Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them
Our brains were designed for tribal life, for getting along with a select group of others Us and for fighting off everyone else Them But modern times have forced the world s tribes into a shared space, resulting in epic clashes of values along with unprecedented opportunities As the world shrinks, the moral lines that divide us become salient and puzzling We fight over everything from tax codes to gay marriage to global warming, and we wonder where, if at all, we can find our common ground A grand synthesis of neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy, Moral Tribes reveals the underlying causes of modern conflict and lights the way forward Greene compares the human brain to a dual mode camera, with point and shoot automatic settings portrait, landscape as well as a manual mode Our point and shoot settings are our emotions efficient, automated programs honed by evolution, culture, and personal experience The brain s manual mode is its capacity for deliberate reasoning, which makes our thinking flexible Point and shoot emotions make us social animals, turning Me into Us But they also make us tribal animals, turning Us against Them Our tribal emotions make us fight sometimes with bombs, sometimes with words often with life and death stakes An award winning teacher and scientist, Greene directs Harvard University s Moral Cognition Lab, which uses cutting edge neuroscience and cognitive techniques to understand how people really make moral decisions Combining insights from the lab with lessons from decades of social science and centuries of philosophy, the great question of Moral Tribes is this How can we get along with Them when what they want feels so wrong to Us Ultimately, Greene offers a set of maxims for navigating the modern moral terrain, a practical road map for solving problems and living better lives Moral Tribes shows us when to trust our instincts, when to reason, and how the right kind of reasoning can move us forward A major achievement from a rising star in a new scientific field, Moral Tribes will refashion your deepest beliefs about how moral thinking works and how it can work better. Best Read Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them By Joshua D. Greene For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr Humans have evolved the ability to be cooperative, in order to help our own survival in difficult times This ability usually prevents us from being completely selfish We cooperate with other members of our group, our tribe , and solves the dilemma between Me and Us The problem is, that this same mechanism generates a different dilemma, a competition between Us and Them We find that we generally have the same moral outlook as others in our tribe , and we do not even consider the mor Humans have evolved the ability to be cooperative, in order to help our own survival in difficult times This ability usually prevents us from being completely selfish We cooperate with other members of our group, our tribe , and solves the dilemma between Me and Us The problem is, that this same mechanism generates a different dilemma, a competition between Us and Them We find that we generally have the same moral outlook as others in our tribe , and we do not even consider the moral outlook of outsiders.This, in a nutshell, is the basic dilemma in this excellent book by Joshua Greene Greene is the director of the Moral Cognition Lab in Harvard University s Department of Psychology He conducts psychological e...There s a lot to be said about Moral Tribes but I will divide the comment roughly into two parts 1 the smart commentary on moral psychology and 2 the weak commentary on ethics It is worth noting that the strong points and weak points should be unsurprising given Greene s background he s a renown neuroscientist It seems to make sense that his recapitulation of his groundbreaking work would be terrific and engaging, and that the book would weaken in discussions of other domains The openin There s a lot to be said about Moral Tribes but I will divide the comment roughly into two parts 1 the smart commentary on moral psychology and 2 the weak commentary on ethics It is worth noting that the strong points and weak points should be unsurprising given Greene s background he s a renown neuroscientist It seems to make sense that his recapitulation of his groundbreaking work would be terrific and engaging, and that the book would weaken in discussions of other domains The opening chapters of the book, though, are even stronger than I anticipated Greene talks elegantly through the game theory, evolutionary biology, and eventually neuroscience that underlie his theory of cognition It is an absolute master class in science writing for a mainstream audience For the first few chapters alone I recommend reading the book, if for no other reason than to glean the smart ...I m going to go ahead and assume that there are summaries out there that will tell you what this book is about, so I m just gonna tell you why I think it was pretty great.1 It s enormously readable True to his affiliation as a utilitarian, Greene keeps his arguments clear and fairly concise When he s gonna gointo depth on something that isn t crucial to understanding his overall point he tells you to go for it and skip ahead 2 He summarizes the arguments of a lot of authors books tha I m going to go ahead and assume that there are summaries out there that will tell you what this book is about, so I m just gonna tell you why I think it was pretty great.1 It s enormously readable True to his affiliation as a utilitarian, Greene keeps his arguments clear and fairly concise When he s gonna gointo depth on something that isn t crucial to understanding his overall point he tells you to go for it and skip ahead 2 He summarizes the arguments of a lot of authors books that I have enjoyed reading, but that might be less accessible So, yay for TL DR versions of a lot of Steven Pinker,...As a fresh take on utilitaniarism it s first rate new perspectives, new research, insightful questions But ultimately he s just preaching to the choir because the single most important question of our age is not even mentioned how to reach those who don t realize they are immoral That is, people whose brains through no fault of their own consider Loyalty To Tribe and Obedience To Authority to be moral, rendering them vulnerable to charismatic psychopaths like Rush Limbaugh or evangelical pre As a fresh take on utilitaniarism it s first rate new perspectives, new research, insightful questions But ultimately he s just preaching to the choir because the single most important question of our age is not even mentioned how to reach those who don t realize they are immoral That is, people whose brains through no fault of their own consider Loyalty To Tribe and Obedience To Authority to be moral, rendering them vulnerable to charism... Update, July 2019As I noted in the review, Greene cemented his reputation partially by putting folks into fMRI machines and asking them Trolleyology type questions Well, if you find that interesting, you should check out the Kickstarter game Trial By Trolley A party game of moral dilemmas and trolley murderIt s offensively gruesome, so maybe it s best to think of it as Trolleyology by way of Cards Against Humanity Definitely not for the squeamish, but I ve definitely ordered a copy Update, July 2019As I noted in the review, Greene cemented his reputation partially by putting folks into fMRI machines and asking them Trolleyology type questions Well, if you find that interesting, you should check out the Kickstarter game Trial By Trolley A party game of moral dilemmas and trolley murderIt s offensively gruesome...The tragedy of the commons was proposed in 1968 by Garrett Hardin it involves the conflicting interests between the individual me and the group us Humans solved this dilemma many hundreds of thousands of years ago Our minds according to Joshua Greene are packed with moral gizmos in our brain that make us excellent cooperates and solve the dilemma...The most detailed book length treatment of Trolley ology I have read The best remains Justice What s the Right Thing to Do Looking for any recommendations on Morality and its origins in humans.4 stars for the science related material, a generous 2 stars for the philosophical goop, which comprises the bulk of the book To deflect criticisms of utilitarianism, Greene qualifies its rules to such a degree that nothing is left save think carefully about things and your obligation to help others That s fine, but I don t need to read hundreds of pages to arrive at that dictum The science portions of the book could have been better directed The author goes into great detail regarding th 4 stars for the science related material, a generous 2 stars for the philosophical goop, which comprises the bulk of...So when my mom got this book I was sure it was going to be either about how Group A is right, and everyone else should GTFO, or about how really dead down we all agree on everything and conflict is really the vault ...7.5h 2x If you re into all three of these, relevant background reading before referenced in Moral Tribes might include The Righteous Mind Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion Haidt Thinking, Fast and Slow Kahneman I agree that utilitarianism or deep pragmatism basically is what we do when trying to find common ground weighing harms benefits , and I m sympathetic to these kinds of Morality, Fast and Slow trains of thought research It s go 7.5h 2x If you re into all three of these, relevant background reading before referenced in Moral Tribes might include The Righteous Mind Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion Haidt Thinking, Fast and Slow Kahneman I agree that utilitarianism or deep pragmatism basically is what we do when trying to find common ground weighing harms benefits , and I m sympathetic to these kinds of Morality, Fast and Slow trains of...
- English
- 27 February 2017 Joshua D. Greene
- Hardcover
- 432 pages
- 1594202605
- Joshua D. Greene
- Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them