Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age, by Robert N. Bellah
• The Sacred and the Profane, by Mircea Eliade
• Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus, by Donald Harman Akenson
• Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, by Mircea Eliade
• SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable, by Bruce M. Hood

Books I did not plan to read in 2012, but did:

• Anthropomorphisms, by Bruce Boston (a Goodreads Giveaway)
• The Art of Investigative Interviewing, Second Edition, by Charles L. Yeschke
• Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
• Cairns: Messengers in Stone, by David B. Williams (a Goodreads Giveaway)
• Conceiving God: The Cognitive Origin and Evolution of Religion, by David Lewis-Williams
• The Crucible of Time, by John Brunner
• Destination Mars: New Explorations of the Red Planet, by Rod Pyle (a Goodreads Giveaway)
• Embassytown, by China Mieville
• Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
• Feast, by R. Scott McCoy
• Freedom Club, by Saul Garnell (a Goodreads Giveaway)
• God Against The Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism, by Jonathan Kirsch
• Humans, Volume Two of the Neanderthal Parallax, by Robert J. Sawyer
• Introduction to Investigations, by John S. Dempsey
• Jesus the Nazarene: Myth or History?, by Maurice Goguel
• The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age, by Richard Rudgley
• Mass Murder in the United States: A History, by Grant Duwe
• Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis
• The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology, by Robert Wright
• Potential: Workplace Violence Prevention and Your Organizational Success, by Bill Whitmore
• Principles of Neurotheology, by Andrew Newberg
• Rats, Lice, and History, by Hans Zinsser
• Scripting Jesus: The Gospels in Rewrite, by L. Michael White
• Strategic Security Management: A Risk Assessment Guide for Decision Makers, by Karim Vellani

A View to a Chill

Bowhunting in North Dakota in late December is for serious nutters...

Happy coincidences on the Gregorian calendar allowed me to turn three days of paid time off into an 11 day vacation at the close of 2012. Our man in North Dakota, Tim Overmoen, had a large buck prowling his river bottom hunting ground.  So far as anyone knew he had not fallen to a rifle bullet or a muzzleloader sabot during the earlier gun seasons.  A last minute archery hunt was mounted.   California hunting buddy, Greg Clemmer, had to beg off at the last minute.  Seems a nasty sore throat and fever settled into pneumonia, so he spent the last week on the hunting season sprawled on his sofa.  Slacker.  
 
The Winter Solstice observed, the Mayan new year ignored, and Christmas Eve festivities executed, on Christmas Day I drove by myself to my Aunt Phyllis' farm a few miles west of Hillsboro, North Dakota.  Phyllis spends her winters in town these days so I had the place all to myself.  I didn't have my license yet so I spent the afternoon on a ridge above the Tim's segment of the Goose River conducting a recce.  

Did I mention the temperature?  Highs were in the oughts and teens all week, so sitting in the open or using my climbing tree stand was not an option.  I used a pop-up portable blind and a small propane heater to create a wee little cube of tolerable that measured five feet on a side.  The heater worked better when I wrapped it in a space blanket. 

I played the wind as best I could, choosing three different spots as warranted.  In the space of six days I encountered as few as four and as many as two dozen deer, but all were does and fawns.  I could have put a stalk on several of them but I was there for bucks.  I saw two bucks, but not necessarily the buck, and neither graced me with a shot.

In my down time I slept in, finished reading Boneshaker and Cairns, started reading Humans and The Moral Animal.  On my drive to and from ND and during slow afternoons in the blind I caught up on my backlog of podcasts, mostly from Gresham College, the LSE, and the RSA.  On Saturday Auntie and I drove to Grand Forks to see Les Miserables and have a spot of supper.

Alone on the farm where I spent the happiest days of my childhood and where I collected many fine hunting stories as an adult, I realized that a place - even this place - is but a canvas upon which people in relationship, family, and community create cherished memories. 

On the Monday of New Year's Eve the high was expected to be only zero degrees (yes, Fahrenheit) - too cold even for this nutter - so I packed my kit, loaded the truck, and drove back to Minneapolis, looking for home.