Cheating Monkeys and Citizen Bees: The Nature of Cooperation in Animals and Humans

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"Man," Aristotle observes in his treatise The Politics, "is by nature a social creature." In this lively book of popular science, Lee Dugatkin takes a close look at the inescapable fact that humans are indeed social creatures whose instinct, it seems, is to aid one another in times of need. He examines the ways in which thinkers of various stripes have considered this subject. Economists, for instance, conceive of a "rational man" who acts cooperatively when the benefits of doing so outweigh the costs; theologians depict humans as being inherently good and thus inclined to kindness; some biologists take the matter of human cooperation as being a more sophisticated expression of cooperation in animal societies (to which Dugatkin rejoins, "animals show us a stripped-down version of what behavior in a given circumstance would look like without our moral will and freedom"). In the face of such views, Dugatkin proposes no dogma of his own. Instead, he takes up one interesting question after another (Do sparrows help one another locate food out of self-interest? What prompts a soldier to fall on a grenade to save nearby comrades? Is blood thicker than water?), expertly leading his readers through contending scientific and philosophical theories while seeking the answers. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

Here biologist Lee Dugatkin outlines four paths to cooperation shared by humans and other animals: family dynamics, reciprocal transactions (or "tit for tat"), so-called selfish teamwork, and group altruism. He draws on a wealth of examples--from babysitting among mongooses and food sharing among vampire bats to cooperation in Hutterite communities and on kibbutzim--to show not only that cooperation exists throughout the animal kingdom, but how an understanding of the natural history of altruism might foster our own best instincts toward our fellow humans.

Customer Reviews:

Sadly confused.......2004-03-04

This book tries to do two things: summarize the findings of evoltionary thinking on the development of co-operation, and relate these to making humans more co-operative.

On the first goal this book isn't too bad. it has a lot less meat than Ridley's book on co-operation, or anything by Dawkins. But as an intor for those new to this stuff it isn't too bad.

When he tries to tie it to humans, and drags in his religion too, he makes a muddle of it. Some of what he suggests is just embarrassing.

He is evidently confused on what is and is not group selection too.

Read Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation or Ridley, The Origins of Virtue instead.

I learned a lot about cheating.......2001-12-19

I currently am a member of a fantasy basketball league and have been looking for as much information on human psychology to improve my ranking. I received many good pointers from this book on how to undercut the other teams without them even knowing. I think this is a book that must be read by anyone that is interested in undermining any form of *friendly* competition.

Good summary of research results on animal cooperation.......2001-08-12

Well-written review of what is known about cooperation among animals. The author limits himself to the straightforward thesis that the study of cooperation among animals is a base that can help us understand and potentially improve human cooperation. He carefully recognizes that cooperation among humans is more complex and also includes effects from human culture and morality.

This is a good book for a first read by a layman in the subject; the selection of material is not biased to support a controversial thesis. Somebody already acquainted with the literature will already know most of the research results covered here. And for those interested in human culture and morality, this book provides only the background to begin thinking about their effect on cooperation.

The second half of the book is better than the first half.

Cheating Monkeys and Citizen Bees.......2000-03-29

I enjoyed the book, although it took me a while to really get into it. In general it covers the growth of cooperation from a genetic probabilities perspective. It is a sort of "cost accounting" of cooperation to the participants, whether related individuals in a "family" or only very distantly related individuals in a societal group. Since I had not read anything similar and the book was simply and clearly written, I found it interesting and provocative. Someone with a more thorough grounding in the field might find it overly simplistic.

Worse than Dawkins-lite, it's Dawkins-weak.......1999-11-07

This strikes me as just a watered down Reader's Digest version of Dawkins. As a scientist, I'm truly surprised that Sir Robert May endorsed this work. I thought he was more disconcerting than that. I found the final chapter of speculative religion totally out of place in an otherwise ho-hum redeaux. I particularly didn't appreciate having the book conclude with an argument from authority, even if it was from Einstein.

Book Description

The tremendous progress in olefin metathesis achieved during the last decade can hardly be overestimated. Due to the development of a new generation of well defined and high-performance organometallic catalysts, this reaction is rapidly evolving into one of the most versatile tools for advanced organic chemistry, natural product synthesis, fine chemical production and polymer sciences. Written by some of the leading experts in this field, this monograph intends to familiarize the reader with the most exciting developments and frontiers in this flourishing field of chemistry research.

Novel Metathesis Chemistry: Well-Defined Initiator Systems for Specialty Chemical Synthesis, Tailored Polymers and Advanced Material Applications (NATO ... II: Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry)

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Novel Metathesis Chemistry: Well-Defined Initiator Systems for Specialty Chemical Synthesis, Tailored Polymers and Advanced Material Applications (NATO ... II: Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1402015704

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A comprehensive discussion of the theory, practice and application of catalytically active transition metal species and their application in the production of specialist polymeric materials. The material is presented in a progressive manner, suitable for non-experts and those seeking an introduction to the field. The bibliographies supplied are complete and up to date, making the book an indispensable guide to the primary literature for the more theoretical background to the topics discussed.
After a comprehensive discussion of initiating systems for speciality chemical synthesis the book goes on to deal with a wide range of topics in materials science, including: alkenamers, polyacetylenes, industrial applications and liquid rocket engine fuels.

Olefin Metathesis and Polymerization Catalysts: Synthesis, Mechanism and Utilization (NATO Science Series C:)

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Olefin Metathesis and Polymerization Catalysts: Synthesis, Mechanism and Utilization (NATO Science Series C:)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0792310403

Book Description

Sensitivity analysis and optimal shape design are key issues in engineering that have been affected by advances in numerical tools currently available. This book/interactive CD-ROM presents basic optimization techniques that can be used to compute the sensitivity of a given design to local change or to improve its performance by local optimization of these data. The relevance and scope of these techniques have improved dramatically in recent years because of progress in discretization strategies, optimization algorithms, automatic differentiation, software availability, and the power of personal computers.

Key features of this original, progressive, and comprehensive approach:

* description of mathematical background and underlying tools

* up-to-date review of grid construction and control, optimization algorithms, software differentiation and gradient calculations

* practical solutions for implementation in many real-life problems

* solution of illustrative examples and exercises

* basic mathematical programming techniques used to solve constrained minimization problems are presented; these fairly self-contained chapters can serve as an introduction to the numerical solution of generic constrained optimization problems

* companion CD-ROM contains source files and data; readers can test different solution strategies to determine their relevance and efficiency

* CD-ROM also offers software building, updating computational grids, performing automatic code differentiation, and computing basic aeroelastic solutions.

Numerical Methods in Sensitivity Analysis and Shape Optimization will be of interest to graduate students involved in mathematical modeling and simulation, as well as engineers and researchers in applied mathematics looking for an up-to-date introduction to optimization techniques, sensitivity analysis, and optimal design. The work is suitable as a textbook for graduate courses in any of the topics mentioned above, and as a reference text.

Implementation of a multiblock sensitivity analysis method in numerical aerodynamic shape optimization abstract (SuDoc NAS 1.26:199784)

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Implementation of a multiblock sensitivity analysis method in numerical aerodynamic shape optimization abstract (SuDoc NAS 1.26:199784)
James M. Lacasse
Manufacturer: National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Technical Information Service, distributor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Book Description

A new collection of fiction and poetry from a major voice in American feminism and literature

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a turn-of-the-century American feminist and socialist thinker. In her works of fiction, Gilman sought to illustrate her ideas about the way American society squandered the talents and economic contributions of women. Based on the nervous breakdown she suffered during her own disastrous first marriage, The Yellow Wall-Paper is her classic story about a woman who goes mad when the rest-cure treatment she undergoes forbids her any kind of work.

Herland, Gilman's most famous novel, is a feminist utopian comedy in which three men stumble upon a society of women that has banished men. Also included in this Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics edition is a selection of Gilman's poetry and other short fiction. Gilman scholar Denise D. Knight has written an enlightening Introduction that explores Gilman's use of the utopian form, satire, and fantasy to provide a critique of women's place in society and to propose creative solutions.

Customer Reviews:

A nice little afternoon read...........2004-12-14

A generally overlooked gem of a utopian novella that makes for a pleasant experience. The treatment is calmer and more down to earth than A Brave New World, and is more thoughtful and meditative than Looking Backward. Gilman's feminism celebrates motherhood above all, and embraces Christianity. In a time when we're reconsidering gender roles and marriage in society, Herland is particularly relevant and insightful.

Highly recommended for the fan of utopian literature and early feminist thought.

The Yellow Wall-paper and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics)

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A Woman Beyond Her Time

The Yellow Wall-paper and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192834800

Book Description

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was America's leading feminist intellectual of the early twentieth century. The Yellow Wall-Paper and Other Stories makes available the fullest selection of her short fiction ever printed. In addition to her pioneering masterpiece, `The Yellow Wall-Paper' (1890), which draws on her own experience of depression and insanity, this edition features her Impress `story studies', works in the manner of writers such as James, Twain, and Kipling. These stories, together with other fiction from her neglected California period (1890-5), throw new light on Gilman as a practitioner of the art of fiction. In her Forerunner stories she repeatedly explores the situation of `the woman of fifty' and inspires reform by imagining workable solutions to a range of personal and social problems.

Customer Reviews:

A Woman Beyond Her Time.......2004-02-28

The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Short Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a book truly ahead of it's time. From reading the stories it is apparent that Charlotte was an extreme feminist for the late 1800s. I found it interesting that a woman in the 1800s was so aware of the confinements imposed on women during that time. It was very clear to me that Charlotte Perkins Gilman was on a mission to educate as many woman as she could regarding the inequality of rights for women versus men. The main reason I found this book so intriguing was not because of her writing technique but her strong desire to help women realize that they were more capable than society gave them credit for. She was clearly trying to strengthen herself and other women. I appreciated her writing more for the books contribution to the empowerment of women. It was truly courageous of Charlotte to express as much as she did in her writings since it was uncommon for women to stand up for themselves and their rights. Charlottes writing was motivational and inspired many woman to eventually step out of their "limitations and boundaries" at the time and become more assertive about their rights.

The Yellow Wall-Paper and Other Writings (Modern Library Classics)

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Repetitive Feminism

The Yellow Wall-Paper and Other Writings (Modern Library Classics)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman , and Alexander Black
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679783407
Release Date: 2000-11-28

Book Description

"There is no female mind. The brain is not an organ of sex. Might as well speak of a female liver."--Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), a leading figure in the women's movement of the early twentieth century, is a pillar of the American feminist canon. This edition of her work includes her best-known story, "The Yellow Wall-paper," a terrifying tale about a woman driven to the brink of insanity by the "rest cure" she is ordered to follow by her doctor to relieve her postpartum depression. Also included is a wide range of other short stories; an abridged version of her little-known but brilliant utopian novel, Herland, about a peaceful all-female world; and selections from her landmark treatise, Women and Economics, first published in 1898 to universal acclaim.

Customer Reviews:

Repetitive Feminism.......2001-12-15

Charlotte Perkins Gilman stands out as a feminist. She is known for her short stories, but is also wrote a novel, Herland, and a couple articles on women in society during the late 1800's. Her short stories are not all based on feminism, but rather life lessons. Her novel is creative but unrealistic. Her articles, "women and Economics" and "The Man Made World" are very repetitive. She expresses the same views with every point she is trying to make: the point being that men dominate almost every aspect of life, politics, marriage, money, society, and family life.
Her fiction is enjoyable reading. It not only could appeal to women but also men, because it does not focus only on feminist views. She expresses ideas on life that men and women share. There is always a clear image of what is going on in the story.
Her articles are very bitter, and her arguments are based on the same idea, that men rule and it is unfair to think that women are incapable of what men do. She talks mostly of what women don't do, and nothing of what women are able to do. Reading one section of both of her articles put together is like reading the whole thing. Young women today may find it hard to relate to her views, because things have changed drastically from 1890 to today.
As a feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman was outspoken and strong with her one view. If there is an interest in Gilman, read her novel or short stories. They are much more interesting then her repetitive feminist articles.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "the Yellow Wall-Paper" and the History of Its Publication and Reception: A Critical Edition and Documentary Casebook (Penn State Series in the History of the Book)

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Authoritative

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "the Yellow Wall-Paper" and the History of Its Publication and Reception: A Critical Edition and Documentary Casebook (Penn State Series in the History of the Book)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman , and Julie Bates Dock
Manufacturer: Pennsylvania State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0271017333

Customer Reviews:

Authoritative.......2000-10-04

This slender casebook of an academic search represents the first authoritative text of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wall-Paper since it was originally published in 1892. It includes book reviews and excerpts of literary and social commentaries that reflect the story's critical reception; it publishes lists of editorial emendations and variants of the story in important editions since 1892 and it gives a listing of textual sources for more than one hundred reprintings of the story in anthologies and textbooks.

The enterprise, itself, deserves recognition for its prodigious and painstaking scholarship and meticulous editing. A product of an undergraduate course on scholarly editing, Julie Bates Dock gave her class a "simple collation exercise" on Gilman's The Yellow Wall-Paper. Students and teacher alike became more and more enthused as they searched for relationships among various editions of the story. This enthusiasm resulted in a collaborative publication by Julie Bates Dock and three of her students.

In a chapter entitled The Legend of The Yellow Wall-Paper, Dock not only recounts how the story has become one of literature's perennial bestsellers, but also warn us that "in its twenty-five-year odyssey of rediscovery by literary critics...the story has picked up along the way an assortment of blemishes and distortions, from textual anomalies to skewed accounts of its publication history to misinformation about its contemporary reception." This should be enough to make any academic want to research its history.

The evidence of casual distortions that change the import of original texts as shown in the present case emphasizes the importance of textual criticism and traditional modes of criticism. Dock says, "...the use of documents is affected by critical trends and by critics' biases and expectations...The feminist critics of the early 1970s, intent on establishing women authors in the American literary canon, had a stake in portraying the story as a victimized piece of literature. The notion that Gilman suffered condemnation from editors and readers outside the story tidily echoed the narrator's victimization within the story." Dock then goes on to cite two examples where major feminist critics came to unexamined and hasty conclusions about the publication of the story.

Dock also provides evidence to argue that omission of a few words distorts Gilman's focus. For example, the words, "in marriage," in the sentence, "John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that (in marriage)." Gilman was against the institution of marriage, but not necessarily against men in general!

Legends that Gilman had to struggle to get her story published, that most readers thought of it as a "ghost story," that it received an especially distasteful reception from the male medical community are also put to rest, as evidence simply does not support these beliefs.

Dock also points out discrepancies in Gioman's own accounts as well, such as her inaccurate and varying dates and titles as well as her claim that Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, her own physician, altered his treatment of neurasthenia after reading The Yellow Wall-Paper. This is, as Dock points out, a case of "he says/she says conundrums."

The book is wonderfully embellished with photographs of Charlotte Perkins Stetson, W.D. Howells, Horace E. Scudder and Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, as well as with other visuals.

The book also cites interesting excerpts from Gilman's autobiography, The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Correspondence. It explains or compiles painstaking commentaries on textual matters, selection of copy, publication history, authorial practice and preference, editorial emendations and many other publication matters as well as reviews of the story which appeared in various magazines. The Appendix provides a history of the printing of The Yellow Wall-Paper from 1892 until 1997.

This is a scholarly book, to be sure, but it is one that is also extremely interesting. In addition to learning the history of The Yellow Wall-Paper, we also learn much about Gilman's motivations, her aesthetics of writing and her own views on both marriage and men.

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The "Yellow Wall-Paper" and Selected Stories of Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Manufacturer: University of Delaware Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 087413479X

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The Yellow Wall-Paper and Other Stories
Charlotte Perkins / Shulman, Robert (EDT) Gilman
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins | Classics | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000OK9XZY

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