Morality from the living brain not from dead dogma (Reflection & Empathy over Religious Fiat)

"The greatest good is the knowledge of the union which the mind has with the whole of nature." - Spinoza

Humans are animals and their morality comes from their living brains not from dead dogma. Other animals care for their young, protect their group and help cooperate and connect with their community. Animal Morality is real. Other animals may lack written language but their actions of care and protection are as real as human morality. For those who want to separate humans from the animal kingdom you are like a leaf that did not know it was part of a tree.

Harris urges us to think about morality in terms of human and animal well-being, viewing the experiences of conscious creatures as peaks and valleys on a "moral landscape." Because there are definite facts to be known about where we fall on this landscape, Harris foresees a time when science will no longer limit itself to merely describing what people do in the name of "morality"; in principle, science should be able to tell us what we ought to do to live the best lives possible.

Bringing a fresh perspective to age-old questions of right and wrong, and good and evil, Harris demonstrates that we already know enough about the human brain and its relationship to events in the world to say that there are right and wrong answers to the most pressing questions of human life. Because such answers exist, moral relativism is simply false—and comes at increasing cost to humanity. And the intrusions of religion into the sphere of human values can be finally repelled: for just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim algebra, there can be no Christian or Muslim morality.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• sam
• harris
• morality
• william
• lane
• craig
• shelly
• kagan
• debate
• moral
• god
• religion
• empathy
• reason
• nature
• animals
• evolution
• richard
• dawkins
• darwin

[includao]

i loved this. thanks very much. the neuroscience of morality is progressively making us understand empathy.

[socrates856]

Beautiful compilation and very apt. Thanks.