Horatio Nelson was a shrewd political operator who charmed and impressed political leaders. He was a difficult subordinate, only happy when completely in command, and capable of great ruthlessness. This biography takes a look at Nelson's status as a hero, explaining how Nelson achieved such extraordinary success.
Reason, we are told, is what makes us human, the source of our knowledge and wisdom. If reason is so useful, why didn't it also evolve in other animals? If reason is that reliable, why do we produce so much thoroughly reasoned nonsense? In their groundbreaking account of the evolution and workings of reason, Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber set out to solve this double enigma. Reason, they argue with a compelling mix of real-life and experimental evidence, is not geared to solitary use, to arriving at better beliefs and decisions on our own. What reason does, rather, is help us justify our beliefs and actions to others, convince them through argumentation, and evaluate the justifications and arguments that others address to us. In other words, reason helps humans better exploit their uniquely rich social environment. This interactionist interpretation explains why reason may have evolved and how it fits with other cognitive mechanisms. It makes sense of strengths and weaknesses that have long puzzled philosophers and psychologists--why reason is biased in favor of what we already believe, why it may lead to terrible ideas and yet is indispensable to spreading good ones.--
Why people are not as gullible as we think Not Born Yesterday explains how we decide who we can trust and what we should believe—and argues that we're pretty good at making these decisions. In this lively and provocative book, Hugo Mercier demonstrates how virtually all attempts at mass persuasion—whether by religious leaders, politicians, or advertisers—fail miserably. Drawing on recent findings from political science and other fields ranging from history to anthropology, Mercier shows that the narrative of widespread gullibility, in which a credulous public is easily misled by demagogues and charlatans, is simply wrong. Why is mass persuasion so difficult? Mercier uses the latest findings from experimental psychology to show how each of us is endowed with sophisticated cognitive mechanisms of open vigilance. Computing a variety of cues, these mechanisms enable us to be on guard against harmful beliefs, while being open enough to change our minds when presented with the right evidence. Even failures—when we accept false confessions, spread wild rumors, or fall for quack medicine—are better explained as bugs in otherwise well-functioning cognitive mechanisms than as symptoms of general gullibility. Not Born Yesterday shows how we filter the flow of information that surrounds us, argues that we do it well, and explains how we can do it better still.
Die fachgerechte Erbebensicherung von Bauwerken ist heute nicht mehr eine Frage der Erkenntnisse, sondern eine Frage der Ausbildung von Bauingenieuren und Architekten und somit der Umsetzung vorhandenen Wissens in die Praxis. Durch wenige gezielte Massnahmen konzeptioneller und konstruktiver Art sowie durch eine problemgerechte Berechnung und Bemessung kann das Schadenrisiko drastisch vermindert und ein hoher Schutzgrad gegen Einsturz erreicht werden. Das Buch ist auf die Bedürfnisse des praktisch tätigen Bauingenieurs ausgerichtet; mit seiner starken Gewichtung des erbebengerechten Entwurfs hilft es, konzeptionelle Fehler und Mängel zu vermeiden, da diese auch durch eine noch so ausgeklügelte ingenieurmässige Berechnung und Bemessung nicht kompensiert werden können. Das Buch gibt aber auch zahlreiche Hinweise zu aktuellen Forschungsthemen.