the righteous mind jonathan haidt review

With conservatives there is a kind of awe and he rarely discusses their hypocrisies. He points the finger at liberals but seems unaware about the political dangers of conservatism.

According to Haidt you have a more balanced morality, a realistic view of 'human nature' (beware anyone who says they understand human nature), and some other good stuff I forgot about. If you are a Republican this book will make you feel very good about yourself. Haidt faults liberalism for damaging American moral capital in the 60s and 70s, but he doesn't explain how conservatism can become big enough rule the globe. It's one global economy, one atmosphere, one water cycle, one oil supply, etc. Where conservatism fails is that we are no longer living in separate communities. Conversely, giving a Moral Minority the ability to gum up the works whenever they feel their rights are under attack is killing good governance. Perhaps I'm particularly sensitive to such concerns because I'm a liberal Jew, but forcing false beliefs on and/or ghettoizing people seems profoundly wrong. Loyalty/Betrayal, Authority/Subversion, and Sanctity/Degradation are intrinsically provincial factors they're different for every culture, and every individual.Ī moral order for a pluralistic society which takes the latter three factors seriously must either force people to uphold a morality they do not believe in, or segregate people based on their different interpretations of morality. This is also incontrovertible.īut Haidt is unwilling to follow his theory to its ultimate question: Can a democratic political system that privileged the rights of the minority procedurally sustain decision-making based on all six moral factors? Care/Harm, Liberty/Oppression, and Fairness/Cheating are universal factors everybody uses them, and we mostly agree on when they are upheld or violated. This explains both the differences between liberals and conservatives, and why conservatives beat the stuffing out of liberals at the polls. Haidt then goes on to show that Liberalism draws from only the first three moral factors while Conservatism draws from all six. This theory is, frankly, really good and really well developed. society, together, and moral skills have been favored by various evolutionary mechanisms over human history. Morality serves to bind non-related groups, i.e. On the good side: Haidt draws broadly from research in psychology, anthropology, and biology to develop a six-factor basis for morality (Care/Harm, Liberty/Oppression, Fairness/Cheating, Loyalty/Betrayal, Authority/Subversion, Sanctity/Degradation), and show that moral judgement is an innate intuitive ability accompanied by post-hoc justifications. Haidt is much better psychologist than political philosopher, and this book is both monumental and dangerously flawed.

The righteous mind jonathan haidt review