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Ask bigger, fewer, and clearer questions! This is the major message of this book, comprising a set of issues to focus on, hereby suggesting a way to overcome the fragmentation characterising the humanities today. It also urges humanists to regard humanities research as an integral part of science, although uniquely dealing with humans as decision making, meaning seeking and self-reflecting agents.
List of contents
List of Illustrations; Acknowledgements; I: Questions and Answers - Background, Motivations and Aims; Ii: Suggested Questions; 1: What Explains That Some Kinds of Knowledge Are Widely Accepted Whereas Other Kinds of Knowledge Are Rejected?; 2: Why Do Some Societal Processes and Phenomena Develop in a Circular or Repetitive Way Whereas Other Processes Evolve Along a Cumulative Trajectory?; 3: Why Do Social Norms Change, Despite the Fact that their Mission is to be Sustained? What Role Do Non-Conformist Individuals and Minority Groups Play in Cultural, Cognitive and Normative Change?; 4: Does a Gradual Extension of Our Lifespan (and the Rise of Welfare) Imply a Growing or Declining Ability to Postpone the Satisfaction of Our Needs and Desires?; 5: What Explains the Widespread Diffusion of Inequality and the Gradual Emergence of Egalitarianism Over the Centuries?; 6. Why Do People Appropriate Aesthetic Experience (Both as Producers and Consumers of Cultural Manifestations), and What Are the Individual and Societal Functions of Such Experiences?; What Lies Ahead?; Appendices; Notes; References; Index.
About the author
Married, four children, six grandchildren; professor emeritus of history at the Centre for the Study of Cultural Evolution, Stockholm University; former secretary general for the humanities and social sciences, Swedish Research Council; former Vice-president of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; et cetera
