Matthew Alexandar Sarraf - Modernity and Cultural Decline: A Biobehavioral Perspective

Matthew Alexandar Sarraf , Michael Anthony Woodley of Menie and Colin Feltham

Modernity and Cultural Decline

A Biobehavioral Perspective

Modernity and Cultural Declineis a breathtaking scientific analysis of the riseand now the declineof Western civilization. The authors use of bio-genetics is unique and profound. Spengler and Toynbee would have been interested. We also should be interestedand forewarned.

Seymour Itzkoff,Professor Emeritus of Education, Smith College, USA

The authors advance a bold thesis to explain the decline of the West in terms of evolutionary processes. They discuss cutting-edge evolutionary theories of human sociality The authors explain the social epistasis amplification model and the role of spiteful mutations. The book puts human nature, genes and evolution back into historiography and sociology , from where those concepts have been largely expelled since the mid-twentieth century. The final chapter advances cosmological reasoning by providing a far-futures vision of the possible course of human space-colonization This is the real thing, sharp minds offering testable hypotheses based on quantitative models. As I readModernity and Cultural Declineit occurred to me that many university departments deserve to be restocked with genuine scientists.

Frank Salter,Former Researcher of the Max Planck Society, Germany

A profoundly important book. The authors have that rarest of combinations: vision and courage. This, combined with a vast technical knowledge, makes for a potent force. To tackle the evolutionary-genetic basis for the problems of Western civilization, in light of industrial technology, seems obvious, and yet they are the first to do so. And even if their highly pessimistic conclusion pans out, there is still much value in understanding our road to collapse. One can only hope that society finds the will to engage with these vital and consequential ideas.

David Skrbina, Senior Lecturer,University of Michigan, Dearborn, USA

Modernity and Cultural Declineis a supremely bold, thoroughgoing biological account of often unacknowledged double-edged or negative impacts of modernity [such as] rising psychopathology, nihilistic outlook and social incohesion. The actual plusses and minuses of life in the modern era are teased out in a profound chapter clearing away the political and philosophical lenses through which commonly modernity is viewed. Socio-cultural phenomenathe puzzle of the demographic transition as well as industrializationno less than psychology and morphology are here shown to be highly amenable to study in terms of genetics and evolution

In unusual depth of argumentation with voluminous evidence, there is no flinching at the great complexity of the data, which is treated forensically. Criticism in particular is dealt with comprehensively.

The gauntlet is thrown down with near exhaustive detail, providing food for thought, irrespective of how near the mark the authorsor in agreement the readermay be. This is the sort of science book of which we need more: highly innovative and expansive to the point of seeming blue-sky-thinking that nevertheless is grounded.

Steve Moxon, Independent Researcher,Author ofSex Difference Explained(2016)

M.A.S.: To the memory of my grandparents

M.A.W.o.M.: To the memory of Professor Henry Cosad Harpending

The essential message of this book is that Western populations are in decline, by which we mean that they are changing in a number of significant ways that are reasonably considered to be undesirable. Although this deterioration is manifest most clearly at the sociocultural level, we argue that its ultimate basis is in human biological evolution. Modern Western people have been losing a number of important traits, including intelligence and what might be called existential vigor, understood as an individuals robust psychological commitment to his culture-bound way of life. This is apparent across a host of indicators of mental and physical health , intellectual productivity and ability, social cohesion , and perceived meaning in life. As they seem to comprise the foundation of advanced civilizations , the loss of these traits may prove catastrophic in the long run. The deepening of social isolation (declines in family formation alongside high rates of family dissolution; solitary living; preference for short- over long-term relationships), profane and narcissistic culture (secularization and rejection of all forms of transcendence, especially those encouraging sacrifice for anything other than individual hedonistic gain), and ideological/sub-cultural fragmentation (political strife; opposition to widely shared standards of behavior) all indicate societal degradation. None of these problems is likely to be corrected in the foreseeable future. They are all