Africa is following Asia out of poverty the Internet, mobile phone, and container shipping are enriching people’s lives as never before.Īn astute, refreshing, and revelatory work that covers the entire sweep of human history – from the Stone Age to the Internet – The Rational Optimist will change your way of thinking about the world for the better. Food availability, income, and life span are up disease, child mortality, and violence are down all across the globe.

But in fact, life is getting better – and at an accelerating rate. In a bold and provocative interpretation of economic history, Matt Ridley makes the case for an economics of hope, arguing that the benefits of commerce, technology, innovation, and change – what Ridley calls cultural evolution – will inevitably increase human prosperity.įor two hundred years the pessimists have dominated public discourse, insisting that things will soon be getting much worse. “The book includes chapters on sleep and arousal, pleasure and fear systems, the sources of rage and anger, the neural control of sexuality, as well as the more subtle emotions related to maternal care, social loss, and playfulness.” The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley Source: “One of the best books on the neuroscience of emotion,” Dr. Presenting complex material in a readable manner, the book offers a comprehensive summary of the fundamental neural sources of human and animal feelings, as well as a conceptual framework for studying emotional systems of the brain. In Affective Neuroscience, Jaak Panksepp provides the most up-to-date information about the brain-operating systems that organize the fundamental emotional tendencies of all mammals. However, with advances in neurobiology and neuroscience, researchers are demonstrating that this position is wrong as they move closer to a lasting understanding of the biology and psychology of emotion.

Some investigators have argued that emotions, especially animal emotions, are illusory concepts outside the realm of scientific inquiry.

Books by jordan peterson