ABSTRACT
Long, long ago we humans proved at least to our own satisfaction that we are supremely clever and manipulative beings. During the European Enlightenment we took our self-satisfaction as a species to its logical extreme. That was the time in European history, also called the Age of Reason, when many educated souls took it upon themselves to write about the reformation of human society in accord with carefully reasoned principles. However, if we truly want to understand what it means to be human—rather than, say, a chimpanzee or a gorilla—we cannot just look on the bright side of things. And let’s face it, there is a lot of evidence showing we are not nearly as wonderful as we might wish to believe. In this chapter we offer a selection of brief but revealing recent news accounts illustrating the tenuous hold that reason and logic can have on human behavior.
