Scholars have long argued that moral judgements arise from rational deliberations about what society determines is right and wrong. This has generated the idea that our moral psychology is founded on cultural experience. In the revolutionary MORAL MINDS, Marc Hauser challenges these concepts, showing that this view is illusory and arguing instead that humans have evolved a ‘moral instinct’, a universal feature of the human mind rather than one informed by gender, education or religion.
Combining his own cutting-edge research with cognitive psychology, linguistics, evolutionary biology and economics, Hauser examines his groundbreaking theory in terms of bioethics, religion and law, as well as our everyday lives.
Combining his own cutting-edge research with cognitive psychology, linguistics, evolutionary biology and economics, Hauser examines his groundbreaking theory in terms of bioethics, religion and law, as well as our everyday lives.
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Reviews
Hauser's theory . . . has implications for everything, from the personal - our levels of guilt, how we judge others or respond to temptation - to religion, ethics and the law. The results are far-reaching and fascinating
This book describes many fascinating findings from a wide range of psychological experiments
The theory set out in MORAL MINDS is certainly intriguing. It could yet remap the way moral philosophers think