Dr. Leora Batnitzky, author of “How Judaism Became a Religion: An Introduction to Modern Jewish Thought” will be giving a lecture tomorrow night at Drexel University.

Check out a great conversation between Peter Singer and Robert Wright on an episode of Bloggingheads! Starting with the reissue of Singer’s book The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress, they go on to discuss how moral arguments have evolved, how human reasoning is linked to moral progress, wondering if aliens would share our morality, and the highs and lows of being a philosopher.

Be sure to re-read your copy of The Expanding Circle for more food for thought on morality as universal or relative, tied up with questions about whether morality is biologically or culturally based:

The shift from a point of view that is disinterested between individuals within a group, but not between groups, to a point of view that is fully universal, is a tremendous change — so tremendous, in fact, that it is only just beginning to be accepted on the level of ethical reasoning and is still a long way from acceptance on the level of practice. Nevertheless, it is the direction in which moral thought has been going since ancient times. Is it an accident of history that this should be so, or is it the direction in which our capacity to reason leads us?

Whether one is for war or against it, humans generally agree that warfare is a terrible thing. Wars happen when people are unable to settle disputes using our higher faculties, the capacity to reason and compromise that differentiates us from animals. War is, therefore, a degenerative act for humanity. …right?

Nicholas Wade’s article in the New York Times this week explains that over the course of human history war may have been the strongest factor in promoting the evolution of human altruism, the trait on which human societies have been founded. It’s the same problem proposed by Rousseau in The Social Contract: “The problem is to find a form of association which will defend and protect with the whole common force the person and goods of each associate, and in which each, while uniting himself with all, may still obey himself alone, and remain as free as before.” Humans are a strangely independent and dependent species. Evolutionarily speaking altruism is nonsense: why should I sacrifice my own self interest to yours? How would that help an individual survive? And yet humans are constantly sacrificing their own interests for those of another–a spouse, a family unit, a community, or in the case of modern warfare, a vast nation of strangers.

The seemingly paradoxical evolutionary development of altruism is easily resolved if you consider natural selection as a group effort. By banding together, people were more easily able to promote their own survival, and thus the instinct for group preservation developed in conjunction with self preservation. As Wade notes, “Warfare may not usually be thought of as a form of cooperation, but organized hostilities between chiefdoms require that within each chiefdom people subordinate their individual self-interest to that of the group.”

Wade concludes with the conjecture proposed by A Cooperative Species authors Bowles and Gintes: that warfare “may have contributed to the spread of human altruism.” Communities that are successfully able to organize and raid others gain advantageous resources that increase their potential for survival.

The article is well worth a read. And pick up a copy of A Cooperative Species–you may be surprised by what you learn about the human race!

PUP author Viktor Mayer-Schönberger gave an interesting interview in the Guardian last week. In it he proposes an idea that most of us would find counter-intuitive: that it is a blessing, rather than a human weakness, to forget.

It is at first tricky to understand–after all, human beings tend to value memory. Knowledge is made up of memories linked together to form our personal bank of experience, without which we would never be able to learn and innovate. Throughout history human progress has been based in remembering, the ability to learn from what our forefathers have discovered and built in order to create something new. Cave paintings and hieroglyphs were the first images and diagrams preserving human memory for future generations.

Yet Mayer-Schönberger believes that there is such a thing as too much memory. In our time, the development of digital technology has made the storage and recall of memory an entirely different process. In his book, Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age, he outlines what the digital age is doing to human experience. Rather than being forced to weigh the value of a memory, a piece of knowledge, humans are able to retain it all–but at what cost? Can one ever forgive a slight if it is stored in an email bank for eternity, never to be forgotten? Should our memories be shared with the world on sites like Facebook? Is it really best for human beings to have no secrets? And, nowadays, do we have any other choice?

Mayer-Schönberger notes, “Quite literally, Google knows more about us than we can remember ourselves.” The article provides a fascinating look at the power technology holds over us. Check it out, and pick up Delete to learn more about what solutions Mayer-Schönberger has to offer.

Patrick McGovern is a professor of archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the man responsible for Dogfish Head Brewery‘s acclaimed Ancient Ales, a series of beers created using methods and ingredients that stick as faithfully as possible to brewing recipes used by ancient peoples.

In its article on the “Beer Archaeologist,” the Smithsonian.com explains the unlikely connection between the worlds of Professor McGovern, pictured left, and Dogfish Head Brewery founder Sam Calagione, pictured right. As it turns out, the two men have much in common when it comes to a real passion for the art of brewing.

McGovern’s interest in the alcohol production industry in fact springs directly from his archaeological background. He accidentally created an entirely new field of study when he analyzed the remnants of an unknown substance found in an ancient Iranian pottery jar and discovered that it was a type of alcohol. He published an article on his findings, and a new culture was born. Now in addition to serving as an adjunct professor at Penn, McGovern holds the title of “Scientific Director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Laboratory for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages, and Health at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia,” a position that could never have existed not long ago.

In the article McGovern presents some interesting hypotheses about the importance of alcohol in culture and in the history of mankind, similar to those explored in his book Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture. If you are a beer or wine enthusiast you might already know how ancient people distilled fruit and grain to create alcoholic beverages, but McGovern presents the idea of “wine cultures” in a whole new light. The article even mentions the “beer before bread” theory that hypothesizes “the desire for drink may have prompted the domestication of key crops, which led to permanent human settlements.”

The article is well worth a read, both for the surprising insights McGovern shares and for the interesting history of the man himself. Grab yourself a bottle of one of Dogfish Head’s Ancient Ales (Chateau Jiahu is my favorite, if you can find it) and get to reading. You’ll be absorbing ancient culture into your body and your mind all at once!

Last week the New York Times ran an article on Peter Goodfellow’s Avian Architecture: How Birds Design, Engineer, and Build, and the public response has been positively overwhelming! Yesterday the article was at number 11 on the NYT online list of most emailed articles. Here is what some fans have had to say:

Star Tribune author Jim Williams, the “WingNut” columnist, writes: “I read “Avian Architecture” cover to cover without putting it down. I’m fascinated by nests, being built, in use, or abandoned at season’s end. Goodfellow now has me actively looking for nest constructions I haven’t seen…”

From the blog No Charge Bookbunch: “…a book review about Avian Architecture caught my interest in the New York Times today…the author’s scientific explanation of Australian bowerbirds’ nests gave a good model to emulate…”

The design-oriented blog zee. writes “I love books that make you look at the world a little differently…I never thought of birds as builders and engineers (no offense, birds), but they clearly are, in their own right,” while notcot, a blog of “ideas+aesthetics+amusement” was taken with this photo of a hanging nest:

The blog Co.Design also praises both the imagery and content of Goodfellow’s book. “This isn’t a lavish coffee-table book — information is privileged over visuals — but there’s plenty to marvel at… Our favorites are the examples of biomimicry — instances of us mirroring nature in our own architecture. But most of the nests are remarkable feats – especially when you consider that they’re built with the assistance of a single tool — a beak — which, as Goodfellow writes, is a little like “trying to make a ham and cheese sandwich with one hand behind your back.”” (That would be very tricky!)

Whether you are a bird nest enthusiast, architecture fan, or just enjoy beautiful and inspiring images, Avian Architecture: How Birds Design, Engineer, and Build is well worth picking up!

The Arabian Nights stories may be far more controversial than you ever imagined.

In an interview on WPR, author Andrei Codrescu and Professor Reza Aslan talk about the interesting origins of the Arabian Nights stories. According to Aslan, the story of 1001 Nights were originally translated into the English language in the Victorian era to serve as sex manuals for repressed British men, much in the way that the Kama Sutra is considered by some today. His article of the Arabian Nights stories as “Islamic Erotica” appeared in Playboy Magazine. (Excerpts from that article can be found here.)

Codrescu notes that the Arabian Nights stories are interesting because their original author is unknown. As such they have been revised and rewritten by generations of authors and editors, changing the message (and degree of eroticism) of the tales. Codrescu also insists that the oral nature of the stories play an important role in their seductive effect. They are by definition never ending–Sheherezade depends on her skill as a story teller to stay alive–and thus are written (or spoken) to continually arouse curiosity and interest in the reader (or listener).

Both experts agree that the fantastic and exotic nature of the stories are what have drawn centuries of readers to the Arabian Nights stories. Even the Disney classic Aladdin was derived from one of Sheherezade’s many tales. The interview explores the stories’ connections to everything from historical figures who may have inspired the characters in 1001 Nights to the current “erotic” events that fascinate the public today (Congressman Weiner, for example). Take a listen to this educational and entertaining interview here, and check out Codrescu’s take on the famous story in Whatever Gets You through the Night: A Story of Sheherezade and the Arabian Entertainments.

“The best stories are those told with the threat of death in the morning” –or so claims author Andrew Codrescu in his interview on Hawaii public radio last week.

The conversation was about his new interpretation of the Arabian Nights stories, Whatever Gets You through the Night. In it Codrescu reveals some of the personal and creative reasons why he was drawn to retelling these stories in particular. He also considers the importance of oral story telling and how it has changed yet remained the same in modern life. (For example, have you ever considered twitter or facebook as a medium for telling never ending stories?)

The interview is both an interesting look at what inspires an author to write on a subject, and a glimpse into Codrescu’s life. Check it out here and pick up a copy of Whatever Gets You through the Night for yourself!

Two Princeton University Press titles are on this year’s Library Journal Online list of Best Sellers in U.S. History!

Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle Over American History by Jill Lepore is number six on the list, and Reading Obama: Dreams, Hopes, and the American Political Tradition by James T. Kloppenberg is number fourteen.  Both books are a great introduction to better understanding the current political situation in America.  Pick them up today for your summer reading!

Religion Dispatches Magazine Online’s Lauri Lebo has a good suggestion for what to do this coming Saturday when, according to Harold Camping, true believers will ascend to heaven while the rest of the Earth heads towards destruction: throw a party!

Apparently many atheists (and believers who don’t think the Rapture is coming in two days) have decided to ring in the purported end of the world with a celebration.  Lebo has a few tips for a successful judgement day bash, including appropriate drinks to serve (such as the “Death in the Afternoon,” a Hemingway favorite) and what time to start your festivities (6 p.m. is allegedly when the Rapture will begin).

Interestingly enough, the reported information about the rapture includes not just a specific start time, but a prophesy that there will be “a great earthquake, such as has never been in the history of the Earth.” If this sounds familiar, it may be because historically earthquakes have figured into the apocalyptic predictions of many civilizations. Read Apocalypse: Earthquakes, Archaeology, and the Wrath of God by Amos Nur with Dawn Burgess to find out more!

(And please, be careful with that absinthe!)

Happy Pi Day, all! Had he lived, Albert Einstein would have been 132 years old today. In honor of the day, we’ve compiled a reading list of all our best loved PUP Einstein books, along with free chapter excerpts. So, browse, select and read! Celebrate Pi Day with us and all of the authors that Einstein has inspired. Enjoy!

1. The Meaning of Relativity, Fifth Edition: Including the Relativistic Theory of the Non-Symmetric Field
by Albert Einstein, with a new introduction by Brian Greene

2. What Are Gamma-Ray Bursts? by Joshua S. Bloom
Read

3. The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 12: The Berlin Years: Correspondence, January-December 1921
Edited by Diana Kormos Buchwald, Ze’ev Rosenkranz, Tilman Sauer, József Illy & Virginia Iris Holmes
Read

4. The Ultimate Quotable Einstein Collected and edited by Alice Calaprice
Read

5. Einstein’s Jury: The Race to Test Relativity by Jeffrey Crelinsten
Read

6. Physics of the Interstellar and Intergalactic Medium by Bruce T. Draine
Read

7. The Curious History of Relativity: How Einstein’s Theory of Gravity Was Lost and Found Again by Jean Eisenstaedt
Read

8. Einstein for the 21st Century: His Legacy in Science, Art, and Modern Culture
Edited by Peter L. Galison, Gerald Holton & Silvan S. Schweber
Read

9. The Little Book of String Theory by Steven S. Gubser
Read

10. Strange New Worlds: The Search for Alien Planets and Life beyond Our Solar System by Ray Jayawardhana
Read

11. Traveling at the Speed of Thought: Einstein and the Quest for Gravitational Waves by Daniel Kennefick
Read

12. The Extravagant Universe: Exploding Stars, Dark Energy, and the Accelerating Cosmos by Robert P. Kirshner
Read

13. How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space by Janna Levin
Read

14. How Did the First Stars and Galaxies Form? by Abraham Loeb
Read

15. Astrophysics in a Nutshell by Dan Maoz
Read

16. High-Energy Astrophysics by Fulvio Melia
Read

17. It’s About Time: Understanding Einstein’s Relativity by N. David Mermin
Read

18. Physics and Technology for Future Presidents: An Introduction to the Essential Physics Every World Leader Needs to Know by Richard A. Muller
Read

19. Our Cosmic Habitat by Martin Rees
Read

20. Einstein Before Israel: Zionist Icon or Iconoclast? by Ze’ev Rosenkranz

21. Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb
Edited by David E. Rowe & Robert Schulmann
Read

22. Einstein’s Miraculous Year: Five Papers That Changed the Face of Physics Edited and introduced by John Stachel
Read

23. Einstein’s German World by Fritz Stern
Read

24. How Old Is the Universe? by David A. Weintraub.
Read

25. Fearful Symmetry: The Search for Beauty in Modern Physics by A. Zee, with a new foreword by Roger Penrose
Read

Dan Reiter has authored two groundbreaking works on war with PUP: Democracies at War (with Allan C. Stam) and How Wars End. With detailed analysis of over twenty major conflicts, Dan’s works bring clarity to the infinitely complex subject. His summer reading choices broaden the scope of war even further, dealing with the day-to-day life of a solider in Vietnam, and the struggles of a country in the aftermath of WWII.

“One of my more enjoyable reads this summer was Matternhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War, by Karl Marlantes. It’s a Vietnam War-era novel, written by a Vietnam veteran. The novel follows one Marine unit through several weeks of combat operations in a mountainous border region. It is one of the few Vietnam War era novels which primarily focuses on relatively conventional combat operations, rather than on things like pacification, counter-guerrilla strategy, and/or relations with South Vietnamese civilians. It is well-written, and filled with lots of gritty description of a soldier’s life that only a combat veteran would know. I also appreciated the depiction of race relations among Marines, which forms an important portion of the plot. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the Vietnam War or in combat fiction. I would say it’s one of the better Vietnam War novels I’ve read, perhaps alongside The 13th Valley by John del Vecchio.”

“I am currently reading Austerity Britain: 1945-1951 by David Kynaston. It is a social and economic history of Britain during the immediate postwar period, describing the everyday life of the British population, as well as relevant domestic policies embraced by the government. The kinds of areas it covers include housing, food rationing, and popular culture phenomena like fashion, sport, and the emergence of television. I am getting a much better sense of how surprisingly difficult day to day life was for the British population during this period, and the lively nature of British government debate about what policies should be embraced to push forward British recovery. There was, for example, a quite open embrace of socialism by a number of politicians. I would recommend it to anyone interested in British history, or to anyone who enjoys getting a very textured feel of what day to day life is like at a particular place in a particular time. Regarding the latter, perhaps the kind of person who relishes the period authenticity of the television show Mad Men would enjoy this book.”

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