Over the past decade there has been a sea change in the way we assess moral reasoning, judgment, and behavior. The old view, developed and championed largely by introspective philosophers, was that people actually reason about choices before making decisions that have moral or ethical impacts. While some decisions are in fact made this way, [...]
Entries Tagged as 'ethics'
Misfires of Moral Psychology
February 1st, 2012 · 8 Comments · Evolutionary Adaptation, History, Hunter-Gatherers, Morality
Tags:ethics·evolution of morals·innate morality·intuitive morality·John Rawls·Jonathan Haidt·Kant·moral judgment·moral psychology·moral reasoning·prosociality
Atheism, Orthodoxy & Funerary
January 14th, 2012 · 10 Comments · Atheism, Morality
Terry Eagleton has taken aim at Alain de Botton’s oxymoronic new book, Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believers Guide to the Uses of Religion. Eagleton is bulls-eye on the book, which basically argues that although religions are false they are still useful and we can learn from them. Eagleton correctly points out that this sort of [...]
Tags:Alain de Botton·American evangelicals·atheism·Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks·ethics·fundamentalists·funeral industry·Israel·Juliane von Mittelstaedt·Karen Armstrong golden rule·Max Rivlin-Nadler·morals·orthodox Jews·Philip Kitcher·secularization·Terry Eagleton·Thomas Jefferson bible
Mesopotamian Religion: Prelude to Axial Age
August 31st, 2011 · 12 Comments · Axial Age, History, Morality
Between 800 and 200 BCE, a remarkable series of sages, mystics, and thinkers gave rise to the transcendental traditions that are known today as “world religions.” In 1949, the German philosopher Karl Jaspers identified several themes common to these traditions and described this six hundred year period as the Axial Age: “These movements were ‘axial’ [...]
Tags:Akkadia·Alan Strathern·Assyria·axial age·Buddha·Confucius·Daoism·death·ethics·Hinduism·immanence·Jainism·Jaspers·Judaism·Karen Armstrong·Karl·Mesopotamia·monotheism·morals·Plato·Platonism·Socrates·suffering·Sumerian·Thorkild Jacobsen·transcendence·world rejection
Whip Me: Controlling Guilt with Pain
February 15th, 2011 · No Comments · Axial Age, History, Hunter-Gatherers, Power, Ritual
Over at The Economist, our correspondent reports that “religion got it right: pain seems to assuage guilt.” This conclusion is based on an Australian study that primed the usual guinea pigs (undergraduates) with guilt by having them write about something “immoral” or “unethical” they had done. Compared to a non-primed group who wrote about cupcakes [...]
Tags:altered states of consciousness·atonement·Australia·Brock Bastian·catharsis·Christians·control·ethics·flagellants·Francisco de Goya·George Catlin·guilt·Mandans·morals·pain·penitence·punishment·ritualized pain·rituals·shame·spirits·visions
The Dhammakaya Code
January 27th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Economy, Globalization, New Religions, Power
Until recently, I knew nothing about Dhammakaya Buddhism, which is considered to be part of the Theravada tradition. For over a decade, this Thai-based movement has been making waves for its alleged commercialization of Buddhism. Some observers attribute its considerable success to the dislocations brought on by Thai modernization. Whatever the attraction, Dhammakaya is fulfilling many [...]
Tags:Buddhism·Buddhist·Close Encounters of the Buddhist Kind·cult·David Koresh·Dhammakaya·Dhammakaya Foundation·ethics·evangelical·globalization·Jim Jones·Khun Yay Ubasika Chandra Khonnokyoong·Lebensraum·Leni Riefenstahl·Luke Duggleby·meditation·modernity·morality·Nazis·Nuremburg·Ron Gluckman·Thailand·Theravada·Wat Phra Dhammakaya
Science of Morality
November 8th, 2010 · No Comments · Cognition, Morality
During an hour long conversation (transcript included), NPR’s Ira Flatow discusses the science of morals with several guests, including Steven Pinker, Sam Harris, and Simon Blackburn. Although I want to be encouraged (and there are many excellent observations), I fear that the “science/morals” debate bears many resemblances to the moribund “science/religion” debate.
Tags:ethics·false dichotomy·Ira Flatow·morals·Sam Harris·science·Steven Pinker·Talk of the Nation·values
Morals and Marc Hauser
October 27th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Emotions, Evolutionary Byproduct, Morality
Marc Hauser, as many know, is a prominent psychologist at Harvard who is well known for research into primate cognition and the evolution of morality. Many may also know that he has been accused of research misconduct in a very public (and one-sided) way. It has truly been unfortunate not only for the people involved, [...]
Tags:due process·ethics·evolution of morality·evolutionary psychology·Harvard·Kafkaesque·Marc Hauser·morality·morality without religion·morals·Nicholas Wade·primate cognition·prosocial behavior·research misconduct
Predation and Theodicy
September 21st, 2010 · No Comments · Ecology, Morality
At their best, moral philosophers force us to think long and hard about our actions and responsibilities; at their worst, moral philosophers are incomprehensible or outrageous. I am not quite sure how to judge The Meat Eaters, by Jeff McMahan from Rutgers, but he raises many provocative points, my favorite being this:
Wherever there is animal [...]
Tags:ethics·Hobbesian·Jeff McMahan·just God·moral philosophy·nature red in tooth and claw·predation·predators·problem of evil·Schopenhauer·suffering·The Meat Eaters·theodicy·theology
