Daily Telegraph
'Engaging'
Independent on Sunday
‘more than a book, this in an intellectual curiosity’
Glasgow Herald
‘lucid, accessible and engaging’
Book Description
A fascinating exploration of the age-old question: are there 'laws of nature' that guide human affairs? Is there anything inevitable about the ways humans behave and organize themselves? Have we complete freedom in creating our societies, or are we trapped by 'human nature'?
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
Is there a "physics of society"? Ranging from Hobbes and Adam Smith to modern work on traffic flow and market trading, and across economics, sociology and psychology, this study shows how much we can understand of human behaviour when we cease to try to predict and analyse the behaviour of individuals and look to the impact of hundreds, thousands or millions of individual human decisions. The book encourages us to examine our own behaviour, whether in buying the new Harry Potter book, voting for a particular party or responding to the lures of advertisers.
From the Publisher
A fascinating exploration of the age-old question: are there ‘laws of nature’ that guide human affairs? Is there anything inevitable about the ways humans behave and organize themselves? Have we complete freedom in creating our societies, or are we trapped by ‘human nature’?
About the Author
Formerly on the staff of Nature, Philip Ball is now a full-time writer. He lives in London.
