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The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence Mass Market Paperback – December 12, 1986

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,603 ratings

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“A history of the human brain from the big bang, fifteen billion years ago, to the day before yesterday . . . It's a delight.”—The New York Times

Dr. Carl Sagan takes us on a great reading adventure, offering his vivid and startling insight into the brain of man and beast, the origin of human intelligence, the function of our most haunting legends—and their amazing links to recent discoveries. 

“How can I persuade every intelligent person to read this important and elegant book? . . . He talks about all kinds of things: the why of the pain of human childbirth . . . the reason for sleeping and dreaming . . . chimpanzees taught to communicate in deaf and dumb language . . . the definition of death . . . cloning . . . computers . . . intelligent life on other planets. . . . Fascinating . . . delightful.”—The Boston Globe

“In some lost Eden where dragons ruled, the foundations of our intelligence were laid. . . . Carl Sagan takes us on a guided tour of that lost land. . . . Fascinating . . . entertaining . . . masterful.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A history of the human brain from the big bang, fifteen billion years ago, to the day before yesterday . . . It's a delight.”The New York Times

“How can I persuade every intelligent person to read this important and elegant book? . . . He talks about all kinds of things: the why of the pain of human childbirth . . . the reason for sleeping and dreaming . . . chimpanzees taught to communicate in deaf and dumb language . . . the definition of death . . . cloning . . . computers . . . intelligent life on other planets. . . . Fascinating . . . delightful.”
The Boston Globe

“In some lost Eden where dragons ruled, the foundations of our intelligence were laid. . . . Carl Sagan takes us on a guided tour of that lost land. . . . Fascinating . . . entertaining . . . masterful.”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

From the Inside Flap

Dr. Carl Sagan takes us on a great reading adventure, offering his vivid and startling insight into the brain of man and beast, the origin of human intelligence, the function of our most haunting legends--and their amazing links to recent discoveries.
"A history of the human brain from the big bang, fifteen billion years ago, to the day before yesterday...It's a delight."
THE NEW YORK TIMES

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0345346297
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ballantine Books; Reprint edition (December 12, 1986)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780345346292
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0345346292
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.16 x 0.73 x 6.87 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,603 ratings

About the author

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Carl Sagan
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Carl Sagan was Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and Director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University. He played a leading role in the Mariner, Viking, and Voyager spacecraft expeditions to the planets, for which he received the NASA medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement. Dr. Sagan received the Pulitzer Prize and the highest awards of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation, and many other awards, for his contributions to science, literature, education, and the preservation of the environment. His book Cosmos (accompanying his Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning television series of the same name) was the bestselling science book ever published in the English language, and his bestselling novel, Contact, was turned into a major motion picture.

Photo by NASA/JPL [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,603 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book engaging and thought-provoking. They praise the author's intelligence and humor, describing him as intelligent and brilliant. The book is described as well-constructed, reliable, and a great value for money. Opinions differ on the dated content - some find it timeless while others consider it a bit outdated.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

82 customers mention "Readability"78 positive4 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and enjoyable. They say it's well-written, insightful, and a breath of fresh air. The simple verses from great authors are appreciated.

"...This part provides a good segue into the even more interesting part of the book which deals with some fascinating speculations on the reptilian..." Read more

"...Many interesting pictures from around the world as well as simple verses from great authors...." Read more

"...But despite being hugely outdated, I found this section to be extremely enjoyable and interesting because Sagan was predicting a future that now..." Read more

"...this and this was a great introduction to his clear thinking and writing style...." Read more

61 customers mention "Thought provoking"58 positive3 negative

Customers find the book insightful and interesting. They say it provides a powerful insight into the scientific method and Sagan's own mind. The book contains facts about the human brain that impressed them as young scientists. The author's writing style is persuasive, though it is a bit more theoretical than usual.

"...that I was wrong and am glad I read it; it has given me plenty of fodder to think about and has prompted me to seek out new research on the topic...." Read more

"...Fascinating stuff. Eventually Carl gets down to ET life and contacting them and the use of intelligent machines...." Read more

"...hugely outdated, I found this section to be extremely enjoyable and interesting because Sagan was predicting a future that now has already happened...." Read more

"...by Dr. Sagan prior to reading this and this was a great introduction to his clear thinking and writing style...." Read more

10 customers mention "Sturdiness"8 positive2 negative

Customers find the book well-constructed and reliable. They describe it as a thought-provoking read, even though some science content can be difficult to understand.

"I bought this book for a evolutionary psychology class. Very good shape and worked perfect for class...." Read more

"The book itself came from a library, which is fine. The condition is Very Good: cover clean, no torn/written on/missing pages...." Read more

"...Sagan is poetic in his descriptions, and provides significant, well constructed, arguments towards the evolution of human intelligence and beyond...." Read more

"...The pages are very brittle, and are loose in the binding. I'm worried that when I turn the page it might fall out, or literally crumble...." Read more

9 customers mention "Intelligence"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the book engaging. They appreciate Carl Sagan's vibrant intellect and charming humor. The book sheds light on many of the unique characteristics of human nature and its origin. Readers also mention that the book sheds light on basic science, evolutionary psychology, and technology in the 1970s.

"...Sagan is quite upbeat about chimp intelligence and he spends a sizable part of the book talking about experiments that reveal chimps’ prowess in..." Read more

"...Sadly in 1996 Carl Sagan passed away. The world misses a great astronomer, scientist, writer and a great man...." Read more

"...It is what makes humans so unique. Without it and its special properties, the conduct of science itself would be impossible...." Read more

"...dated 1986, it was originally written in 1977, and Carl Sagan's vibrant intellect and charming humor show through much more clearly than his later..." Read more

4 customers mention "Value for money"4 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's value for money. They mention getting a great deal on a former library copy of a hardcover.

"...day and the book itself was brand new, very happy with purchase and price." Read more

"...Got a great deal on a former library copy of a hard cover and am really having a good read with it." Read more

"A good read. Great price. Not for everyone, but if you're looking for a Sagan classic, this is a good one." Read more

"great seller and even better book." Read more

27 customers mention "Dated content"12 positive15 negative

Customers have different views on the book's dated content. Some find it timeless and thought-provoking, while others consider it a bit outdated. The science is considered outdated in some parts, but still fascinating.

"...While parts are outdated, other parts make for fascinating scientific information that is still just as relevant today as it was in 1977...." Read more

"...These qualities are on full display in this fascinating book, written in 1977 ...." Read more

"The book is a bit dated of course as it was written in the 1970's, but the material and the presentation appeared to be timeless...." Read more

"Although this edition is dated 1986, it was originally written in 1977, and Carl Sagan's vibrant intellect and charming humor show through much more..." Read more

5 for content, 3 for format
4 out of 5 stars
5 for content, 3 for format
What can you say, it's a Putlizer winner for Carl Sagan. The physical book itself could be better: the papers are a bit too dark and figures aren't super clear, especially when there are texts within the figures.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2017
    One of the late Carl Sagan’s hallmark qualities was to engage in speculation to a degree that was unusual for a rigorous scientist. While this sometimes resulted in largely unnecessary scorn and mockery from his fellow scientists, his honest skepticism combined with his open-mindedness also led to some of the most memorable popular science writing of our times. These qualities are on full display in this fascinating book, written in 1977 . Sagan tackles a topic that is far from his expertise – the evolution of human intelligence – and largely succeeds in presenting highly thought-provoking theses for us to ponder. Much of the book discusses what was then frontier research in neuroscience, but what makes it different are Sagan’s regular speculations.

    The book tries to make sense of two important facts about the human brain: our strikingly different cognitive abilities relative to other animals and the interplay between emotion and reason. Sagan is quite upbeat about chimp intelligence and he spends a sizable part of the book talking about experiments that reveal chimps’ prowess in using sign language. He also talks about the mysterious communication used by whales and dolphins that still defies comprehension. Clearly apes can come quite close to using the kind of simple vocabulary that humans do, so why are humans the only ones which actually crossed the language barrier, profiting from breakthrough linguistic inventions like recursive embedding and complex sentence construction? Sagan advances a chilling and all too likely hypothesis, that humans killed off apes who they thought came dangerously close to mimicking their linguistic capabilities. Given how closely language is tied to human intelligence, it then ensured that humans would be the dominant species on the planet; chimps, gorillas and orangutans were presumably saved because they lived deep inside the inaccessible jungle. Sagan’s discussion of animal intelligence hems uncomfortably close to ethical discussions about the killing of animals that are still so pertinent; what gives us the right to clearly assign personhood to a one-month-old fetus but not to a two-year-old chimpanzee, to have serious qualms about terminating the life of the former while cheerfully ending the life of the latter? Coming on the heels of this comparison is Sagan’s commonsense (in my opinion) take on abortion: he tries to reach a compromise by arguing that it should be unethical to kill a human fetus after it develops the first rudiments of a cerebral cortex, presumably the one thing that distinguished humanity from other species. Later work would probably cast some doubt on this assertion, since reptiles have also now been found to possess cortical cells.

    This part provides a good segue into the even more interesting part of the book which deals with some fascinating speculations on the reptilian origins of human intelligence. Sagan’s fulcrum for this discussion is a theory by psychiatrist Paul McLean who divided the brain into three parts (the “triune brain”). At the top is the uniquely human cerebral cortex which controls thought, reason and language. The second layer is the limbic system containing structures like the amygdala which modulate emotions like anxiety. The limbic system also includes the basal ganglia and the R complex, an ancient, inherited assembly responsible for instinctive behavior, including responding to reward and punishment. Finally you have the “neural chassis” which just like a car’s chassis includes structures like the brain stem responsible for basic and primitive functions: breathing, blood flow and balance for instance.

    Sagan’s focus is the R complex, part of the “reptilian brain”. It is quite clear that parts of this brain structure are found in reptiles. Reptiles and mammals have an ancient relationship; reptiles originated 500 million years before human beings, so we came into a world that was full of hissing, crawling, terrestrial, arboreal and aquatic reptiles. As Sagan describes, it’s no surprise that many of the world’s foremost civilizations and religions used reptiles as key symbols; from the snake in Eden to the worship of snakes in ancient Egypt to snake symbolism in modern day India, reptiles and human have shared an indelible bond. Reptiles have also often featured as omens in dreams dictating the fates of empires and societies. Some of our reptilian connections raise mundane but fascinating questions; for instance, Sagan wonders whether the shushing sound we make for communicating silence or disapproval is a leftover of the hissing sound of reptiles.

    But how does this relationship contribute to our behavior? It is here that the book takes off from firm ground and starts gently gliding on speculation.
    Sagan’s main springboard for investigating the R complex is Roger Sperry’s seminal work in delineating the separate roles of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. As Sperry demonstrated in amazing split-brain studies, the left brain is more logical and analytical while the right is more synthetic imaginative. Sagan’s contention is that the right brain is really the essence of our reptilian origins, helping us fantasize and imagine, and it’s also a key part of what makes us creative human beings. This is most prominent when we are dreaming. Notice that dreams almost never include details of problem solving, instead they feature highly imaginative scenarios, part familiar and part alien that seem to be largely driven by our fears and hopes: are we partly seeing the world through our ancient reptilian neuroanatomy when we are dreaming, then? Are dreams holdovers from a prehistoric world where, because of inadequate shelter and protection, we had to stay alert and awake during the night to engage with snakes and crocodiles on their own terms? And in the ensuing history of civilization, did reptilian anatomy contribute to our achievements in art and music? Sagan believes that we should encourage the operation of our reptilian brain, constantly tempering its excesses with the logical constraints of the left hemisphere. This distinction between right and left brain behavior also raises very interesting questions regarding whether we can suppress one or another temporarily using drugs and surgery. In fact, it’s likely that that is partly what hallucinogens like LSD do. Here we see Sagan the Renaissance Man, trying to bridge hard scientific thinking with artistic intuition.

    With its bold style and engaging language, “The Dragons of Eden” won a Pulitzer Prize. While I was aware of it, I always thought it would be too dated. I now realize that I was wrong and am glad I read it; it has given me plenty of fodder to think about and has prompted me to seek out new research on the topic. The book asks fascinating questions about our kinship with other creatures and about the evolution of our brain, topics that will be of perpetual and consummate interest as long as our species is around.
    87 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2010
    Having read Cosmos 5 stars and Contact 5 stars( see my reviews) by the famous astronomer/scientist Carl Sagan I had high hopes for The Dragons of Eden. I was not disappointed. Another great book.

    Carl tells us human brain evolution, brain anatomy and physiology are not his specialty field but he is going to tackle the subject and try to write so the layman can understand it. As usual he succeeds putting a complex subject down on paper for the less educated to be able to understand. He was a master at this.

    In college I had a Paleontology course and did a paper on the evolution of the horse. I enjoyed the course and it may have helped me enjoy this book more.

    Carl starts with a Cosmic year calender of the universe and we see man has only been on earth since Dec 31. We see good arguments by Carl on the agreement of the Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin and useful genetic information and survival traits passed to future generations as individuals with good traits survive and reproduce while others with less desirable traits die and their genetic information is not passed on. DNA and RNA are explained as well as simple organisms to more complex organisms. Much time is spend on the higher primates, hand structure, and tool using. Also the different parts of the brain are shown and how information is transferred to different parts of the brain. Cases of people with Epilepsy, brain injuries and brain operations are shown and how memory, thought and intelligence are affected. Brain size is shown in different organisms and degrees of intelligence is shown. Fascinating stuff.

    Eventually Carl gets down to ET life and contacting them and the use of intelligent machines. You can tell the amount of digital computers was very small when this book was written and some of what was presented is now outdated but Carl did say computer power and the amount of computers would increase drastically. Interesting Viking Mars spacecraft computing power is mentioned and we can see how outdated that computing power now is.

    Many interesting pictures from around the world as well as simple verses from great authors. A gigantic bibliography is there for you to get more information.

    You don't have to have a PHD in Paleontology or an MD on brain anatomy to enjoy this book. The master Carl Sagan has again wrote this book so people can understand a difficult subject. Sadly in 1996 Carl Sagan passed away. The world misses a great astronomer, scientist, writer and a great man. We never met and did not know one another. As an amateur astronomer of over 40 years I considered him my friend and had the utmost respect for him.

    The Dragons of Eden another great book by Carl Sagan. 5 stars
    17 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Rafa
    5.0 out of 5 stars Sagan é essencial
    Reviewed in Brazil on January 17, 2024
    Sagan foi talvez o cientista mais completo que já passou pela Terra.

    O dom da palavra, aliado à sagacidade do pensamento e ao olhar crítico, criaram a figura que, ao escrever tantas obras geniais, iluminou a mente de muitos jovens, que certamente se viram tentados a seguir uma carreira na ciência. A obra é certamente a mais brilhante do autor, e tem passagens tão incríveis, que relê-las é quase uma obrigação.
  • Douglas Wilson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Always interesting!
    Reviewed in Canada on September 3, 2023
    I enjoyed reading it and learned many new facts, ideas and link ups. I need to read it again and to note page references or Kindle-version searchable keywords at places that were notable, on the spot as they come up. I find that I understood but did not retain well. Maybe I am getting old, and was reading other powerful books before and after. My initial interest was to find out what he thought about the probability of intelligence developing. In the book "The Anthropic Principle" I found, to my great surprise, that evolutionary biologists believe it was an incredible lucky break, far from inevitable even if given much time. This is entirely counter to Asimov's view and to my own belief when younger that of course there would be intelligent extra-terrestrial life, lots of it.
  • Christopher Beadle
    5.0 out of 5 stars A good read for the entertainment of creationists.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 10, 2024
    As a creationist who believes God's infallible word,"THE HOLY BIBLE"above the speculations of fallible mans muddled thinking that everything came from nothing instead of a first cause this is a good read and I recommend it to creationists and evolutionists alike.
  • Cliente Amazon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Per gli amanti della scienza
    Reviewed in Italy on December 16, 2022
    Se ti piace la scrittura di Carl Sagan e/o in generale la scienza, questo libro non può mancare nella tua libreria. Consigliato
  • Kindle-Kunde
    5.0 out of 5 stars 1977 erschienen, kein bisschen verstaubt
    Reviewed in Germany on January 9, 2020
    Fesselnd geschrieben. Natürlich hat sich in der Zwischenzeit einiges getan. Doch der Text ist zeitlos.
    Ein wenig merkwürdig und nicht sehr überzeugend der Versuch Freud durch den Bezug auf Neuroanatomie und Neurophysiologie zu "rehabilitieren".