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How long does it take to read Just Babies?

Paul Bloom

Just Babies by Paul Bloom takes about 5 hours to read at 250 words a minute.

About 5 hours

A weekend read

First published 2013. 273 pages, about 75,075 words.

10 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 8 hours 21 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 5 hours
Fast, 400 words a minute 3 hours 8 minutes

The page count is the median across 2 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

"From Sigmund Freud to Jean Piaget, psychologists have long believed that we begin life as amoral animals. After all, isn't it the role of society--and especially parents--to transform babies from little psychopaths into civilized beings who can experience empathy and shame, and override selfish impulses? In Just Babies, Paul Bloom argues that humans are in fact hardwired with a sense of morality. Drawing upon years of original research at Yale, he shows that babies and toddlers can judge the goodness and badness of others' actions; that they act to soothe those in distress; and that they feel guilt, shame, pride, and righteous anger. Yet this innate morality is tragically limited. Our natural morality extends toward those in our own group, but this is offset by ingrained dislike, even hatred, of those in different groups. Put simply, we are natural-born bigots. Vivid and intellectually probing, Just Babies argues that it's only through our uniquely human capacity for reason that we can transcend the primitive sense of morality we are born with. This erudite yet accessible book will captivate readers of Steven Pinker, Philip Zimbardo, and Robert Wright."--

Subjects: Child development, Values, Psychological aspects, Infant psychology, Ethics, Good and evil

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