The Compassionate Instinct: The Science Of Human Goodness

Description

In these pages, leading scientists and science writers reflect on the life-changing, perspective-changing, new science of human goodness. Steven Pinker asks why there is peace; Robert Sapolsky examines violence among primates; Paul Ekman and the Dalai Lama talk about global compassion and Daniel Goleman proposes 'constructive anger'. The Greater Good Science Center is at the forefront of the positive psychology movement. Four times a year, it publishes its findings in essays on forgiveness, moral inspiration, and everyday ethics. The best of these writings are collected here for the first time. "The Compassionate Instinct" will make the reader think not only about what it means to be happy and fulfilled but also about what it means to lead an ethical and compassionate life.

Author description

Dacher Keltner, the faculty director and co-founder of the Greater Good Science Center, is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Jason Marsh and Jeremy Adam Smith are editors of Greater Good magazine.