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Caveman Logic: The Persistence of Primitive Thinking in a Modern World
We see the face of the Virgin Mary staring up at us from a grilled cheese sandwich and sell the uneaten portion of our meal for $37,000 on eBay. While science offers a wealth of rational explanations for natural phenomena, we often prefer to embrace the fantasies that reassured our distant ancestors. And we'll even go to war to protect our delusions against those who do not share them.These are examples of what evolutionary psychologist Hank Davis calls "Caveman Logic." Although some examples are funny, the condition itself is no laughing matter. In this engagingly written book, Davis encourages us to transcend the mental default settings and tribal loyalties that worked well for our ancestors back in the Pleistocene age. Davis laments a modern world in which more people believe in ESP, ghosts, and angels than in evolution. Superstition and religion get particularly critical treatment, although Davis argues that religion, itself, is not the problem but "an inevitable by-product of how our minds misperform."Davis argues, "It's time to move beyond the one-size-fits-all, safety and comfort-oriented settings that got our ancestors through the terrifying Pleistocene night." In contrast, Davis advocates a world in which "spirituality" is viewed as a dangerous rather than an admirable quality, and suggests ways in which we can overcome our innate predisposition toward irrationality. He concludes by pointing out that "biology is not destiny." Just as some of us succeed in watching our diets, resisting violent impulses, and engaging in unselfish behavior, we can learn to use critical thinking and the insights of science to guide individual effort and social action in the service of our whole species.
298 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2009
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367 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 8, 2017
“Evolutionary psychology is a relatively new field that offers a scientific, indeed a biological approach, to understanding human behavior. Unlike other fields of psychology, an evolutionary approach attempts to understand humans as part of the biological world in which they evolved.” p. 13
My husband has been quoting Hank Davis to me for years. He is not a voracious reader like me, so for him to tell me to read a book is a big deal. I will admit it has taken me awhile to get to this, but I now understand why my husband finds this compelling. Davis made me think about some of my daily habits in a new way.
I have a tendency to find connections among different parts of my life. I am always finding that books I am reading link in unexpected ways. Even though I know better, I say that twists of fate mean something in my life. I think of myself as a rational being, but often I act as if chance actually does favor me.
Davis’ book explains why our brains persist in this illogical logic. He believes that for our ancestors to survive our brains became wired in a particular way. We no longer need this wiring, but the evolutionary process is slow. So Davis suggests that we need to consciously change our thinking. In his thinking, we need to transform our brains to the brains we need for our time.
I can see Davis’ point and I believe he is correct – for the most part. I just can’t quite give up my belief in God. Davis is an atheist and makes reasonable arguments for the need to abandon superstition. I just can’t completely buy all his advice. I know that religion has been the cause of many problems, but in my opinion, good things have come out of the belief in God.
As I said in my review of Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, no matter what atheists tell me, I believe that humans’ better nature has something to do with our religious faith. I am glad that I read these two books simultaneously because for me Armstrong and Davis tempered each other’s arguments.
Although I did not agree with everything Davis had to say, I highly recommend his book. I do think that overall humans are using primitive thinking in a world where life has changed drastically. I will try to be more conscious of the flaws in my thinking. If you have an interest in psychology or human biology or just new ideas, you might want to read Caveman Logic. I believe it is well worth your time.
My husband has been quoting Hank Davis to me for years. He is not a voracious reader like me, so for him to tell me to read a book is a big deal. I will admit it has taken me awhile to get to this, but I now understand why my husband finds this compelling. Davis made me think about some of my daily habits in a new way.
I have a tendency to find connections among different parts of my life. I am always finding that books I am reading link in unexpected ways. Even though I know better, I say that twists of fate mean something in my life. I think of myself as a rational being, but often I act as if chance actually does favor me.
Davis’ book explains why our brains persist in this illogical logic. He believes that for our ancestors to survive our brains became wired in a particular way. We no longer need this wiring, but the evolutionary process is slow. So Davis suggests that we need to consciously change our thinking. In his thinking, we need to transform our brains to the brains we need for our time.
I can see Davis’ point and I believe he is correct – for the most part. I just can’t quite give up my belief in God. Davis is an atheist and makes reasonable arguments for the need to abandon superstition. I just can’t completely buy all his advice. I know that religion has been the cause of many problems, but in my opinion, good things have come out of the belief in God.
As I said in my review of Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, no matter what atheists tell me, I believe that humans’ better nature has something to do with our religious faith. I am glad that I read these two books simultaneously because for me Armstrong and Davis tempered each other’s arguments.
Although I did not agree with everything Davis had to say, I highly recommend his book. I do think that overall humans are using primitive thinking in a world where life has changed drastically. I will try to be more conscious of the flaws in my thinking. If you have an interest in psychology or human biology or just new ideas, you might want to read Caveman Logic. I believe it is well worth your time.
May 13, 2013
A clear call to get past the default circuitry of our brains. I like the way it explains how certain thought patterns were useful to our ancestors, and why common religiosity has such wide acceptance and social support.
The only thing that was off-putting is that the author repeats the same argument again and again (on a kind of personal grudge rather than argument), instead of getting to the point and moving on.
Overall very good and it left me wanting to read more on the subject.
The only thing that was off-putting is that the author repeats the same argument again and again (on a kind of personal grudge rather than argument), instead of getting to the point and moving on.
Overall very good and it left me wanting to read more on the subject.
April 16, 2018
This book is well written, but much of it feels like it has already been said before. There are moments of wry humor in it that induce a smile. I came away from the book liking the orientation of the author, and agreeing with him pretty much throughout. The author's discussion of the nature and origins of religious belief is what I enjoyed the most.
March 22, 2024
3.5 rounded up to 4.
August 10, 2011
What’s wrong with our thinking has much to do with what’s right
Hank Davis, in this overview of all the foibles, fallacies, and biases that infect the reasoning abilities of our species, lays out a strong argument that although we have imperfect cognitive equipment given to us by evolution, we can overcome them with judicious use of critical thinking, science, and intellectual honesty. While Davis specifically dwells on the supernatural phantoms that people accept as part of their lives from ghosts and spirits to deities and angels, he also delves into the purely secular arenas of fallacious thinking from gambling to the incomplete way we often evaluate data in everyday situations. Several books on this topic have been written of late such as Bruce Hood’s Supersense, but Davis’s seems to have a welcome clarity and plain-spoken characteristic.
The primary thesis of Caveman Logic comes back to the fact that for all of the pre-disposed ways of human thought that work well, the areas in which we are particularly bad at stem from the misapplication of the strengths. One of the ways that this occurs is through the over-extension of one way of thinking into another domain that it was not designed by natural selection for, and more importantly, is demonstrably bad at.
This comes to bear in Davis’s critique of supernatural beliefs where such mental tools as agent detection (which is a very good skill to have) is applied to reasoning about natural occurrences. We see this happen all the time when our low-brow religious mouthpieces such as Pat Robertson blame natural disasters on the agency of God (as with hurricane Katrina). In Davis’s estimation, which seems right on target, such a superstition is developed and utilized (and is successfully convincing to a large number of people) since it offers a social understanding of events and avoids that dreaded thing that humans have little tolerance for—ambiguity and meaninglessness. By adding an agent into the equation of explaining a natural disaster, an illusory form of meaning can be gained. Not only that, but it places the event into a social context—something humans are already very good at understanding and interpreting events within.
For all the strengths of the book, I did have a few objections. The book doesn’t seem to have a clear audience in mind. At one moment it seems to be a clear exposition of our “caveman logic” and therefore aimed at readers like me looking for a nice refresher and synthesis of the subject. But at others (particularly the last chapter) it can seem almost preachy. While I understand and completely agree with the author that this is an issue of vital importance, the rhetoric seemed to not match the intended goal. If his goal was to provide a good synthesis to readers like me, he didn’t need the last chapter (at least in its current form—it did broach new information that would certainly want to be included in any edition). But if his goal was to persuade readers who might hold beliefs he considers irrational, then the sometimes blunt rhetoric may just serve to alienate them.
That minor objection aside, the substance of the book is rewarding and certainly needful. I know it’s cliché to say, but this book does deserve a very wide audience.
Hank Davis, in this overview of all the foibles, fallacies, and biases that infect the reasoning abilities of our species, lays out a strong argument that although we have imperfect cognitive equipment given to us by evolution, we can overcome them with judicious use of critical thinking, science, and intellectual honesty. While Davis specifically dwells on the supernatural phantoms that people accept as part of their lives from ghosts and spirits to deities and angels, he also delves into the purely secular arenas of fallacious thinking from gambling to the incomplete way we often evaluate data in everyday situations. Several books on this topic have been written of late such as Bruce Hood’s Supersense, but Davis’s seems to have a welcome clarity and plain-spoken characteristic.
The primary thesis of Caveman Logic comes back to the fact that for all of the pre-disposed ways of human thought that work well, the areas in which we are particularly bad at stem from the misapplication of the strengths. One of the ways that this occurs is through the over-extension of one way of thinking into another domain that it was not designed by natural selection for, and more importantly, is demonstrably bad at.
This comes to bear in Davis’s critique of supernatural beliefs where such mental tools as agent detection (which is a very good skill to have) is applied to reasoning about natural occurrences. We see this happen all the time when our low-brow religious mouthpieces such as Pat Robertson blame natural disasters on the agency of God (as with hurricane Katrina). In Davis’s estimation, which seems right on target, such a superstition is developed and utilized (and is successfully convincing to a large number of people) since it offers a social understanding of events and avoids that dreaded thing that humans have little tolerance for—ambiguity and meaninglessness. By adding an agent into the equation of explaining a natural disaster, an illusory form of meaning can be gained. Not only that, but it places the event into a social context—something humans are already very good at understanding and interpreting events within.
For all the strengths of the book, I did have a few objections. The book doesn’t seem to have a clear audience in mind. At one moment it seems to be a clear exposition of our “caveman logic” and therefore aimed at readers like me looking for a nice refresher and synthesis of the subject. But at others (particularly the last chapter) it can seem almost preachy. While I understand and completely agree with the author that this is an issue of vital importance, the rhetoric seemed to not match the intended goal. If his goal was to provide a good synthesis to readers like me, he didn’t need the last chapter (at least in its current form—it did broach new information that would certainly want to be included in any edition). But if his goal was to persuade readers who might hold beliefs he considers irrational, then the sometimes blunt rhetoric may just serve to alienate them.
That minor objection aside, the substance of the book is rewarding and certainly needful. I know it’s cliché to say, but this book does deserve a very wide audience.
December 5, 2009
Completely logical and refreshing.
Some of my favorite parts:
Creationism, aka intelligent design, is not a theory. It is a belief. The bumper sticker says it all: "The Bible says it; I believe it; That settles it." There is a name for this approach to knowledge. It is called fideism. It is an agressive irrationality, a refulsal to discuss or justify statements of belief. Many children go through a stage in which they use the word because as if it were a reason. "Why?" "Because." Needless to say, most children successfully grow past this irrational early stage of cognitive development. Obviously, not all of them do. (Davis 163)
As neuroscientist and author Sam Harris writes, "Half of the American population believes that the universe is 6,000 years old. They are wrong about this. Declaring them so is not 'irreligious intolerance.' It is intellectual honesty." (Davis 278)
Some of my favorite parts:
Creationism, aka intelligent design, is not a theory. It is a belief. The bumper sticker says it all: "The Bible says it; I believe it; That settles it." There is a name for this approach to knowledge. It is called fideism. It is an agressive irrationality, a refulsal to discuss or justify statements of belief. Many children go through a stage in which they use the word because as if it were a reason. "Why?" "Because." Needless to say, most children successfully grow past this irrational early stage of cognitive development. Obviously, not all of them do. (Davis 163)
As neuroscientist and author Sam Harris writes, "Half of the American population believes that the universe is 6,000 years old. They are wrong about this. Declaring them so is not 'irreligious intolerance.' It is intellectual honesty." (Davis 278)
August 13, 2016
Интересная теория о том, почему в век исследований Марса и айпадов некоторые до сих пор верят в креационизм и астрологию. Автор рассматривает разные модули мышления, доставшиеся нам от далеких пещерных предков и то, какие сбои они могут давать в современном мире. Одно из центральных проявлений таких парадоксальных "глюков" - религия. Это с одной стороны - проявление "умственной лени", а с другой - "нейропаразит" использующий несовершенство нашего мышления. Мне понравилось, рекомендую к прочтению при отсутствии особо трепетного отношения к вопросам религии.
April 1, 2013
Entretenido repaso a los orígenes evolutivos de nuestros inherentes - y de momento, obstinados - fallos de raciocinio. Y un llamado a sobreponernos mediante el esfuerzo consciente y la disciplina intelectual a nuestra cómoda "lógica cavernaria", con el fin de no conducirnos al auto engaño. Muy recomendable.
December 4, 2012
I found the book in need of some tightening. The author was allowed to wander through the modern world of religion and belief without always having evidence to support his claims. It was a little too anecdotal in its discussion of errors in the current faith of people.
July 27, 2011
This book was part of the curriculum for my college philosophy class. I found it to be fascinating and challenging, as it raises interesting questions about faith and religion.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews