Nayef Al-Rodhan quotes

Human beings are emotional amoral egoists, driven above all by emotional self-interest. All of our thoughts, beliefs and motivations are neurochemically mediated, some predetermined for survival, others alterable. (Nayef Al-Rodhan)
I define sustainable history as a durable progressive trajectory in which the quality of life on this planet or other planets is premised on the guarantee of human dignity for all at all times and under all circumstances. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Human nature is governed by general self-interest and affected by genetic predisposition, which implies that there are likely to be limits to our moral sensitivities. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Morally relevant emotions are essential for living in social groups and they provide the basis on which we may construct conceptual frameworks that help guide our actions, but human beings should more accurately be thought of as being endowed with morally relevant capacities rather than innate moral knowledge. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Each high point in the history of human civilisation has taken place where the conditions were ripe and has borrowed and built on the achievements of other cultures whose golden age may have passed. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Much of what we often consider knowledge is actually a point of view held without sufficient grounds: in a word, dogma. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
It is unrealistic to imagine a US geostrategic vision which sees its pivotal interests linked exclusively to the Pacific region. More appropriately, we need to consider the wider Middle East, Central Asia and North-East Africa to be bound together in a geopolitical unit of pivotal importance. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Globalization is a process that encompasses the causes, course, and consequences of transnational and transcultural integration of human and non-human activities. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
We are neither radically free to choose our nature nor entirely determined by our biological heritage. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
People should be educated about the links between education, ideology, and politics as a way to promote the virtue of humility. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
There is a physical neurobiological substrate to all human knowledge, including thoughts, memories, perceptions and emotions. To this end, mental states and thought processes are physical. (Nayef Al-Rodhan)
Human beings are largely motivated by their emotional repertoire, manifested through their need for attachment, physical security, a sense of belonging and a positive personal and collective identity. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Strict ethical guidelines need to be developed in anticipation of significant technological and biotechnological advances in order to guarantee human dignity. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
There is only one collective human civilisation comprised of geo-cultural domains and cultures. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
All knowledge is acquired through the application of reason and has a physical basis. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Ultimately, I conclude that however we understand existence, what gives meaning to our lives are those things that serve our neurochemically based emotional self-interest in a sustainable way. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
In order to stop the cycle of disenfranchisement, frustration, and discontent, dignity must be central, paving the way for a governance model that is affordable, acceptable, and applicable to various regional and cultural sensibilities. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
The lack of collective dignity felt by so many in the Arab world is the result of a combination of internal autocratic and corrupt regimes, with predictable ineffective and unaccountable governance, supported by external actors with short-term geopolitical interests. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Addictive drugs misuse the brain's existing pre-programming, activating reward mechanisms and extreme feelings of pleasure. When stimulated, the brain's pleasure centres emit signals to repeat the behaviour. In this sense, the brain is pre-programmed to feel good. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Emotional Amoral Egoism indicates that ethnic conflict should be understood in terms of a reaction to a failure to satisfy a group's basic physiological, security and ego needs due to discrimination, experienced by a group whose relations are premised, above all, on cultural affinities. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Justice is paramount to civilisational triumph because of its centrality to human dignity needs, the success of individual geo-cultural domains and the well-being of human civilisation. (Nayef Al-Rodhan)
In a globalized world, security can no longer be thought of as a zero-sum game involving states alone. Global security, instead, has five dimensions that include human, environmental, national, transnational, and transcultural security, and, therefore, global security and the security of any state or culture cannot be achieved without good governance at all levels that guarantees security through justice for all individuals, states, and cultures. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Circumstances will determine what I term the survival value of humankind's moral compass. Being highly moral in an immoral environment will almost certainly be detrimental to one's survival and vice versa. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Neuro-rational Physicalism is premised on the neuro-biological foundation of human nature, which implies that thoughts, perceptions or emotions correspond to a physical reaction in the brain. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Cultural essentialism is, thus, intimately tied to power relations. Fixity, homogeneity and separateness are prioritised within an essentialist framework. Therefore, part of any effort to resist essentialism is recognising diversity within difference, contingency, mutability and connectedness. View quote
Nayef Al-Rodhan