Homo Prospectus

401 Pages·2016·1.69 MB·English

by  Martin E. P. Seligman, Peter Railton, Roy F. Baumeister, Chandra Sripada

Homo Prospectus

Homo Prospectus
Martin E. P. Seligman
Peter Railton
Roy F. Baumeister
Chandra Sripada
1
1
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Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
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© Oxford University Press 2016
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Seligman, Martin E. P., author.
Title: Homo prospectus / Martin E.P. Seligman, Peter Railton,
Roy F. Baumeister, Chandra Sripada.
Description: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, [2016] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015049376 (print) | LCCN 2016005609 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780199374472 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780199374489 (UPDF) |
ISBN 9780199374496 (EPUB)
Subjects: LCSH: Prospective memory. | Cognition. | Knowledge, Theory of. |
Social learning. | Experiential learning. | Psychology.
Classification: LCC BF378.P76 S45 2016 (print) | LCC BF378.P76 (ebook) | DDC
153—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015049376
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
On this page Martin Seligman expresses his affection
and profound gratitude to Jack Templeton
(1940– 2015)

Contents
Preface  ix
Part 1 Homo Prospectus
ONE Introduction   3
TWO Intuitive Guidance: Emotion, Information,
and Experience   33
THREE Deliberative Guidance: Intuitive Guidance
in the Counterfactual Mode   87
FOUR Imaginative Guidance: A Mind
Forever Wandering   103
FIVE Collective Prospection: The Social
Construction of the Future   133
Part 2 Prospection and Life’s Enduring Questions
SIX Pragmatic Prospection   157
SEVEN Free Will and the Construction
of Options   191
viii | Contents
EIGHT Emotions: How the Future Feels
(and Could Feel)   207
NINE Morality and Prospection   225
TEN Prospection Gone Awry: Depression   281
ELEVEN Creativity and Aging: What We Can Make
With What We Have Left   305
Afterword   351
Author Index   357
Subject Index   369
Preface
Martin Seligman
What This Book Is About
We are misnamed. “Wise man” is the intended meaning of Homo
sapiens, but in contrast to Homo habilis, “handy man,” and Homo
erectus, “upright man,” our name is not a description, but only an
aspiration. And hardly one that we all achieve.
If it is not wisdom, what is it that Homo sapiens actually does so well
that no other species even approaches? Language, tools, killing, ratio-
nality, tasting bad to predators, cooperation—t o name a few—h ave all
been proposed. But closer examination of what other mammals, birds,
and social insects can do causes us to doubt our uniqueness with regard
to each of these. So with Gilbert (2006), we believe that the unrivaled
human ability to be guided by imagining alternatives stretching into
the future— “prospection”— uniquely describes Homo sapiens.