Very provocative! I gave it 10 stars not because I agree with all points Yuval made, but I find them intellectually stimulating. He is definitely smart and articulate. He draws interesting and philosophical conclusions from historical events. This book shall be deemed more of a philosophy book than a history one. So, overall it is a very thought provoking, well-written history/philosophy book. Especially the last chapter on happiness is awesome. However, I also have couple criticism about some of Yuval's ideas, some of which I wanna share here. Yuval does not believe in any sacred values, beliefs or ideas of human history including equality, human rights, God, religions or even the soul. Throughout the book he mentions atheist, materialist and evolutionist views as hardcore scientific truths without discussing any weaknesses of these views. For example how did the matter come into existence out of nothing in the first place. Or how did life start on earth. He is defining evolutionary forces as “blind”. But then interestingly he comes to believe that these blind forces, made up of unconscious atoms, somehow ‘by chance’ created such a magnificent world including millions of different species each of which are equipped with the state of the art tools, organs and systems. My point is you cannot impose your views as hard core scientific truths if they are only weak theories. It is also very interesting to see that Yuval considers equality and individual freedom contradict each other. His reasoning is ‘Because, equality can be ensured only by curtailing the freedoms of those who are better off’. What he misses is by ‘equality’, it is meant the equality of ‘rights and opportunities’, not the equality of biological or psychological traits. Also, by ‘freedom’ it is not meant the absolute freedom. There is a good saying that ‘your freedom ends at the border of others’ freedom’. So, given these correct definitions of equality and freedom, there is no contradiction. But the real issue here is as an evolutionist atheist Yuval does not believe in the concepts of equal rights and justice. The only force he believes in is the evolution and evolution means ‘difference’, not equality. In the book Yuval mentions that ‘Scientists studying the inner workings of the human organism have found no soul there.’ This is funny. Because soul by definition is not a material being. So, how can a smart guy like him expect it to be observed in laboratories? Another point that I don’t agree with Yuval is about the use of history for the prediction of future. He claims that history cannot be used to predict future since it is a level 2 chaotic system. With this remark, he contradicts himself because at the end of the book, he is making predictions about future based on the history. To me, history can help us make reasonable predictions about future with high probability of success. So, it increases the quality of our predictions. Also, it can give us a ballpark sense of direction for future.

Sapiens: A Brief History of HumankindYuval Noah Harari · Vintage · 201436,5bin okunma

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