Essay Questions — Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Prompts for essays, seminars and exam practice. Each pairs a question with a brief note on what a strong response might weigh — use them as starting angles, not answers.

The argument from fiction

"Sapiens conquered the world through shared fictions rather than strength or intelligence." Evaluate Harari's central thesis using his examples of money, religion and the nation-state. Consider: what exactly a "fiction" is for Harari, and whether calling money a fiction weakens or clarifies its power.
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Distinguish Harari's three levels of reality — objective, subjective and intersubjective. Is "intersubjective reality" a genuine philosophical category or a rhetorical device? Consider: whether human rights are best described as fictions, facts, or something in between.
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How does the concept of an imagined order explain the stability of societies that most of their members would, in some sense, prefer to change? Consider: Harari's claim that even our belief in our own individuality is an imagined order.
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Progress, happiness and value

Assess Harari's claim that the Agricultural Revolution was "history's biggest fraud." Whom did farming benefit, and whom did it harm? Consider: the difference between the success of a species and the well-being of an individual.
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"Progress has not made humans happier." Defend or challenge this reading of Sapiens. Consider: the biochemical, meaning-based and Buddhist accounts of happiness Harari surveys, and why he reaches no firm conclusion.
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Harari argues that science cannot supply its own goals and must borrow them from religions and ideologies. What are the consequences of this claim for how we should govern new technologies? Consider: the separation of facts from values in the "discovery of ignorance."
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Power, hierarchy and history

"There is no justice in history." Analyze Harari's account of imagined hierarchies using his treatment of slavery, race or gender. Consider: the "vicious circle" by which a chance event becomes a supposedly natural order.
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Compare the roles of money, empire and religion as forces of human unification. Which does Harari treat as the most powerful, and is he persuasive? Consider: why he insists money is the most tolerant of the three.
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Harari is notably reluctant to condemn empire outright. Is his "balanced" treatment of imperialism intellectually honest or morally evasive? Consider: the difference between explaining a historical force and endorsing it.
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Method and the future

Sapiens has been praised as a thrilling synthesis and attacked as over-confident popular history. Using specific claims, assess how much weight its sweeping method can bear. Consider: where Harari presents speculation as fact, and whether the framework survives the disputed details.
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In the final chapters Harari argues that Sapiens is replacing natural selection with intelligent design of itself. How does this reframe the rest of the book's history? Consider: whether the story of human fictions prepares us to wield literal power over life.
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"Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don't know what they want?" Use Harari's closing question to assess what kind of book Sapiens ultimately is — history, warning, or philosophy. Consider: what the book gains and loses by ending on a question rather than an answer.
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