A Brief History of Humankind
开始时间: 04/22/2022
持续时间: Unknown
课程主页: https://www.coursera.org/course/humankind
课程评论: 3 个评论
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课程简介
The course surveys the entire length of human history, from the evolution of various human species in the Stone Age up to the political and technological revolutions of the twenty-first century.
课程大纲
Part I: The Cognitive Revolution
Lecture 1: An Animal of No Significance
One hundred thousand years ago, at
least six different species of humans inhabited planet Earth. Who were they?
Where did they come from? Why is there today only one species of humans—Homo
sapiens—and what happened to all the others?
Lecture 2: The Tree of Knowledge
The Cognitive Revolution, about
70,000 years ago, enabled Homo sapiens to conquer the world and drive
all other human species to extinction. Homo sapiens developed new
cognitive abilities, which manifested in the appearance of “modern language.”
How was this language different from the languages of earlier human species and
of other animals? Why can we consider the appearance of this new type of
language as the beginning of history? How is history different from biology?
Lecture 3: A Day in the Life of
Adam and Eve
What was life like for the people
who lived between the Cognitive Revolution (c. 70,000 years ago) and the
Agricultural Revolution (c. 10,000 years ago)? What did they do when they woke
up in the morning? What were their societies like? Did they have monogamous
relationships and nuclear families? Did they have religions, revolutions, and
wars?
Lecture 4: The Flood
Following the Cognitive Revolution,
Homo sapiens spread all over the planet. While doing this, it drove
numerous other species into extinction. In Australia, up to 95% of all large
animal species vanished. In America,
84 of 107 large mammal species likewise disappeared. Altogether, about half of
the large terrestrial mammal species that populated Earth became extinct. How
could a few million individuals who possessed no more than stone-age technology
have wrought such devastation?
Part II: The Agricultural Revolution
Lecture 5: History’s Biggest
Fraud
About 10,000 years ago, people in
the Middle East, China, and Central America began domesticating plants and animals.
In the process, Homo sapiens,
too, was domesticated, abandoning a life of hunting and gathering
for the pleasures and discomforts of permanent settlements. For most people,
the discomforts outweighed the pleasures. The Agricultural Revolution made the
life of the average person harder and grimmer. Why, then, did it occur?
Lecture 6: Building Pyramids
For millions of years, humans lived
in intimate bands of no more than a few dozen individuals. Our biological
instincts evolved as an adaptation to this way of life. Humans were therefore
ill-equipped to cooperate with large numbers of strangers. This hasn’t changed
much. Yet within a few millennia after the onset of the Agricultural
Revolution, humans established cities, kingdoms, and empires. How did people
manage to organize stable societies based on intensive cooperation between
millions of strangers when our biological makeup seems to preclude such
arrangements?
Lecture 7: A Revolution in
Data-Processing
One of the critical factors that
enabled millions of strangers to cooperate successfully was the invention of
writing. How was writing invented, and what was its historical significance?
Lecture 8: There is No Justice
in History
Another critical factor in the
formation of complex societies was the division of the population into a
hierarchy of groups. Agricultural and industrial societies have been built on
hierarchies of class, race, ethnicity, or gender. Why was it impossible to
create a just and equal society? What is the deep root of prejudice and
injustice? In particular, why have almost all known societies over the past
10,000 years believed that men are superior to women?
Part III: The Unification of Humankind
Lecture 9: The Arrow of History
In the millennia following the
Agricultural Revolution, humans created many different cultures. How did these
cultures relate to one another? Are there universal patterns governing the
interaction between them?
Lecture 10: The Scent of Money
Commerce has played a crucial role
in connecting and merging cultures. Of particular importance was the
invention—and spread—of money. Money is a system of mutual trust. It is in fact
the most universal, most open-minded, and most successful system of mutual
trust ever devised. How did it happen that people who believe in different gods
and obey different rulers nevertheless trust the same money?
Lecture 11: Imperial Visions
The idea of empire is seen today in
a very negative light, but empires have played such a central role in human
history that it’s hard to regard them as solidly evil. What exactly is an
empire? How have empires succeeded in uniting under their aegis different
ecological regions, ethnic groups, and religious communities? How can we
balance the positive contribution of empires with their record of violence and
oppression? And what is the future of the imperial ideal? Is the world destined
to be ruled by a new global empire?
Lecture 12: The Law of Religion
The role of religion in history is
extremely controversial. Some see religion as the root of all evil, while for
others it is the primary source of happiness, empathy, and progress. Can we
arrive at a balanced judgment? What were the main landmarks in the religious
history of the world? In what ways did different cultures understand the
universe, distinguish good from evil, and grapple with the ubiquitous presence
of suffering?
Lecture 13: The Secret of
Success
Why did some religions spread like
wildfire while others disappeared? Why did some empires last for centuries, yet
others were as ephemeral as sand castles? Can we identify the secret of historical
success, and will it help us to predict the future course of history?
Part IV. The Scientific Revolution
Lecture 14: The Discovery of
Ignorance
During the last 500 years there has
been an explosive and exponential growth in the power of humankind, due, above
all, to the formation of the modern scientific tradition and its ideal of
“progress.” Humankind has become increasingly convinced that the only thing
that limits its power is its own ignorance, and that the discovery of new
knowledge can enable it to do almost anything. How is the modern scientific
tradition different from all previous traditions of knowledge? What accounts
for its sudden rise and for its unparalleled achievements?
Lecture 15: The Marriage of
Science and Empire
The modern scientific tradition
developed in symbiosis with the modern imperial tradition. For many of their
practitioners, science and imperialism were almost indistinguishable. The
conquest of new knowledge depended upon and made possible the conquest of new
territories. Why did all of this begin in Europe
of all places, an area that previously had played no important role in world
history? How did science help build empires, and how did empire-builders repay
the scientists?
Lecture 16: The Capitalist Creed
The close relationship of science
and imperialism was in fact just one part of a ménage-à-trois. The third
crucial member of this trio was modern capitalism, which financed both science
and empire, and which orchestrated an unprecedented growth in the world
economy. How does a capitalist economy function? How is it different from
traditional economies? Is capitalism natural, or is it really a modern
religion?
Lecture 17: The Wheels of
Industry
During the last 200 years, the
combination of science, imperialism and capitalism gave humankind control of
enormous new energy resources that revolutionized human production. How did this
change the global ecology, daily life, and human psychology?
Lecture 18: A Permanent
Revolution
The industrial revolution unhinged
the world, opening an era of permanent revolution. The late modern
socio-political order is in constant flux, never settling into any stable
pattern. The pillars of human order—most notably, the family and the intimate
community—are crumbling around us. How do humans deal with the resulting vacuum
and chaos? How do society and politics function without stability? Is the world
becoming more violent and dangerous, or is it actually more peaceful and secure
than ever before?
Lecture 19: And They Lived
Happily Ever After
Have 500 years of unimaginable
discoveries, developments, and revolutions made people happier? If not, what
was the point of all these changes? Most history books ignore these issues, yet
these are the most important questions we can ask about history. New insights
from biology, economics, and psychology are offering fascinating paths of
inquiry into the history of human happiness.
Lecture 20: The End of Homo Sapiens
Over the last few decades humans
have began to bend and break the laws of natural selection—laws that have
governed life on Earth for the past four billion years. Genetic engineering,
cyborg engineering, and the engineering of completely non-organic life promise
to dislodge natural selection—in favor of intelligent design—as the supreme
principle of life. We are acquiring unprecedented abilities to design not only
the world around us, but also our own bodies, our personalities, and our
desires. How will this influence society and culture? Does anybody know where
we are heading? What exactly do we want to become?
课程评论(3条)
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超級現實的超現實理想主義者
2014-02-01 20:48
0 票支持; 0 票反对
轮次:
Aug 2013
背景:
这门课不需要什么背景知识,只要肯花时间,剩下的就交给讲师了。(稍微”Due Diligence”了一下,讲师在中东好像是个很红的年轻学者)
因为本科专业是法学专业(传说中的“平时养老院,考前疯人院”),加上一直挺鄙视所谓学生会及其相关的活动,所以除了出去实习或者打球,剩下的时间都比较闲。大学前三年花了很多时间看了大量的纪录片、电影等资料,而且因为自学金融也看了不少金融和经济学领域的教材名著,所以自认为对于社会运作规律有了一些感觉,直到当我遇到这门课。
内容:
这门课如果要用“宏伟史诗”来形容一点也不过分,其中包含了很多学科的内容,例如考古学、生物学、物理学、经济学、宗教、社会学甚至计算机科学等等。不同于台湾大学的“秦始皇”的“说教”,这门课程里面的大部分观点都是从不同的角度进行介绍,其中很多都是经无数人严格验证过的,讲师很多时候仅仅是通过自己的表达希望尽量客观地介绍一些内容,至于每个人怎么理解并没有统一的标准了。(我不太喜欢被人说教,有些道理还是自己总结比较好,所以这门课程更符合我的口味)
正因为每个人对于这门课的看法会不同,所以对我来说这门课最核心的内容,或者说贯穿课程的主线总结就是“什么是幸福?” 毫不夸张地说,这门课重新定义了我对于“幸福”理解。其中对我来说最震撼的部分应该是:“Lesson 5 History’s Biggest Fraud”
练习:
这门课的作业和考试仅仅是走个过场,主要就是弄一张证书留作纪念。
社区:
这门课的论坛讨论还是挺激烈的,有很多非常宏大或者敏感的问题在里面也有讨论。其中不出意外的,最热闹的一个帖子是关于宗教的,看到每个不同宗教背景的人在里面讨论,感觉挺奇妙的。
总结:
总结呢…这么说吧,世界上有两种人:听过这门课的,还有没听过这门课的。
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要有光LTBL
2013-10-17 13:21
1 票支持; 0 票反对
这么课到现在也只上了一半多,毕竟17周基本上是coursera上最长的课了吧。但是这门课真的讲得非常,非常,非常的好。
老师坐在椅子上把人类历史最精华的部分娓娓道来,有点像百家讲坛的感觉。这门课的重点不是那些历史事件,而是作为一个整体的历史。
比如,人类的其他近亲为什么消失?认知能力,农业革命,货币,帝国,宗教,科学,这些都是如何改变人类的。而且就我个人而言我觉得视野开阔了很多。
另外视频制作的很精良,总之各方面都无可挑剔。
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