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10. References and Reviews
Version 1.1 January 2014 Previous Version Introduction Here
we propose to add reviews of some of the literature (books, papers, videos,
etc) that has led us to these conclusions.
These will initially all in English.
Not sure if translations will ever exist. We’ve read the books, but haven’t done the
reviews yet! The
section in which works are to be listed is often an obvious choice but for some
it’s not. ● Many works on personal development, society, politics
and economics mix scientific and historical facts or theories with prescriptions
of what we should do – value choices. ● Here we try to present scientific and historical
facts and theories in Parts 2 (Science) and 3 (History) so that Parts 6
(Personal Practice) and 7 (Politics) focus on value choices. ● Rather than list such works in two or more sections
we list them in the section where we think most people will expect to find
them. ● For instance, Wapshott’s Keynes – Hayek, which covers the debate between two influential
economists, is listed in section 10.7 (Politics and Economics) rather than in
10.3 (History). 10.0 Multi-Domain, Comprehensive
Works The works listed here cover more than one knowledge domain, or a very wide field. By, Title, Pub, Place, 20xx Comment? more (later) 10.1 Philosophy By, Title, Pub, Place, 20xx Comment? more (later) 10.2 Science Cordelia
Fine, Delusions of Gender: The real science behind sex differences, W.W. Orton & Co, A
brilliant, well referenced book that points out that most of our commonly
accepted, supposedly scientifically based, notions of gender are not based on
the evidence, or even contrary to it.
more (later) By, Title, Pub, Place, 20xx Comment? more (later) 10.3 History Niall
Ferguson, Civilization: Is the West history?, Let’s
overlook the arrogance in the title, which links civilisation only to the
West. Worst still we must overlook By, Title, Pub, Place, 20xx Comment? more (later) 10.4 Religion Karen
Armstrong, The Case for God, pub, place,
yyyy I
love Karen Armstrong, but many Atheists are antipathetic. She writes with insight and authority,
covering the major theistic religions from the beginnings of human
history. She acknowledges the errors of
the fundamentalists and other idolaters, but presents her view of the best
religion as a reverent approach to life rather than a fixed set of
beliefs. She’s an optimist, but so am I,
we just look at it differently. more (later) By, Title, Pub, Place, 20xx Comment? more (later) 10.5 Art, Culture & Media By, Title, Pub, Place, 20xx Comment? more (later) 10.6 Personal Practice By, Title, Pub, Place, 20xx Comment? more (later) 10.7 Politics and Economics Roger
E. Backhouse, The Penguin History of Economics, Penguin, Informative
if not inspiring, but this contains good explanations of some of the profound
issues and insights of economics.
more (later) Niall
Ferguson, The Ascent of Money: a Financial History of the World, Penguin
Books, Penguin Books, The
title is obviously a tribute to (or an abuse of) Bronowski’s Ascent of Man (see
10.0). David
Graeber, Debt: the first 5,000 years, Melville
House, An
analysis of the history and implications of debt by an anthropologist, which
has some useful insights but is ultimately unsatisfying because Graeber’s
solution to our financial system’s problems is simply to destroy it, then see
what happens next. more (later) Ha-Joon
Chang, 23 Things they don't tell you about capitalism, A
concise expose of the myths promoted by the economic liberals, whose policies
have dominated the West, especially the Anglosphere, since the mid 1980s,
showing that these policies have not worked, and presenting alternatives. more (later) Antony
Loewenstein, Profits of Doom: How Vulture Capitalism is Swallowing the World, Melbourne University Press, 2013. Reveals
alarming facts about the corporatisation and privatization of national
security, imprisonment and war. more (later) Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway, Merchants
of Doubt: how a handful of scientists obscured the truth o issues from tobacco
smoke to global warming, Bloomsbury, London, 2010 A
startling, well documented expose of how the world has been misled into
doubting reliable scientific results that affect our well being – and our
survival. more (later) Carmen M Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, This
Time is Different: eight centuries of financial folly, Princeton University Press, A
comprehensive presentation of data, covering many centuries and the whole
world, showing how uncontrolled debt causes most national and international
financial crises. The authors were
criticised for an error in some other spreadsheet, but the analysis presented
here seems at this stage to be irrefutable. more (later) Nouriel Roubini & Stephen Mihm, Crisis
Economics: a crash course in the future of economics, (with a new afterward), Penguin, USA, 2011 An
analysis of why financial booms and busts occur. Roubini is famous for being one of the few
who predicted the global financial crises of 2008. They don't just explain what happened, but present
practical solutions to reduce future financial risks. more (later) Richard
S Tedlow, Denial: why business leaders fail to look facts in the face -
and what to do about it, A
set of case studies of how some corporates got it really wrong, and some got it
right. more (later) Nicholas
Wapshott, Keynes – Hayek: the clash that defined modern economics, W.W. Norton & Co, A
brilliant, well referenced book that points out that most of our commonly
accepted, supposedly scientifically based, notions of gender are not based on
the evidence, or even contrary to it.
more (later) By, Title, Pub, Place, 20xx Comment? more (later) 10.8 Global Approaches This section is intended to include works about universal solutions to our local and global problems. We expect these to be more than self help or survivalist books, religious or political polemics, or scientific or historical overviews. Generalist works can be covered in Section 0, and other domain specific works can be listed in Sections 1 to 7. Jacob
Bronowski, The Ascent of Man, first published by the BBC in 1973 This
is the book of the TV series called ‘The Ascent of Man’ first broadcast by the
BBC in 1973, which was a brilliant and influential overview of the history of
humanity, integrating our progress in art, science and technology with implied
lessons for how we should respond to the world.
We overlook the sexist terminology in the title, typical of the age, to
be astounded by the breadth and humanity of his vision. “The
personal commitment of a [person] to [their own] skill, the intellectual
commitment and the emotional commitment working together as one, has made the
Ascent of Man”. Try to find the TV series, because the book contains the text but no images. Jeremy
Griffith, FREEDOM: the end of the human condition, WTM Publishing and
Communications Pty Ltd, Sydney, 2016 Available online at www.humancondition.com It’s
a complex world, and understanding any analysis and proposed solutions is
difficult and time consuming. Most
people don't have the insight, knowledge, courage and persistence to devise a
global; narrative, and Griffith is to be applauded for his attempt. But his analysis is flawed and
incomplete. He tells us the cause of the
human condition is guilt and repression caused when our conscious minds realize
what horrible corrupt beings we are. He
assumes that in preconscious times we were (as a species and as infants)
naturally loving and compassionate, ignoring that when we became conscious we
immediately saw our brutish behaviour, which must have coexisted with our
compassionate side. He does not
recognise the significance of choice in determining value. He narrowly defines the human condition to be
the conflict between instinct and intellect, and he defines narrow solutions –
that we should use modern science to understand, be compassionate and overcome
our guilt. He does not address the
historical grievances between ethnic groups and nations, hoping that all this
will come out in the wash when upset people are redeemed. He fails to address the ongoing need to
contain our competitive instincts because he thinks they are virtually unreal,
arising out of consciousness, and the issues are all now resolved, given his
explanation of our history. Would that
it were so. more By, Title, Pub, Place, 20xx Comment? more (later) 10.9 Promotion Methods This section is intended to include works about techniques that may be useful for promoting this way, including advocacy, activism, advertising, education, lobbying, marketing etc. By, Title, Pub, Place, 20xx Comment? more (later)
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English (English)
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