Being a Human: Adventures in 40,000 Years of Consciousness
Aug 2021 · Profile Books
Ebook
241
Pages
family_home
Eligible
info
reportRatings and reviews aren’t verified Learn More
About this ebook
A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022
'A thrilling deep-dive through our evolutionary past, and a witty and learned commentary on why we are the way we are - and what wisdom we've lost along the way' Cal Flynn, author of Islands of Abandonment
'A wild ride: brave, outrageous, hilarious, helpful and urgent ... essential reading' Merlin Sheldrake, author of Entangled Lives
What kind of creature is a human? If we don't know what we are, how can we know how to act? Charles Foster sets out to understand what a human is, inhabiting the sensory worlds of humans at three pivotal moments in our history.
Foster begins his quest with his son in a Derbyshire wood, trying to find a way of experiencing the world that recognises the deep expanse of time when we understood ourselves as hunter-gatherers, and when modern consciousness was first ignited. From there he travels to the Neolithic, a way of being defined by fences, farms, sky gods and slaughterhouses, and finally to the Enlightenment, when we decided that the universe was a machine and we were soulless cogs within it.
'A thrilling deep-dive through our evolutionary past, and a witty and learned commentary on why we are the way we are - and what wisdom we've lost along the way' Cal Flynn, author of Islands of Abandonment
'A wild ride: brave, outrageous, hilarious, helpful and urgent ... essential reading' Merlin Sheldrake, author of Entangled Lives
What kind of creature is a human? If we don't know what we are, how can we know how to act? Charles Foster sets out to understand what a human is, inhabiting the sensory worlds of humans at three pivotal moments in our history.
Foster begins his quest with his son in a Derbyshire wood, trying to find a way of experiencing the world that recognises the deep expanse of time when we understood ourselves as hunter-gatherers, and when modern consciousness was first ignited. From there he travels to the Neolithic, a way of being defined by fences, farms, sky gods and slaughterhouses, and finally to the Enlightenment, when we decided that the universe was a machine and we were soulless cogs within it.
About the author
Charles Foster is the author of the New York Times Bestseller Being a Beast, which was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize and the Wainwright Prize, won the 30 million d'amis Prize in France, and is the subject of a forthcoming feature film. In 2016, he won the IgNobel Prize for Biology.
Rate this ebook
Tell us what you think.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
