| View Larger Image | rebellion: physics to personal will | Paperbackby James Brody (Author)
| List Price: | $21.95 | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | IUniverse | | Page Count: | 294 Pages | | Publication Date: | March 06, 2008 | | Sales Rank: | 4,720,903th |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
tiny differences in the nature of individuals require that each of usdiscovers, arranges, and sustains his or her unique partnerships andterritories. Because of this uniqueness you must actively steer your life rather that just letting it happen. None of us is mere clay for environment's thumbs and even the youngest of ten children is a one-off architect who renovates his parents.Using clarity, humor, and personal examples, Dr. James Brody shows why you simplify or complicate your life, form partnerships and social networks, and sometimes conform or not. He also explains why certain aspects of physics are your best friends, why your commonsense handles them so well, why women displace men, and why you shouldn't believe bell curves! To illustrate, Brody includes stories from his clients as well as from biologists Charles and Erasmus Darwin, authors William and Henry James, anthropologists Mary Leakey and Loren Eiseley, and Nobel-winners Richard Feynman and Rita Levi-Montalcini." a rich tapestry of human behavior, but done in a way that gives significance to individualism using models that physics and mathematics offer. Phase transitions, emergent networks, condensates, swarming, and other models are in the arsenal that he develops in the first half of the book and applies in its second half to evolution and behavior genetics, conflict and suicide, and resilience and personal will. This is serious work, yet it is not difficult to read. I highly recommend it."-Bryen Lorenz, Ph.D., Professor of Electrical Engineering, Widener University |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 2 reviews)
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An amazing true story of the individual as part of nature by Todd I. Stark (Philadelphia, Pa USA)  5 Stars
December 22, 2008
I've followed Jim Brody's forum for a number of years and remain fascinated by his unique and profound insights into the human condition. Although I find that his ideas are too rich to capture in a single book like this, it does give the flavor very well. I don't always end up agreeing with his ideas but they never fail to intrigue me and make me think deeply.
Brody's thought provoking comparisons between phenomena at various levels from mathematics and physics through animal and human behavior and group behavior reveal the grand unity of nature in a way that scientific explanations rarely mange to capture. His view of evolution has only a little in common with the usual treatment, often focusing on the way organisms take an active role in the construction of the environments to which they adapt and emphasizing our commanality with fruit flies as much as with apes. This doesn't excuse us from understanding our biological legacy, (on the contrary, it makes it all the more important) and it does change the rules by which we have often applied evolutionary theory to human beings. He then applies these kind of unique insights to the dramas of everyday real life.
This is a much needed and often brilliantly narrated picture of human life as part of the grand picture of nature arising over the eons, using the modern storytelling tools of mathematics and biology rather than those of ancient mythology.
Take a rare glimpse into the fascinating richness of the human soul as part of nature and treat yourself to this fascinating journey. I reccommend this book to anyone interested in human biology and psychology and wanting something really special to sink their mental teeth into.
It would be hard to read this book and come away seeing yourself and the people around you in quite the same way.
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A stimulating read about our "free won't." by Fred H. (United States)  4 Stars
March 26, 2008
Rebellion is a stimulating read about human personal will, our "free won't." Dr. Brody considers and discusses this personal will in light of, among other things, the physics of phase transitions, synchrony, power laws, emergent networks, and exploratory systems. Thought provoking and entertaining too.
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