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

Conclusion

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