Op-Ed Columnist - The End of Philosophy - NYTimes.com - The Diigo Meta page

• 08 Apr 09
  

  Levy Rivers

  As our brain sorts out of the thousands of bits of info it takes special note of those things your system of values and interest. We take note of those things that have been socially enriched objects and concepts

  morality philosophy brooks

  • Think through moral problems. Find a just principle. Apply it.
  • Today, many psychologists, cognitive scientists and even philosophers embrace a different view of morality. In this view, moral thinking is more like aesthetics. As we look around the world, we are constantly evaluating what we see. Seeing and evaluating are not two separate processes. They are linked and basically simultaneous.
  • 4 more annotations...
  • • Everything that we look at, we form an implicit preference. Some of those make it into our awareness; some of them remain at the level of our unconscious, but ... what our brain is for, what our brain has evolved for, is to find what is of value in our environment.”
    • Most of us make snap moral judgments about what feels fair or not, or what feels good or not. We start doing this when we are babies, before we have language. And even as adults, we often can’t explain to ourselves why something feels wrong.
    • We don’t just care about our individual rights, or even the rights of other individuals. We also care about loyalty, respect, traditions, religions. We are all the descendents of successful cooperators.
    • They link themselves together into communities and networks of mutual influence.
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  ciberamerica blog

  editor Obama US crisis Brooks

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  Denice Gamper
• 07 Apr 09
  

  bigfoot69 Prevedel
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  Richard Rosell

  brooks morality cognitive science networking

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  Cristina Pruneda

  Cognitive skills Neurosciences behavious

  • moral thinking is more like aesthetics. As we look around the world, we are
    constantly evaluating what we see. Seeing and evaluating are not two separate
    processes. They are linked and basically simultaneous.
  • what our brain is for, what our brain has evolved for, is to find what is of
    value in our environment.”
  • 6 more annotations...

  • • Moral judgments are like that. They are rapid intuitive decisions and involve
      the emotion-processing parts of the brain. Most of us make snap moral judgments
      about what feels fair or not, or what feels good or not. We start doing this
      when we are babies, before we have language. And even as adults, we often can’t
      explain to ourselves why something feels wrong.

    • “The emotions are, in fact, in charge of the temple of morality, and ... moral
      reasoning is really just a servant masquerading as a high priest.”
    • What shapes moral emotions in the first place? The answer has long been
      evolution, but in recent years there’s an increasing appreciation that evolution
      isn’t just about competition. It’s also about cooperation within groups.
    • We don’t just care about our individual rights, or even the rights of other
      individuals. We also care about loyalty, respect, traditions, religions. We are
      all the descendents of successful cooperators.
    • People are not discrete units coolly formulating moral arguments. They link
      themselves together into communities and networks of mutual influence.
    • humans, as Darwin speculated, competition among groups has turned us into pretty
      cooperative, empathetic and altruistic creatures — at least within our families,
      groups and sometimes nations.
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  stevenson34

  Moralitly, ethicsm, rght and wrong, religious dogma.

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  turkey_burger

  • Think of what happens when you put a new food into your mouth. You don’t have to decide if it’s disgusting. You just know. You don’t have to decide if a landscape is beautiful. You just know.

    Moral judgments are like that. They are rapid intuitive decisions and involve the emotion-processing parts of the brain. Most of us make snap moral judgments about what feels fair or not, or what feels good or not. We start doing this when we are babies, before we have language. And even as adults, we often can’t explain to ourselves why something feels wrong.

  • “The emotions are, in fact, in charge of the temple of morality, and ... moral reasoning is really just a servant masquerading as a high priest.”
  • 1 more annotations...
  • • The rise and now dominance of this emotional approach to morality is an epochal change. It challenges all sorts of traditions. It challenges the bookish way philosophy is conceived by most people. It challenges the Talmudic tradition, with its hyper-rational scrutiny of texts. It challenges the new atheists, who see themselves involved in a war of reason against faith and who have an unwarranted faith in the power of pure reason and in the purity of their own reasoning.
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  Robert Lent

  reasoning alone does not necessarily produce good moral judgements. emotional reactions to what we see in the world around us ("moral intuitions") are emerging as just as important or more important.

  morality

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  Nan Kilkeary
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  newton_samuel
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  Martha Platt

  End of Philosophy

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  barbcrick
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  elukka riikonen

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