| ||||||||||||||||||
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Lorenz (On Aggression defines our culture's neuroses as worship of social status, greed, overcompetitiveness and love of activity for its own sake. He believes that a general waning of human qualities warps all technocratic societies, whether capitalistic or totalitarian. What makes this stiffly written jeremiad unusual is the author's grounding of his diagnosis in animal-behavior studies. Once meaningful, adaptive human-behavior patternsdivision of labor, specialization, organization, joy in functioninghave turned into cultural straightjackets, he argues. In evolution, with its wild zigzags, Lorenz finds absolutely no guarantee of upward development. But he claims that humans possess a built-in, life-preserving mechanism for improving cultural structures. Readers may find his prescriptions anticlimactic: he urges contact with the world of nature, especially for the young, as a way to overcome our increasingly artificial lives.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This book, by well-known ethologist Lorenz, is concerned with the causes of the waning of compassion for others. It offers a refutation of predetermination, discusses detrimental patterns of behavior and the reality of subjective (versus quantifiable) experience, and critiques the dominance of technology over society. Lorenz also suggests ways, including close contact with nature, for achieving compassion. This book continues themes discussed in his other works, especially Behind the Mirror. While the topic is important and of general interest, some aspects of the book (e.g., references to works of German philosophers) may limit its readership to informed laypersonsand scholars. Joseph Hannibal, Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Rainbow of Paper Clips ...,
By mary gribble (san marino, ca United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Waning of Humaneness (Hardcover)
as book marks, remain on my 1987 edition. Another swig of this marvelous gentleman's work dries out the wet algae in my thinking. Born in 1903, Konrad Lorenz, winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine/Physiology, does not speak down to his reader. For the reader is often one who perceives the illness around him, who is already frightened by his own smallness and witnesses this waning as a root cause of our present-day world problems. This gifted scholar selects concepts from his magic bag in a manner which best describes an understanding poet or novelist: straight to the reader's heart and mind, concepts which people hold in their deepest "No Admittance", but for various and often unavoidable reasons, do not express. He begins by writing truthfully that with the nuclear threat, the prospects for human survival are dismal, continuing that even if this does not occur, if somehow there is a check on human's "incredibly stupid and blind conduct", he still is in grave danger of the "progressive decline of those human attributes and attainments which constitute their humanity." This master animal behaviorist shares stories of Man's (and animals') pleasure in collecting -- baby fish miraculously appearing in one's aquarium, fruit in one's orchard, increase of the herd, a "stock split" - items which are of one kind. These, in his opinion, are more influenced by genetic programs than other kinds of joy found in possessions. But, he cites the immense danger that the greater the collection, the more intense is the desire, the urge for more. That this rage to collect can consume the personality is no secret, he wryly observes. He continues to write of the neurotic lust for power, threatening the existence of all mankind - the highest possible position in the pecking order (not sic), and the utter ridiculous sight of it. In his search into animal and human behavior, he often uses the word, "Gestalt", which means the coming together of diverse impressions and memories into one formidable idea. In his twenty-five years with shamas, birds said to be the greatest "artists" among song birds, which species assemble beautiful, complicated songs when at play, he notes that should this bird have to defend its territory, court a mate or in any way have his song forced to serve a utilitarian purpose, the resultant stress would cause a loss of the song's awe-inspiring beauty. From birds to humans, humans have an astonishing sensitivity to harmonies, the sensory and brain structures which are the Gestalt perception, one of the most important structures of the human. We cannot inspect or see this in ourselves, but enough is known that there is no doubt that they exist, can save us from not only extinction, but from having a life "not worth living." (not sic.) Excerpts: "Large populations mean that there are too many voters and too few to be voted upon." "Very few people, regardless of how intelligent or morally faultless they may be, are capable of preserving their whole humaneness once they are in positions of power." "Many people appear to be 'normal' because the humane voice within them has been struck dumb." "Thomas Jefferson lived long enough to witness and realize that freedom of the press can be exploited for the dissemination of lies." * * * * * We will not be more fearful from reading "The Waning of Humaneness", for the strength of humans to bring beauty and selfless meaning to the world remains in our hands. In Lorenz's words, "A closed system is a non-living system."
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More relevant for today than when written.,
By
This review is from: The Waning of Humaneness (Hardcover)
This book is a scientific and spititual view of how the human species has evolved over all of time to become the frightened and violent and deceitful cariacature of his true nature. Humankind is experiencing "growing pains" that if seen and understood would change his inherited destructive attitudes for "solving problems" into truly humane solutions that would turn from a slow painful suicide to choices that will fulfill his potential and the destiny that is inherent in him. This book gives insight into this process so beautifully
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
