“Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari and the Meaningless Path to Happiness

The second part of a review of this intriguing and much mistaken look at human history.

Photo by Goashape on Unsplash. Human happiness is the supreme good Harari accepts but there are only two ways he suggests it can be achieved: one, directly through biochemistry and two, by overcoming our desire for it.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari is a rollicking ride through the entire history of the human species beginning before Homo Sapiens. The first part of this review examined the contradictions, inconsistencies and sometimes bizarre conclusions offered by Harari. Example: the Agricultural Revolution is likely the greatest crime in human history. In this second part Harari’s views on human happiness, meaning and the future of our species will be examined.

Humanism, says Harari, is a religion of the worship of mankind where humans are the summum bonum and the flourishing of humans — human happiness — is the greatest good. Harari expresses some reservations about this as he believes that all animate life and perhaps even inanimate matter deserve more or less equal treatment as humans. In this regard he goes beyond speciesism. But, the last two chapters deal exclusively with human happiness, meaning and the future of the species. Spoiler alert: the future prospects are grim.

Harari rightfully points out that historians have generally avoided the question of happiness:

“They have researched just about everything — politics…