November 27, 2007
Morality tales:
The science of morality is becoming a hot topic at the moment, and this week two articles, one in Time and one in Reason, have both tackled the issue.
The Time article is a particularly good example. It's wonderfully written and takes a comprehensive look at the field, taking in evolution, empathy, cognitive neuroscience and culture.
If the entire human species were a single individual, that person would long ago have been declared mad. The insanity would not lie in the anger and darkness of the human mind—though it can be a black and raging place indeed. And it certainly wouldn't lie in the transcendent goodness of that mind—one so sublime, we fold it into a larger "soul." The madness would lie instead in the fact that both of those qualities, the savage and the splendid, can exist in one creature, one person, often in one instant.
Link to Time article 'What Makes Us Moral'.
Link to reason article 'The Theory of Moral Neuroscience'.
