Presenting the book Elemental at COPAO

What this video is about

This video features the presentation of the book Elemental. Explorando la humanidad desde la Nueva Ilustración (Exploring humanity from the New Enlightenment), by Alberto Moreno Gámez, held at the Colegio Oficial de la Psicología de Andalucía Oriental (the official College of Psychology of Eastern Andalusia). The dean, Mariela Checa, opens the event by highlighting the College’s commitment to science communication and reviews the author’s career as a psychologist, psychotherapist and lecturer.

Alberto Moreno explains that the book, with more than 500 pages and 47 chapters, is not intended as a self-help manual, but aims to bring scientific knowledge to everyday phenomena such as boredom, curiosity, magical thinking or tribal morality. He defines the New Enlightenment as an attitude that combines curiosity, critical thinking, humility and science applied to daily life, in a context of polarisation and simplistic explanations. He also discusses the human capacity to cooperate, the difference between the soldier mindset and the scout mindset, and the idea that beliefs should be open to revision without feeling that one’s identity is under threat.

Víctor, a board member of the College, reads several passages and describes the book as a call for calm and critical thinking. The conversation also covers the value of saying “I don’t know”, humour, the challenges of technology and artificial intelligence, echo chambers and families’ responsibility regarding screen use.

Topics: New Enlightenment, critical thinking, science communication, polarisation, technology