Biography/History/Social Science What makes us good or bad? Underlying the violence that tears our world apart is there any way to resolve the raging differences that not only drive power mad political leaders and terrorists, but also the global clash of parents, teachers, religions, and all wars? Are there somewhere potentially peaceful and unifying foundations for right versus wrong? In this first of six books for his Moral Evolution Cycle evolutionary systems scientist David Loye uncovers compelling answers in "the lost story of the great explorers of the better world." Vividly recapturing their lives, works, and times, he tells of how against opposition from authoritarian religions, governments, and social systems, over 200 years the founders of modern social science fought to expand the ability of our species to build better lives and a better world for ourselves. Often controversial, at times widely reviled, the explorers range from Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim and Sigmund Freud to, more recently, Jean Piaget, Erich Fromm, Lawrence Kohlberg, Carol Gilligan, Jessie Bernard, Jean Baker Miller, and Riane Eisler. Particularly striking is Loye's discovery that within their often radically different works lies the gradual uncovering of a foundation for right versus wrong that we customarily see as only politically meaningful. What The River and the Star regains is the power of the vision of the deeper and wider moral drive that lies behind the worn phrase "freedom and equality." In a tour de force of biography, history, and science, written with the page turning flair of an adventure tale, we see how behind not only our sense of right versus wrong, but every aspect of our lives lies the motivating vision of the Star of freedom and the unifying vision of the River of equality. Evolutionary systems scientist David Loye is the author of the award-winning The Healing of a Nation, five succeeding books for his Moral Evolution Cycle, and a six book Darwin Anniversary Cycle to globally advance a "healing of the nations." Though written for a wide general readership, this book will be market tested for college courses fall and spring terms 2007-2008.