[bigbangtango] Re: [Paleopsych] Morality

[G. Reinhart-Waller]

>>BTW I think that the root difference between liberals and conservatives
is that liberals tent to respond to the less fortunate with
sympathy/pity and conservatives respond to them with contempt/scorn.>>

Could be the religious card which determines how people respond to those less fortunate....Catholics like to hug and Lutherans stand with arms folded.

Gerry Reinhart-Waller



Buck, Ross wrote:

>In my view, morality involves a dynamical system of social and moral
>emotions that arise spontaneously and naturally over the course of
>normal child development.  Social emotions include the four "twins"
>pride/arrogance, guilt/shame, envy/jealousy, and pity/scorn.  A person
>(P) who is proud/arrogant tends to pity/scorn others who respond with
>envy/jealousy of P and guilt/shame in comparison with P.  Add
>considerations of equity (P's success is deserved or not), and you get
>the moral emotions of triumph, humiliation, admiration, resentment,
>sympathy, and contempt.  
>
>BTW I think that the root difference between liberals and conservatives
>is that liberals tent to respond to the less fortunate with
>sympathy/pity and conservatives respond to them with contempt/scorn.
>(This suggests that conservatives are less psychologically secure than
>liberals).  The whole panoply of liberal-conservative political
>philosophy is essentially a rationalization for these feelings.  
>
>Religion also is a rationalization (see Freud's "Future of an Illusion")
>that if anything builds barriers between people who, left to their own
>devices, might get along swimmingly.  Religion can undercut normal
>moral-emotional development by carving the world into us and them.
>Through religion, kids learn that moral rules apply to their own
>community, and that those outside are not worthy of inclusion.  In fact,
>attacking others can be seen as a sign of love and acceptance within
>one's own community, as in blowing oneself up in a crowded market, or
>flying an aircraft into a building.  
>
>Cheers!  Ross
>
>Ross Buck, Ph. D.
>Professor of Communication Sciences
>	and Psychology
>Communication Sciences U-1085		
>University of Connecticut				
>Storrs, CT 06269-1085
>860-486-4494
>fax  860-486-5422
>Ross.buck at uconn.edu
>http://www.coms.uconn.edu/docs/people/faculty/rbuck/index.htm
>
>Reference:  Buck, R. (2004).  The gratitude of exchange and the
>gratitude of caring: A developmental-interactionist perspective of moral
>emotion.  In R. A. Emmons and M. McCullough (Eds.), The Psychology of
>Gratitude.  (100-122). New York: Oxford University Press.  
>
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