Joseph Henrich, (Henrich 2016)

Summary

“Culture is the secret of humanity’s success”

(Alexander 2019)

See Scott Alexander | Book Review: The Secret Of Our Success.

  • It’s impossible difficult to identify which traditions are useful and which are detrimental (i.e. using divination or augury, not eating shark while pregnant)
  • Humanity is resilient, capable, inventive, intelligent, resourceful; an individual human isn’t (i.e. European explorers dying in fertile, but unfamiliar, land where native peoples thrived)

Notes

Bibliography

Alexander, Scott. 2019. “Book Review: The Secret Of Our Success.” Slate Star Codex. https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/06/04/book-review-the-secret-of-our-success/.
Henrich, Joseph Patrick. 2016. The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter. Princeton: Princeton University Press.