Episode Details

Everything you know about human nature is a falsehood, but maybe that's a good thing.

'Humankind' by Rutger Bregman is an argument for why humans are good at heart (and in action). He presents this as a dichotomy between the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes & Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Much of the book is spent debunking commonly cited examples of our innate cruelty (Milgram Shock/Standford Prison experiments), but also has anecdotes from history and more trustworthy statistics.

I summarised the book as follows. "It's a crazy amount of condensed critical thinking. It burst a couple of ideas that were too simplistic but also might be refuted in the future for the same reason. It's well presented and contains elements of Rutger's personality (which matches my own) that made me like the book even more, although this obviously clouds my judgement as to the absolute 'truth' of his arguments. Nevertheless, being hopeful is fun!"

I hope you have a fantastic day wherever you are in the world. Kyrin out!

Timeline:
(0:00) - Intro
(0:29) - Synopsis
(4:19) - Veneer Theory: Are we about to crack?
(7:44) - A Hopeful History: Mixing the future and past
(11:53) - Personal Observations/Takeaways
(16:27) - Summary


Connect with Mere Mortals:
Website: https://www.meremortalspodcast.com/
Discord: https://discord.gg/jjfq9eGReU
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meremortalspodcast/