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Good Enough
- The Tolerance for Mediocrity in Nature and Society
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
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Publisher's summary
Why is the genome of a salamander 40 times larger than that of a human? Why does the avocado tree produce a million flowers and only a hundred fruits? Why, in short, is there so much waste in nature?
In this lively and wide-ranging meditation on the curious accidents and unexpected detours on the path of life, Daniel Milo argues that we ask these questions because we’ve embraced a faulty conception of how evolution - and human society - really works. Good Enough offers a vigorous critique of the quasi-monopoly that Darwin’s concept of natural selection has on our idea of the natural world. Darwinism excels in accounting for the evolution of traits, but it does not explain their excess in size and number. Many traits far exceed the optimal configuration to do the job, and yet the maintenance of this extra baggage does not prevent species from thriving for millions of years.
Philosopher Daniel Milo aims to give the messy side of nature its due - to stand up for the wasteful and inefficient organisms that nevertheless survive and multiply. But he does not stop at the border between evolutionary theory and its social consequences. He argues provocatively that the theory of evolution through natural selection has acquired the trappings of an ethical system. Optimization, competitiveness, and innovation have become the watchwords of Western societies, yet their role in human lives - as in the rest of nature - is dangerously overrated. Imperfection is not just good enough: it may at times be essential to survival.
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- By Susie on 07-07-16
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Freedom Evolves
- By: Daniel C. Dennett
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Can there be freedom and free will in a deterministic world? Renowned philosopher Daniel Dennett emphatically answers "yes!" Using an array of provocative formulations, Dennett sets out to show how we alone among the animals have evolved minds that give us free will and morality. Weaving a richly detailed narrative, Dennett explains in a series of strikingly original arguments - drawing upon evolutionary biology, cognitive neuroscience, economics, and philosophy - that far from being an enemy of traditional explorations of freedom, morality, and meaning, the evolutionary perspective can be an indispensable ally.
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I knew I was going to like this book
- By Gary on 05-30-14
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The Blank Slate
- The Modern Denial of Human Nature
- By: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 22 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker, one of the world's leading experts on language and the mind, explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. With characteristic wit, lucidity, and insight, Pinker argues that the dogma that the mind has no innate traits, denies our common humanity and our individual preferences, replaces objective analyses of social problems with feel-good slogans, and distorts our understanding of politics, violence, parenting, and the arts.
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Don't bother. Outdated science & poor logic...
- By ejf211 on 03-31-10
By: Steven Pinker
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Evolutionary Psychology
- An Audio Guide
- By: Robin Dunbar, John Lycett, Louise Barrett
- Narrated by: Miranda Nation
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Evolutionary Psychology is a uniquely accessible yet comprehensive guide to the study of the effects of evolutionary theory on human behaviour. Written specifically for the general listener and for entry-level students, it covers all the most important elements of this interdisciplinary subject, from the role of evolution in our selection of partner, to the influence of genetics on parenting. This audiobook draws widely on examples, case studies and background facts to convey a substantial amount of information.
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Themeltingpotblogpost
- By Anonymous User on 10-14-17
By: Robin Dunbar, and others
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Nonzero
- The Logic of Human Destiny
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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At the beginning of Nonzero, Robert Wright sets out to "define the arrow of the history of life, from the primordial soup to the World Wide Web." Twenty-two chapters later, after a sweeping and vivid narrative of the human past, he has succeeded and has mounted a powerful challenge to the conventional view that evolution and human history are aimless.
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Non-Zero (but pretty close to zero)
- By Douglas on 02-06-14
By: Robert Wright
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Blueprint
- The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society
- By: Nicholas A. Christakis
- Narrated by: Nicholas A. Christakis
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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For too long, scientists have focused on the dark side of our biological heritage: our capacity for aggression, cruelty, prejudice, and self-interest. But natural selection has given us a suite of beneficial social features, including our capacity for love, friendship, cooperation, and learning. Beneath all our inventions - our tools, farms, machines, cities, nations - we carry with us innate proclivities to make a good society.
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Many interesting thoughts
- By Jonas Blomberg Ghini on 06-01-19
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The Ancestor's Tale
- A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Abridged
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In The Ancestor's Tale, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins offers a masterwork: an exhilarating reverse tour through evolution, from present-day humans back to the microbial beginnings of life four billion years ago. Throughout the journey, Dawkins spins entertaining, insightful stories and sheds light on topics such as speciation, sexual selection, and extinction. The Ancestor's Tale is at once an essential education in evolutionary theory and riveting in its telling.
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Please do an unabridged version!
- By MovieExpertise on 09-29-16
By: Richard Dawkins
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Breaking the Spell
- Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
- By: Daniel C. Dennett
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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For all the thousands of books that have been written about religion, few until this one have attempted to examine it scientifically: to ask why - and how - it has shaped so many lives so strongly. Is religion a product of blind evolutionary instinct or rational choice? Is it truly the best way to live a moral life? Ranging through biology, history, and psychology, Daniel C. Dennett charts religion’s evolution from “wild” folk belief to “domesticated” dogma.
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Great Reader Actually Enhances A Great Book!
- By Don Caliente on 07-14-14
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Evolution
- What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters: Adapted for Audio
- By: Donald R. Prothero
- Narrated by: John Bishop
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Abridged
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Over the past 20 years, paleontologists have made tremendous fossil discoveries, including fossils that mark the growth of whales, manatees, and seals from land mammals and the origins of elephants, horses, and rhinos. Today there exists an amazing diversity of fossil humans, suggesting we walked upright long before we acquired large brains, and new evidence from molecules that enable scientists to decipher the tree of life as never before.
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NOT WORTH THE PRICE OF ADDMISSION
- By CRAIG on 12-25-14
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Masters of the Planet
- The Search for Our Human Origins
- By: Ian Tattersall
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Fifty thousand years ago - merely a blip in evolutionary time - our Homo sapiens ancestors were competing for existence with several other human species, just as their precursors had done for millions of years. Yet something about our species distinguished it from the pack, and ultimately led to its survival while the rest became extinct. Just what was it that allowed Homo sapiens to become masters of the planet? Ian Tattersall, curator emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History, takes us deep into the fossil record to uncover what made humans so special.
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Great Book, Some Sloppy Editing
- By DB on 11-23-20
By: Ian Tattersall
What listeners say about Good Enough
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jeffrey D
- 08-09-20
Rambling speculation
“Life is easy” for humans, according to author Milo. Maybe so, now, for many. But science is hard. If all you want to do is write a book full of highly questionable speculations with virtually no data, it is indeed easy. The question is, why does Harvard University Press tolerate this sort of mediocrity by publishing it?
Let me give you an example of Milo’s tactics. He discusses the evolution of the helmet of the insect called a treehopper. He says it can’t be a result of sexual selection because there is no sexual dimorphism in these insects. So far, so good. He says it can’t be camouflage, which he claims is the best selectionist explanation, because a better solution to avoiding predation would be not to have a helmet at all, the better to hide because then the insect would be smaller. If you think the nonexistent law of small hiders is self-evident, then this book may be for you. Because he has, he thinks, decisively refuted the camouflage hypothesis, presto, he has an example, he triumphantly proclaims, of “pure heresy” from a selectionist point of view. He asks, “How can such excess be viable?” I invite the prospective reader to examine pictures of the treehopper, and come to their own conclusion. There is a quite clear selective advantage (there may be others too, like protecting the young, since there is relatively a lot of maternal investment in her offspring) for the helmets: they arose because of their tendency to discourage predation, by camouflage or fear, for example. They look like leaves, other insects (e.g., hornets), thorns (these are even colloquially called thorn bugs, so at least one species sees the point, as it were), and the like. Pictures of the helmets are quite astonishing. Just google them. And do not read this book.
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- Philo
- 06-08-19
Good thesis, then straight to baloney
There might be a raging good book here. The concept sure was (and is) attractive. However, after an interesting start, the author digresses into an endless musing about various past wrong-headed wild guesses about the nature of the giraffe. And it is just interminable. As in, sheer padding and insulting to the intelligence. This quick dive into tripe is not auspicious. And it has already exhausted my patience. Too much storytelling drivel (and flat, dull, not even good stories) and not enough scientific rigor marks this author in my mind as either (1) a bad writer, too self-amused, or (2) too steeped in humanities, with (therefore ringing with) an arrogance about carelessly, fumblingly, treading the distinction between philosophy and hard science. At 1:15 in, I have no more of my precious time to waste.
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5 people found this helpful