James Brody
September 20th, 2008, 02:44 PM
"NEWSWEEK
September 22, 2008
"Is Morality Natural?
"Science is tracing the biological roots of our intuitive sense of what is right and what is wrong.
Marc D Hauser
"On Jan. 2, 2007, a large woman entered the Cango caves of South Africa and wedged herself into the only exit, trapping 22 tourists behind her. Digging her out appeared not to be an option, which left a terrible moral dilemma: take the woman's life to free the 22, or leave her to die along with her fellow tourists? It is a dilemma because it pushes us to decide between saving many and using someone else's life as a means to this end.
"A new science of morality is beginning to uncover how people in different cultures judge such dilemmas, identifying the factors that influence judgment and the actions that follow. These studies suggest that nature provides a universal moral grammar, designed to generate fast, intuitive and universally held judgments of right and wrong.
From http://www.edge.org/
See also http://www.newsweek.com/id/158760/
And Hauser, Marc D (2006) Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong. NY: Ecco.
September 22, 2008
"Is Morality Natural?
"Science is tracing the biological roots of our intuitive sense of what is right and what is wrong.
Marc D Hauser
"On Jan. 2, 2007, a large woman entered the Cango caves of South Africa and wedged herself into the only exit, trapping 22 tourists behind her. Digging her out appeared not to be an option, which left a terrible moral dilemma: take the woman's life to free the 22, or leave her to die along with her fellow tourists? It is a dilemma because it pushes us to decide between saving many and using someone else's life as a means to this end.
"A new science of morality is beginning to uncover how people in different cultures judge such dilemmas, identifying the factors that influence judgment and the actions that follow. These studies suggest that nature provides a universal moral grammar, designed to generate fast, intuitive and universally held judgments of right and wrong.
From http://www.edge.org/
See also http://www.newsweek.com/id/158760/
And Hauser, Marc D (2006) Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong. NY: Ecco.