Numbers and the Making of Us - Caleb Everett

Numbers and the Making of Us

Counting and the Course of Human Cultures

(Autor)

Buch | Hardcover
312 Seiten
2017
Harvard University Press (Verlag)
978-0-674-50443-1 (ISBN)
29,85 inkl. MwSt
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Number concepts are a human invention developed and refined over millennia. They allow us to grasp quantities precisely: recent research shows that most specific quantities are not perceived in the absence of a number system. Numbers are not innate or universal; yet without them, the world as we know it would not exist.
Carved into our past, woven into our present, numbers shape our perceptions of the world and of ourselves much more than we commonly think. Numbers and the Making of Us is a sweeping account of how numbers radically enhanced our species’ cognitive capabilities and sparked a revolution in human culture. Caleb Everett brings new insights in psychology, anthropology, primatology, linguistics, and other disciplines to bear in explaining the myriad human behaviors and modes of thought numbers have made possible, from enabling us to conceptualize time in new ways to facilitating the development of writing, agriculture, and other advances of civilization.

Number concepts are a human invention—a tool, much like the wheel, developed and refined over millennia. Numbers allow us to grasp quantities precisely, but they are not innate. Recent research confirms that most specific quantities are not perceived in the absence of a number system. In fact, without the use of numbers, we cannot precisely grasp quantities greater than three; our minds can only estimate beyond this surprisingly minuscule limit.

Everett examines the various types of numbers that have developed in different societies, showing how most number systems derived from anatomical factors such as the number of fingers on each hand. He details fascinating work with indigenous Amazonians who demonstrate that, unlike language, numbers are not a universal human endowment. Yet without numbers, the world as we know it would not exist.

Caleb Everett, Professor of Anthropology and Psychology at the University of Miami, is the author of Numbers and the Making of Us and Linguistic Relativity: Evidence across Languages and Cognitive Domains.

Erscheinungsdatum
Zusatzinfo 7 halftones, 1 line illustration
Verlagsort Cambridge, Mass
Sprache englisch
Maße 140 x 210 mm
Themenwelt Geisteswissenschaften Psychologie Verhaltenstherapie
Geisteswissenschaften Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaft
Mathematik / Informatik Mathematik Allgemeines / Lexika
Mathematik / Informatik Mathematik Arithmetik / Zahlentheorie
Naturwissenschaften Biologie Zoologie
Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie
Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie
ISBN-10 0-674-50443-7 / 0674504437
ISBN-13 978-0-674-50443-1 / 9780674504431
Zustand Neuware
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