[in 2 books] Biology of Good and Evil: How Science Explains Our Behavior

Annotation for the book "Biology of Good and Evil. How Science Explains Our Actions. Books 1-2" by Sapolsky R.: As the famous primatologist and neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky says, if you want to understand human behavior and the nature of a good or bad deed, you will have to understand literally everything - both what happened a second before it, and what happened millions of years ago. In the book, the author gradually - one might say, in chronological order - and very thoroughly examines a huge number of factors influencing our behavior. How does our brain work? What is the amygdala responsible for, and what should we thank the frontal cortex for? What does the insula "hate"? Why do London taxi drivers have enlarged hippocampi? How are the lengths of the index and ring fingers related to the amount of prenatal testosterone? How do adolescents differ from children and adults from a neurobiological perspective? Are there "pure" altruists? What is the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation? Does free will exist? How do complex social connections influence our behavior and decision-making? And this is only a small part of the questions considered in the large-scale work of the renowned scientist. Read more…