Why everyone (Else) is a hypocrite: evolution and the modular mind

By:

Kurzban, Robert

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: Princeton University Press New Jersey 2012Description: x, 274 pISBN:

9780691154398

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

153 KUR

Summary: 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. (https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691154398/why-everyone-else-is-a-hypocrite?srsltid=AfmBOoq1Kru0caYymENUpHmIgxA9DYLwZwWdePGcUw3Rotc6y97nAjko)

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Book	Indian Institute of Management LRC General Stacks	Human Resource and Organization Behvaiour	153 KUR (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Checked out	02/11/2025	006355

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.

(https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691154398/why-everyone-else-is-a-hypocrite?srsltid=AfmBOoq1Kru0caYymENUpHmIgxA9DYLwZwWdePGcUw3Rotc6y97nAjko)

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