Books by Daniel Cohen

Originally published as Le monde est clos et le desir infini by Albin Michel, Paris, France, and is copyright Editions Albin Michel--Paris 2015.

In these retellings, Cohen draws on ancient myths, ballads, and tales with an insightful new twist, telling them against the conventional grain to act as a critique of men and society. His stories provide new insights into gender roles, especially those involving heroism today. 142 pp.

The West has long defined the pursuit of happiness in economic terms but now, in the wake of the 2007-8 financial crisis, it is time to think again about what constitutes our happiness.In this wide-ranging new book, the leading economist Daniel Cohen traces our current malaise back to the rise of homo economicus: for the last 200 years, the modern world has defined happiness in terms of material gain. Homo economicus has cast aside its rivals, homo ethicus and homo empathicus, and spread its neo-Darwinian logic far and wide. Yet, instead of bringing happiness, homo economicus traps human beings in a world devoid of any ideals. We are left feeling empty and dissatisfied.Today more and more people are beginning to recognize that competition and material gain are not the only things that matter in life. The central paradox of our era is that we look to the economy to give direction to our world at the very time when social needs are migrating toward sectors that are hard to place within the scope of market logic. Health, education, scientific research, and the world of the Internet form the heart of our post-industrial societies, but none of these belong to the traditional economic mould. While human creativity is higher than ever, homo economicus imposes himself like a sad prophet, a killjoy of the new age.Drawing on a rich array of examples, Cohen explores the new digital and genetic revolutions and examines the limitations of homo economicus in our rapidly transforming world. As human beings have an extraordinary ability to adapt, he argues that we need to rebalance the relation between competition and cooperation in favour of the latter.This thought-provoking analysis of our contemporary predicament will be of great value to anyone interested in the relationship between what happens in our economies and our personal happiness.

Daniel Cohen has vividly reconstructed the life and times of Henry Stanley, the discoverer of the Nile's source, using Stanley's original newspaper reports and writings.

This book for young readers gives an overview of some of the biggest mistakes made throughout history, illustrating the message 'everyone makes mistakes' in a manner both entertaining and fascinating. 20 black and white illustrations.

This riveting account of Hiram Bingham, a man who made some of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century as a real-life Indiana Jones, will fascinate young readers.

In this book, Daniel Cohen explores the connections between arguments and metaphors most pronounced in philosophy, because philosophical discourse is both thoroughly metaphorical and replete with argumentation. The metaphors we use for arguments, as well as the ways we use metaphors as arguments and in arguments, provides the basis for a tripartite theoretical framework for understanding and evaluating arguments. There are logical, rhetorical, and dialectical dimensions to arguments, each providing norms for conduct, vocabulary for evaluation, and criteria for success. In turn, the identified roles for arguments in general discourse can be applied to metaphors, helping to explain what they mean and how they work. Cohen covers the nature of arguments, their modes and structures, and the principles of their evaluation. He also addresses the nature of metaphors, their place in language and thought, and their connections to arguments, identifying and reconciling arguments'' and metaphors'' respective roles in philosophy.