Religion, Evolution and Self Ascendency: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion
Psychologist Jonathan Haidt asks a simple, but difficult question: why do we search for self-transcendence? Why do we attempt to lose ourselves? In a tour through the science of evolution by group selection, he proposes a provocative answer.
Jonathan Haidt studies how -- and why -- we evolved to be moral. By understanding more about our moral roots, his hope is that we can learn to be civil and open-minded. His new book is "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion."
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Antonio Damasio: The Quest to Understand Consciousness
Every morning we wake up and regain consciousness -- that is a marvelous fact -- but what exactly is it that we regain? Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio uses this simple question to give us a glimpse into how our brains create our sense of self.
Geoffrey West: The Surprising Math of Cities and Corporations
Physicist Geoffrey West has found that simple, mathematical laws govern the properties of cities -- that wealth, crime rate, walking speed and many other aspects of a city can be deduced from a single number: the city's population. In this mind-bending talk from TEDGlobal he shows how it works and how similar laws hold for organisms and corporations.
Noel Bairey Merz: The Single Biggest Health Threat Women Face
urprising, but true: More women now die of heart disease than men, yet cardiovascular research has long focused on men. Pioneering doctor C. Noel Bairey Merz shares what we know and don't know about women's heart health -- including the remarkably different symptoms women present during a heart attack (and why they're often missed).
Sean Carroll: Distant Time and the Hint of a Multiverse
At TEDxCaltech, cosmologist Sean Carroll attacks -- in an entertaining and thought-provoking tour through the nature of time and the universe -- a deceptively simple question: Why does time exist at all? The potential answers point to a surprising view of the nature of the universe, and our place in it.
Introduction to the Dao Te Ching
This is an introduction to the Tao te Ching. Throughout the journey of my own introspection no one piece of wisdom has been at my side more than the Tao te Ching, and it is an honor to present the Way in this light. The Tao te Ching speaks to everybody on many different levels of understanding.