Becoming Human cover art

Becoming Human

A Theory of Ontogeny

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Becoming Human

By: Michael Tomasello
Narrated by: Charles Constant
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

A radical reconsideration of how we develop the qualities that make us human, based on decades of cutting-edge experimental work by the former director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Virtually all theories of how humans have become such a distinctive species focus on evolution. Here, Michael Tomasello proposes a complementary theory of human uniqueness, focused on development. Building on the seminal ideas of Vygotsky, his data-driven model explains how those things that make us most human are constructed during the first years of a child's life.

Tomasello assembles nearly three decades of experimental work with chimpanzees, bonobos, and human children to propose a new framework for psychological growth between birth and seven years of age. He identifies eight pathways that starkly differentiate humans from their closest primate relatives: social cognition, communication, cultural learning, cooperative thinking, collaboration, prosociality, social norms, and moral identity.

Becoming Human places human sociocultural activity within the framework of modern evolutionary theory and shows how biology creates the conditions under which culture does its work.

©2019 The President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2018 Tantor
Anthropology Developmental Psychology Philosophy Psychology Anthropology Theory
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions cover art
Entangled Empathy cover art
The WEIRDest People in the World cover art
Cognitive Gadgets cover art
Moral Animal cover art
Philosophy of Science (2nd Edition) cover art
Facing Social Class cover art
The Book of Why cover art
The Murder of Professor Schlick cover art
A Practical Guide to CBT for Work cover art
The Evolved Apprentice cover art
Vices of the Mind cover art
Does Altruism Exist? cover art
Against the Grain cover art
The Constitution of Knowledge cover art
Conspiracy cover art

Critic reviews

“Theoretically daring, experimentally ingenious, and astonishingly generative.” (Susan Gelman, University of Michigan)

What listeners say about Becoming Human

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Dense and self-promoting

This book is written in a dry academic style which presuppose some prior knowledge of the subject on the part of the reader. In my opinion the author uses too many self-references, verging on self-promotion, without really engaging with the literature. It makes conclusive assertions while the supporting evidence does not seem all that conclusive, perhaps inevitably so. The core thesis is simple to understand and captivating (even if debatable) and could have been stated and discussed in a more charming style. Instead, the book style is more appropriate for a specialist readership and is ultimately heavy and dull. The way it is read definitely does not help.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Great material

But the narrator is so monotone and devoid of any interest in the subject matter, it’s actually painful to listen to for too long.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!