Awe : the new science of everyday wonder and how it can transform your life /
Material type: TextPublisher: New York : Penguin Press, 2022Description: xxvi, 309 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781984879684
- 1984879685
- 152.4 23/eng/20220921
Item type | Current library | Home library | Collection | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Loan | Coeur d'Alene Library Adult Nonfiction | Coeur d'Alene Library | Book | 152.4 KELTNER (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610023313070 | |||
Standard Loan | Hayden Library Recently Returned | Hayden Library | Book | 152.4/KELTNER (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610024165396 | |||
Standard Loan | Liberty Lake Library Adult Nonfiction | Liberty Lake Library | Book | 152.4 KEL (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 31421000717596 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
A National Bestseller!
"Read this book to connect with your highest self." --Susan Cain, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Bittersweet and Quiet
"We need more awe in our lives, and Dacher Keltner has written the definitive book on where to find it." --Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again
" Awe is awesome in both senses: a superb analysis of an emotion that is strongly felt but poorly understood, with a showcase of examples that remind us of what is worthy of our awe." --Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and Rationality
From a foremost expert on the science of emotions, a groundbreaking and essential exploration into the history, science, and greater understanding of awe
Awe is mysterious. How do we begin to quantify the goose bumps we feel when we see the Grand Canyon, or our utter amazement when we watch a child walk for the first time? Until recently, there was no science of awe, that feeling we experience when we encounter vast mysteries that transcend our understanding of the world. Revolutionary thinking, though, has shown how humans have survived over the course of evolution thanks to our capacities to cooperate, form communities, and create culture--all of which are spurred by awe.
In Awe , Dacher Keltner presents a sweeping investigation and deeply personal inquiry into this elusive feeling. Revealing new research alongside an examination of awe across history, culture, and within his own life, Keltner shows us how cultivating awe in our everyday lives leads us to appreciate what is most humane in our human nature. At turns radical and profound, brimming with enlightening and practical insights, Awe is our field guide for how to place this emotion as a vital force within our lives.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
"From professor of psychology at U. C. Berkeley and one of the foremost experts on the science of emotions comes a groundbreaking and essential exploration into the history, science, and understanding of awe, and a guide for how we might all cultivate a deeper sense of awe and transform our lives and our world Awe, one of the most elusive emotions, is hard to pin down. How do we begin to measure the goosebumps we feel when we first see the Grand Canyon, or the utter amazement when we watch a child walk for the first time? How do you put into words the collective effervescence of standing in a crowd and singing in unison, or the wonder you feel while gazing at centuries-old works of art? Up until fifteen years ago, we didn't know how to measure awe, the feeling we get when encountering vast mysteries that transcend our understanding of the world. Scientists were studying emotions like fear and disgust, emotions that seemed essential to how the human race endures. But recently, we've come to realize that through the span of evolution, we meet our most basic needs socially. We survive thanks to our capacities to cooperate, form communities, and create culture that strengthen our sense of shared identity - actions that are sparked and spurred by awe. In AWE, Dacher Keltner, one of the leading experts on the science of emotions, presents a radical investigation and deeply personal inquiry into awe. Revealing new research into how awe transforms our brains and bodies, alongside an examination of awe across history, culture, and within his own life, Keltner shows us how awe leads us to appreciate what is most humane in our human nature. And during a moment in which our world feels more divided than ever before, we need a story of awe, an invitation to cultivate awe in our everyday life as an antidote. If we open our minds, it is awe that sharpens our reasoning and orients us towards big ideas and new insights, that cools our immune system's inflammation response and strengthens our bodies. It is awe that activates our inclination to share and create strong networks, to take actions that are good for the world around us. It is awe that transforms who we are, that inspires the creation of art, music, and religion. At turns radical and profound, brimming with enlightening and practical insights into the power of awe, AWE is both an invitation and a field guide, from not only one of the leading voices on the subject, but a fellow seeker of awe in his own right, to place awe as a vital force within our lives"--
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- Introduction (xv)
- Section I A Science of Awe
- 1 Eight Wonders of Life (3)
- 2 Awe Inside Out (29)
- 3 Evolution of the Soul (43)
- Section II Stories of Transformative Awe
- 4 Moral Beauty (69)
- 5 Collective Effervescence (94)
- 6 Wild Awe (117)
- Section III Cultural Archives of Awe
- 7 Musical Awe (145)
- 8 Sacred Geometries (166)
- 9 The Fundamental It (193)
- Section IV Living a Life of Awe
- 10 Life and Death (223)
- 11 Epiphany (237)
- Acknowledgments (251)
- Credits (253)
- Notes (255)
- Index (297)
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
Keltner's (psychology, Univ. of California, Berkeley; Born To Be Good) book considers what awe is and the contexts in which it arises. It looks at how awe transforms thoughts of self, one's relationship to the world, and physical reactions to it. The author analyzes personal stories in which his participants exhibited awe at the beauty they discovered in libraries, art institutions, and scientific explorations. He looks at finding collective effervescence in activities like dance, professional basketball, and other collective movements. He also examines nature and how it has been used as a source to heal the traumas of combat, loneliness, and poverty. The richness of nature has been used to open eyes, minds, and hearts, and lets people see their problems on a smaller scale, enabling them to sort out solutions to their problems. Finally, Keltner explores awe in music, visual arts, religion, and spirituality. He also probes life and death, while positing eight wonders of life where awe reveals personal insights into the meaning of life. VERDICT This book is destined to become a classic and should be included in any behavioral and social sciences library.--Claude UryPublishers Weekly Review
This wonderful outing by University of California, Berkeley psychology professor Keltner (The Power Paradox) lays out a scientific overview of awe. He contends that awe is a "basic human need" that's good for one's well-being and produces a transcendent sense of dissolving boundaries between the self and the wider world. Pondering why awe sometimes produces tears, Keltner suggests that adults might tear up as a learned reaction from childhood when one cried while feeling "small and lacking agency," an emotion similar to the overwhelming sensation that accompanies awe. The feeling has practical applications, the author posits, detailing scientific studies that found awe to be associated with lower levels of inflammation and capable of mitigating perceptions of political polarization. He outlines the "eight wonders of life" that are most likely to induce awe: moral beauty (e.g., courage in battle), collective effervescence (e.g., participating in a political rally), nature, music, visual art, spirituality, mortality, and epiphanies. Their power, he writes, stems from their likelihood to remind the beholder that "we are part of many things that are much larger than the self." Eye-opening science and Keltner's appropriate sense of wonder add up to an enlightening take on the importance and potency of awe. Readers will be enchanted. (Jan.)Kirkus Book Review
How and why the sensations of awe create deeply memorable moments in modern life. In this insightful report, Keltner--a psychology professor and director of the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California and author of Born To Be Good and The Power Paradox--parlays his two-decade career teaching the nuances of happiness into a focused guide to discovering awe and bliss in the human experience. Through stories from a wide variety of careers, callings, situations, and perspectives, the author explores the kind of deeply embedded first-person spiritual and emotional truths that "science simply cannot capture." These anecdotes include his own brush with the enduring grief of losing his younger brother, who had colon cancer and died via assisted suicide, an event the inspired him to write this book. Keltner identifies four recognizable aspects, or "stories," of awe. In early chapters, the author probes scientific and theoretical viewpoints, and he examines how awe is defined and measured, why it occurs, and the methods uniquely exhibited by individuals who experience it. This research is bolstered by Keltner's firm belief in the eight wonders of life, which include simple gifts like collective effervescence ("human waves of awe"), nature, music, personal epiphanies, and the marvels of life and death. Most compelling are the personal stories, which demonstrate a fascinating assortment of opinions and perspectives on what people individually consider awe-inspiring. The author's interest in restorative justice brought him to San Quentin State Prison, where inmates shared the things that bring them awe from behind bars as well as how music, visual art, and nature contribute to stress-relieving, growth-inducing sensations. Through his work as an expert in the science of goodness and human emotions, Keltner ably renders these transformative, defining moments with illuminative prose and encouragement for readers seeking their own awe-inspired deliverance. A timely reminder to appreciate the awe-inspiring everyday wonders flourishing all around us. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.Author notes provided by Syndetics
Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the faculty director of UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center. A renowned expert in the science of human emotion, Dr. Keltner studies compassion and awe, how we express emotion, and how emotions guide our moral identities and search for meaning. His research interests also span issues of power, status, inequality, and social class. He is the author of The Power Paradox , the bestselling books Born to Be Good and Awe , and the coeditor of The Compassionate Instinct.There are no comments on this title.