Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAn important insight about how the mind works, presented with a slew of fascinating discoveries and a refreshingly interdisciplinary approach. * Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, and author of The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works *
Homo Prospectus is a groundbreaking book that capitalizes on 21st-century fMRI studies and user-friendly philosophy to create a paradigm shift that may make the book the most influential psychological text since Skinner's Science and Human Behavior. The concept of prospection developed in Homo Prospectus, of being drawn by the future, instead of-as both Freud and Skinner would have it-being driven by the past, reflects a true paradigm shift not only for academics and clinicians, but for the general reader. * George E. Vaillant, MD, Author of Triumphs of Experience *
One of the greatest satisfactions in the life of the mind is learning something that feels deeply true, even familiar, that we never actually thought before, when a book articulates intuitions that we never quite knew we had. Homo Prospectus does just this. . . . The authors are eminent philosophers and psychologists who write beautifully. The book convincingly demonstrates that fast intuitive thinking is in fact comprehensive, complex, and well-informed, and applies this insight to domains ranging from morality to successful aging. * Phoebe Ellsworth, PhD, Frank Murphy Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and Law, University of Michigan Law School *
One of the most interesting chapters in the book is on Creativity and Aging with guest appearances by Marie Forgeard and Scott Barry Kaufman...this chapter points to the evolutionary benefits of creativity throughout our lifespan, establishing economic security and driving innovation to create a better life for our offspring. The human race has advanced by our ability to hand down innovations from one generation to the next, based on our imagined prospection of their future needs. * Jeremy McCarthy, The Psychology of Wellbeing *
Table of ContentsPreface Part I: Homo Prospectus Chapter One: Introduction Chapter Two: Intuitive Guidance: Emotion, Information, and Experience Chapter Three: Deliberative Guidance: Intuitive Guidance in the Counterfactual Mode Chapter Four: Imaginative Guidance: A Mind Forever Wandering Chapter Five: Collective Prospection: The Social Construction of the Future Part II: Prospection and Life's Enduring Questions Chapter Six: Pragmatic Prospection Chapter Seven: Free Will and the Construction of Options Chapter Eight: Emotions: How the Future Feels (and Could Feel) Chapter Nine: Morality and Prospection Chapter Ten: Prospection Gone Awry: Depression Chapter Eleven: Creativity and Aging: What We Can Make with What We Have Left Afterword Notes References Index
