The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion
Introduction
Introduction
This book is about why it’s so hard for us to get along. We are indeed all stuck here for a while, so let’s at least do what we can to understand why we are so easily divided into hostile groups, each one certain of its righteousness.
Born to be righteous
Our righteous minds made it possible for human beings - but no other animals - to produce large cooperative groups, tribes, and nations without the glue of kinship. But at the same time, our righteous minds guarantee that our cooperative groups will always be cursed by moralistic strife. Some degree of conflict among groups may even be necessary for the health and development of any society. When I was a teenager I wished for world peace, but now I yearn for a world in which competing ideologies are kept in balance, systems of accountability keep us all from getting away with too much, and fewer people believe that righteous ends justify violent means. Not a very romantic wish, but one that we might actually achieve.
What lies ahead
(A note on terminology: In the United States, the word liberal refers to progressive or left-wing politics, and I will use the word in this sense. But in Europe and elsewhere, the word liberal is truer to its original meaning - valuing liberty above all else, including in economic activities. When Europeans use the word liberal, they often mean something more like the American term libertarian, which cannot be placed easily on the left-right spectrum. Readers from outside the United States may want to swap in the word progressive or left-wing whenever I say liberal.)
Part 1. Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second
Chapter 1. Where does morality come from?
Introduction
The origin of morality (Take 1)
The liberal consensus
An easier test
Meanwhile, in the rest of the world…
The great debate
Disgust and disrespect
Inventing victims
In sum
Chapter 2. The intuitive dog and its rational tail
Introduction
Wilson’s prophecy
The emotional nineties
Why atheists won’t sell their souls
“Seeing-that” vs. “Reasoning-why”
The rider and the elephant
How to win an argument
In sum
Chapter 3. Elephants rule
Introduction
Brains evaluate instantly and constantly
Social and political judgments are particularly intuitive
Our bodies guide our judgments
Psychopaths reason but don’t feel
Babies feel but don’t reason
Affective reactions are in the right place at the right time in the brain
Elephants are sometimes open to reason
In sum
Chapter 4. Vote for me (here’s why)
Introduction
We are all intuitive politicians
We are obsessed with polls
Our in-house press secretary automatically justifies everything
We lie, cheat, and justify so well that we honestly believe we are honest
Reasoning (and Google) can take you wherever you want to go
We can believe almost anything that supports our team
The rationalist delusion
In sum
Part 2. There’s more to morality than harm and fairness
Chapter 5. Beyond WEIRD morality
Introduction
Three ethics are more descriptive than one
How I became a pluralist
Stepping out of the matrix
In sum
Chapter 6. Taste buds of the righteous mind
Introduction
The birth of moral science
Attack of the systemizers
Bentham and the utilitarian grill
Kant and the deontological diner
Getting back on track
Broadening the palate
Moral foundations theory
In sum
Chapter 7. The moral foundations of politics
Introduction
A note on innateness
The care/harm foundation
The fairness/cheating foundation
The loyalty/betrayal foundation
The authority/subversion foundation
The sanctity/degradation foundation
In sum
Chapter 8. The conservative advantage
Introduction
Measuring morals
What makes people vote republican?
What I had missed
The liberty/oppression foundation
Fairness as proportionality
Three vs. six
In sum
Part 3. Morality binds and blinds
Chapter 9. Why are we groupish?
Introduction
Victorious tribes?
A fast herd of deer?
Exhibit A: Major transitions in evolution
Exhibit B: Shared intentionality
Exhibit C: Genes and cultures coevolve
Exhibit D: Evolution can be fast
It’s not all about war
In sum
Chapter 10. The hive switch
Introduction
The hive hypothesis
Collective emotions
So many ways to flip the switch
The biology of the hive switch
Hives at work
Political hives
In sum
Chapter 11. Religion is a team sport
Introduction
The lone believer
The new atheist story: By-products, then parasites
A better story: By-products, then cultural group selection
The Durkheimian story: By-products, then maypoles
Is god a force for good or evil?
Chimps and bees and gods
The definition of morality (at last)
In sum
Chapter 12. Can’t we all disagree more constructively?
Introduction
A note about political diversity
From genes to moral matrices
The grand narratives of liberalism and conservatism
The left’s blind spot: moral capital
A yin and two yangs
Yin: Liberal wisdom
Yang #1. Libertarian wisdom
Yang #2. Social conservative wisdom
Toward more civil politics
In sum