Lionel Tiger – författare

Pleasure is biologically desirable and good for physical and mental health. In The Pursuit of Pleasure, Lionel Tiger explores this aspect of human nature by focusing on the origins and forms of pleasure. Medical science has perfected a host of often astonishingly impressive methods for preventing, alleviating, or recovering from pain. Its opposite, pleasure, has not had such a well-funded and fully justified constituency. In fact, those committed to the understanding and pursuit of pleasure, are rarely accorded respect and a sense of significance. People have objected to the notion of pleasure for a variety of reasons. The most complex derive from religious convictions that the most morally admirable human life is marked by abstemiousness, suffering, even martyrdom. There is also a corresponding fear that people may pursue pleasure too avidly and with too strong a sense of entitlement, and the world''s work will not get done. But just as there have been suspicions of the dangers of pleasure, there have also been its supporters who assert its vital and joyful centrality to human experience. The Pursuit of Pleasure favors an agnostic approach borrowed from natural science.

In lively, witty, and eminently readable prose, Tiger identifies major forms of pleasure and explores their variations, now and in the past. Pleasure, says Tiger, is not a luxury but an evolutionary entitlement that deserves to be taken seriously. As we acknowledge our need for enjoyment, we understand the need to establish balance in our lives-our need for the pursuit of pleasure.

Pleasure is biologically desirable and good for physical and mental health. In The Pursuit of Pleasure, Lionel Tiger explores this aspect of human nature by focusing on the origins and forms of pleasure. Medical science has perfected a host of often astonishingly impressive methods for preventing, alleviating, or recovering from pain. Its opposite, pleasure, has not had such a well-funded and fully justified constituency. In fact, those committed to the understanding and pursuit of pleasure, are rarely accorded respect and a sense of significance. People have objected to the notion of pleasure for a variety of reasons. The most complex derive from religious convictions that the most morally admirable human life is marked by abstemiousness, suffering, even martyrdom. There is also a corresponding fear that people may pursue pleasure too avidly and with too strong a sense of entitlement, and the world''s work will not get done. But just as there have been suspicions of the dangers of pleasure, there have also been its supporters who assert its vital and joyful centrality to human experience. The Pursuit of Pleasure favors an agnostic approach borrowed from natural science.

In lively, witty, and eminently readable prose, Tiger identifies major forms of pleasure and explores their variations, now and in the past. Pleasure, says Tiger, is not a luxury but an evolutionary entitlement that deserves to be taken seriously. As we acknowledge our need for enjoyment, we understand the need to establish balance in our lives-our need for the pursuit of pleasure.

When Men in Groups was first published in l969, the New York Times daily critic titled his review "The Disturbing Rediscovery of the Obvious." What was so obvious was male bonding, a phrase that entered the language. The links between males in groups Tiger describes extend through many other primate species, through our evolution as hunters/gatherers, and cross-culturally.

Male bonding characterizes human groups as varied as the Vatican Council, the New York Yankees, the Elks and Masons the secret societies of Sierra Leone and Kenya.The power of Tiger''s book is its identification of the powerful links between men and the impact of females and families on essentially male groups. While the world has changed much, the argument of the book and its new introduction by the author suggest that a species-specific pattern ofamale bonding continues to be part of the human default system. Perhaps one day concrete evidence of its location will emerge from the startling work on the human genome, just as the elaborate and consequential sex differences to which Men in Groups drew such pioneering attention have already become part of the common wisdom. Meanwhile, Men in Groups remains a measured andaresponsibleabut intrepid inspection of a major aspect of human social organization and personal behavior. The book was controversial when it first appeared, and often foolishly and unduly scorned. But it has remained a fundamental contribution to the emerging synthesis between the social and natural sciences.

When Men in Groups was first published in l969, the New York Times daily critic titled his review "The Disturbing Rediscovery of the Obvious." What was so obvious was male bonding, a phrase that entered the language. The links between males in groups Tiger describes extend through many other primate species, through our evolution as hunters/gatherers, and cross-culturally.

Male bonding characterizes human groups as varied as the Vatican Council, the New York Yankees, the Elks and Masons the secret societies of Sierra Leone and Kenya.The power of Tiger''s book is its identification of the powerful links between men and the impact of females and families on essentially male groups. While the world has changed much, the argument of the book and its new introduction by the author suggest that a species-specific pattern ofamale bonding continues to be part of the human default system. Perhaps one day concrete evidence of its location will emerge from the startling work on the human genome, just as the elaborate and consequential sex differences to which Men in Groups drew such pioneering attention have already become part of the common wisdom. Meanwhile, Men in Groups remains a measured andaresponsibleabut intrepid inspection of a major aspect of human social organization and personal behavior. The book was controversial when it first appeared, and often foolishly and unduly scorned. But it has remained a fundamental contribution to the emerging synthesis between the social and natural sciences.