[ExI] Jonathan Haidt on morality

David C. Harris dharris234 at mindspring.com
Sun Apr 19 10:15:43 UTC 2009


spike wrote:
>> ...As part of that early research...posed questions... One of the mostrevealing was: How would you react if a family accidentally ran over its own dog, then cooked it and ate it for dinner? 
... That this lunch once did tricks and slept with the children is also 
irrelevant considering it's current condition.
>>  
>>
>>     
Ah, but could you push the logic to eating a family member who was 
accidentally killed?  It seems the logic is the same, but an emotional 
basis of morality even more apparent.

I also encountered Haidt's work a year ago, initially in this scholarly 
paper:
faculty.virginia.edu/*haidt*lab/articles/*haidt*.*graham*.2007.when-*morality*-opposes-justice.pdf 
.  I too was fascinated by the concepts, and have been trying to test 
and use them.  I'm searching for test cases, like how I'd feel about a 
business that grew human stem cells to make dog food.  Or how I'd feel 
about patriotism if America were invaded by people or creatures with 
very different values.  And I'm trying to imagine how and whether I 
could invoke principles 3-5 in speeches about some policies without 
being  hypocritical about my usage.

  - David Harris, Palo Alto



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