The Guardian
Critical Mass fizzes with ideas and insights
Independent on Sunday
‘more than a book, this in an intellectual curiosity’
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Glasgow Herald
‘lucid, accessible and engaging’
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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'?
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, Philip Ball 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, whether in circumstances in which human beings co-operate or conflict, when their aggregate behaviour is constructive and when it is destructive. By perhaps Britain's leading young science writer, this is a deeply thought-provoking book, causing 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. (20040624)
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’?
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Formerly on the staff of Nature, Philip Ball is now a full-time writer. He lives in London. (20040624)
