The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History

By addebook • Jun 24th, 2008 • Category: Biology •

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The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History

The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History
By Howard Bloom

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Number Of Pages: 480
Publication Date: 1997-03-13
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0871136643
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780871136640
Binding: Paperback

The Lucifer Principle is a revolutionary work that explores the intricate relationships among genetics, human behavior, and culture to put forth the thesis that “evil” is a by-product of nature’s strategies for creation and that it is woven into our most basic biological fabric. “An act of astonishing intellectual courage.” — Leon Uris; “Destined to be the Future Shock of our time.” — Spin; “A revolutionary vision of the relationship between psychology and history, The Lucifer Principle will have a profound impact on our concepts of human nature. It is astonishing that a book of such importance could be such a pleasure to read.” — Elizabeth F. Loftus, Professor of Psychology, University of Washington, and author of Memory and Eyewitness Testimony.

Summary: Best book ever written…it will change your life!
Rating: 5

This will take everything you learned in school and put it together in a grand explanation. I found this book on a trip to Florida and couldn’t put it down the rest of the trip. You will not be disappointed.

Summary: I can’t help but be a fan
Rating: 4

This book will always have a spot next to my heart since it was the book that got me interested in things like evolutionary biology, sociology and ethology. Even if some of his theories are hackneyed the book still achieved the goal of changing the way I think about the world around me and opened up new areas of study that have truly enriched my life. It’s hard for me not to be generous with this book.

Also the book is a great reference for finding other books on many topics that should be read which has been a great help for me. Mr. Bloom’s book is probably not for the professional sector or the semi-pros, but for amateurs like me the book can be an eye opener. Plus the book is so well written that it is a very good read in its own right. I found myself engrossed throughout and unable to put the book down in some places.

Don’t come to this book looking for the definitive work to define your philosophy about the subjects of this book, but more to get a taste of the ideas that are out there and I think you won’t be disappointed.

I think in my case the book was a huge success and if you’re an amateur like me I think the book can really be a paradigm shift in your life.

Summary: Eye opener….Don’t let the name fool you!!
Rating: 5

I have to say, as a person who has always had a hard time understanding man’s “methods of maddness”, this book shed a interesting light on human behavior. I’ve read this book about 5 times (just to keep the concepts fresh in my mind) and have recomended this book to anyone looking for a little more information on the nature of man. To any scared of the title: Lucifer’s name is simply used as a way to describe the kind of behavior examined in this book. Bloom confronts more of man’s darker traits in this book and what better a name (or diety’s name) to affix to these tendencies. I call this a must read for anyone looking for another angle from which to examine life.

Summary: The Lucifer Principle is eye opening 5 stars plus
Rating: 5

This book is one of the most revealing in how the masses get suckered into believing lies, much like the stupidity of mormonism.

Howard Bloom is a genius in making the principals of thinking for yourself a revelation in simple terms.

Get it and never be suckered into BS lies again, unless your a mormon and your all ready screwed up bad.

Summary: OK for thinking but not believing
Rating: 3

It is important when reading this book to keep in mind the book’s foreword by David Sloan Wilson - he gives sound advice to ‘not read it and believe but read it and think’. Sloan Wilson also rightly describes Bloom as having the ‘brashness of a mass media denizen’. Sloan Wilson’s support is essentially for the group selection argument which Bloom presents in his personal, passionate and largely flawed way.

Bloom takes the reader through a galloping overview of human group violence. His descriptions of group identification, group pecking-orders, group loyalty, imperialism etc are pretty much obvious and undeniable. Also the fact that nature is profligate and that much of what nature produces is expendable is largely true but Bloom’s argument that this proves that the social unit comes first is flawed.

Bloom compares the social unit to the body - just as body cells die in order for the body itself to live, so individuals are sacrificed for the life of the group. This, of course, is a false analogy because body cells share identical DNA and the reproduction of the body’s DNA is left to the germ cells. No other body cells could ever reproduce (naturally) into the next generation and therefore are sacrificing absolutely nothing.

Bloom confuses an apparent greater importance of the group with what is in reality the dependence of individuals on other group members for individual reproductive success/fitness. He also confuses individual survival with the survival of genes through time and seems not to understand inclusive fitness. His idea that people who commit suicide are altruistically ridding their group of a burden should mean that the sick, elderly, homeless, unemployed etc should be killing themselves by the thousand. It is far more likely that it is more to do, ultimately, with reproductive defeat where they are no longer able to compete or compare well with peers and are no longer attractive to the opposite sex and/or are a failure as a parent. If the group is being relieved of a burden it is incidental. They would, after all, not be a burden to the group if they took on some undesirable though necessary low status work rather than kill themselves.

If the social unit comes first there should be no dissent, no anti-social behavior, no interest groups etc. The fact that these exist in all societies shows that individuals whose self-interest is not being satisfied by the group will attempt to cause trouble for the group. Bloom is only right in pointing out the obvious fact that members of a group, like members of a family, will tend to pull together if attacked from outside but this is also mutual self-interest.

Another aspect of Bloom’s book that is flawed is his weak treatment of the differences between the sexes. He uses a few bits of evidence to supposedly prove the violence of females and then resumes the main theme of the book - ie male violence - as if the matter has been properly dealt with. Bloom uses the usual argument about females having selected male traits through mate choice yet he also writes of how women have been kidnapped and raped throughout history by the violent men he depicts. There is an unresolved contradiction here between the idea that females choose their mates and the fact that most girls throughout history and in much of the world today are simply resigned to the fact that they will have the father of their children chosen for them by their own father or brothers. Female sexuality has clearly been under the control of men for a very long time and it should at least be given some consideration that male traits have been selected for by males themselves which could have created a feedback loop of male violence etc.

‘The Lucifer Principle’ is an entertaining read in its description of male-male competitive behavior. Violence between groups of humans is as grotesque as Bloom describes but it is a mistake to believe that this proves group selection and to lose sight of the individual’s self-interest - and especially the gene’s self-interest - in what shapes human behavior. This book is worth reading only as an aid to thinking - not to any great understanding or belief.

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