Recommended Movies and Documentaries
This class is too short to do anything more than indicate a direction. A direction towards the human need to care.
Here are links to movies and documentaries that I recommend as showing the power unleashed by care.
Here are links to movies and documentaries that I recommend as showing the power unleashed by care.
- Who Cares? An Ashoka documentary about the ideas and drive of 18 entrepreneurs that have changed the world.
- This Changes Everything , A documentary by Naomi Klein about how human caring can transform the driving force of our economy towards sustainable solutions.
- Gattaca The story of genetics versus desire: "having it all" and "wanting it all"
- Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption An historical, biographical, sports, war-drama version of Laura Hillenbrand's book by the same name.
April 21, 2016 - The Proposition
Please note: All readings and videos are optional! They are resources for your pleasure.
Video
- Robert Wright, TED Talk (2006): "Progress is not a zero-sum game"
April 28, 2016 - Values, Emotions & Rationality
Videos
- Frans de Waal TED Talk (2011): "Do Animals Have Morals?"
- Jonathan Haidt TED Talk on the Moral Mind (2008): "The Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives"
- Steven Pinker and Rebecca Newberger Goldstein TED Talk (2012): "The Long Reach of Reason"
- How Ants Communicate - YouTube
- Jonathan Haidt and Craig Joseph, "Intuitive ethics: how innately prepared intuitions generate culturally variable virtues" Daedalus, American Academy of Sciences, 2004, pp. 55-67. Sent by email.
- Candace Pert, "The Science of Emotions and Consciousness", excerpt from Measuring the Immeasurable, The Scientific Case for Spirituality, 2008. Sent by email.
- Antonio R. Damasio, excerpt from Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain, 1994. Sent by email.
May 5, 2016 - Economics in a Nutshell?
Videos
- Hans Rosling, Freakonomics, 2010: "Visualizing Mortality History "
- Dan Ariely, "What is Behavioral Economics?"
- Dan Ariely, TED Talk, "Are We in Control of our Own Decisions?"
- TopTenz's "Ten Awesome Things You Didn't Know About Ants"
- The Atlantic interview with Raj Raghunathan, University of Texas at Austin professor of business, "Why so many smart people aren't happy"; or you may click here for a PDF of the interview with a couple of comments my comments added.
- Gerald Hüther, excerpts from The Compassionate Brain: How Empathy Creates Intelligence . A caring psychiatrist and an insightful neuroscientist, Hüther explains in narrative language the deep concern that invokes our capacity to grow as evolving humans. Sent by email.
- David C. Korten, excerpts from Change the Story, Change the Future: A Living Economy for a Living Earth . Korten shares an excellent insight about contemporary economic theory: It is built around the "firm" rather than around the "household." He offers alternative views. Sent by email.
- John Maynard Keynes, "Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren". This is a lovely piece written in 1930 when the world population was just 2 billion and the ability to have enough food for everyone was within sight.
- Adam Smith, excerpt from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations - concerning money as the "wheel of exchange,"
- Carl Zimmer, "The Brain," Discover Magazine, November 2010. This short article explains the "traffic jam" that seems to happen in the part of our brain associated with logical, sequential thinking.
May 12, 2016 - Considering Possibilities
_Videos
- Jill Bolte Taylor, Feb 2008 TED Talk, "My Stroke of Insight"
- Barbara Fredrickson, TEDxLowerEastSide, "Remaking Love"
- Viktor Frankl speaks to a group of youth on "Man's Search for Meaning"
- Ben Zander, Feb 2008 TED Talk, "The Transformative Power of Classical Music"
- Ben Zander, co-author of the book The Art of Possibility, "Great! What's Next?" - Article in the Sept/Oct 2012 issue of The Intelligent Optimist. Sent by email.
- David Brooks, introduction and chapter on the process of transformation as described by Augustine of Hippo from his book The Road to Character. Sent by email.
- Edward L. Deci, table of contents and chapter 1 of his book Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation. Sent by email.
May 19, 2016 - Keeping On Keeping On
Videos
- A Starling Murmuration
- What was the real message of Limits to Growth? YouTube summary of the MIT Club of Rome report.
- Martin Nowak, last chapter of his book with Roger Highfield, SuperCooperators: Altruism, Evolution and Why We Need Each Other to Survive. Sent by email.
- Jonathan Haidt, excerpt from Chapter 2 of The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom on Boethius and Lady Philosophy . Sent by email.
- Tor Nørretranders, excerpt from The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size. Ch. 6: "The Bandwidth of Consciousness." Sent by email.
- Donald W. Pfaff, excerpt from The Altruistic Brain: How We Are Naturally Good. Ch. 2: "The Altruistic Brain Theory." Sent by email.
- Andrew Newberg, et al, excerpts from Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief. Sent by email.
- Peter Senge, "Systems Citizenship" , a free article in the publication Reflections on Knowledge, Learning, and Change from the Society for Learning Organizations Journal.