Exploring the Deeply Rooted Reasons Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion: Jonathan Haidt's 'The Righteous Mind'

Olivier F.: J’avais commencé à écouter la version audible de cet ouvrage. Son écoute m’a passionnée par l’exposé de la démarche de ce scientifique qui partage aussi ses doutes, ses succès, ses échecs, ses découvertes. Deux dimensions dans cet ouvrage: sur le contenu et sur la vie intellectuelle de son auteur de son intérêt pour la philosophie à son doctorat, ses premiers postes de chercheurs, ses collaborations internationales, etc. Avec une rare authenticité et presque un « roman policier » ou l’auteur nous amène à rechercher les indices (ici des évidences expérimentales) pour découvrir la vérité scientifique.

France on Oct 18, 2023

Stephen McPhail: If, like me, you have ever thought that your moral and political take on the world is the only correct one, and perhaps you've now started to question these certainties, then perhaps this is the book for you. It's pointless to recommend this book to the idealistically certain, because there's no way they are going to read it.

United Kingdom on Oct 03, 2023

Carla: I read the review that gave this book low rating and I feel like they're missing Haidt's main point/ reason to write about this book. Haidt is concerned about social cohesion. And the thing is social cohesion comes from homogeneity or at least shared values or activities. Considering that the left is all about diversity, newness and difference, it makes sense that he would portray it in a somewhat negative light. The problem with insisting on difference and individuality, is that instead of making society adapt to you, it makes society notice your difference even more and hence, cause more bigotry and racism. Furthermore, I would like to point out something about diversity and multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is a pretty word that is tossed around when we're talking about diversity, but it seems to me that very few people understand it.

Multiculturalism hardly means people living together as a community, it means having community within a larger community. Take the example of London, you have people from Eastern Europe on one side, the Polish only stays with the Polish, the Slovakian with the Slovakian and so on and so forth. Then, you have Black Jamaican who make up...

United Kingdom on Jul 08, 2018

Mandrake: This was a book club choice, and one of the best that we have read in recent years. I would recommend it to everyone, but particularly those with strong and confirmed moral or political convictions. It will change your views about religion and politics, and hopefully make you more tolerant of other peoples perspectives. Here are my notes:

Haidt: The Righteous Mind
Overall
This was one of our best recent book club choices. It was well written, clear and thought provoking. The main point of the book to me was to demonstrate that morality has a social purpose, as the foundation on which social capital is constructed. What matters is that people share the same moral values, not whether those values are “right or wrong”. It has changed my thinking, and I have bought copies for friends of mine to see if it can also change theirs.

Synopsis

The book is divided into sections:
• Section 1: Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second
The central metaphor is that the mind is like a rider on an elephant, whose job is to serve the elephant without much control of where the elephant is going. Traditionally Western philosophy separated the body and the...

United Kingdom on Sep 19, 2017

Richard E. Hayes: Question authority -- your own righteous mind and the self-righteous certainty of your religious or political sect. Haidt's appeal to reasoned self-knowledge contradicts his main message -- that your opinions are largely driven by unconscious intuitions and those who believe reason guides human action are victims of the "rationalistic delusion."

Haidt is a certified "top world thinker" [wikipedia] so all who think about morality, religion, politics have to read this excellent, challenging, enormously informative book, a powerful contribution to the old "nature-nurture" debate. As it has been widely reviewed and praised, I will focus on some criticisms. His study of a vast range of material from philosophy to neuroscience, and his original research, forms the basis of his "moral science." Is it good science? Less than 40% of psychological research is replicated (scientificamerican).

He boldly makes an argument (chapter 9) in favor of a theory of natural selection at the group level. Group selection isn’t widely accepted by evolutionists, but it's useful for Haidt's theory of innate moral foundations, the "groupiness" of humans coded in their genes and in...

United States on Apr 08, 2016

Gregory J. Casteel: This is an unusually difficult review for me to write, because I have somewhat mixed feelings about this book. I wanted to love it; and I actually did end up loving it a whole lot, but not quite as much as I was hoping to for some reason. I'm a political scientist with a background in sociology and a strong interest in psychology; so, as you might imagine, I've always had a fascination with social psychology in general and political psychology in particular. I haven't yet had the opportunity to teach a course on political psychology; but I've wanted to for some time now. I devour everything I can get my hands on that deals with the underlying psychology of political affiliation, political decision making, and political violence. In the course of my study of the subject I have encountered the work of moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt on several occasions (if you search online you can find videos of him giving talks on his subject of expertise; and he also has a website -- YourMorals.org -- that deals with his work); and I've been intrigued and impressed with his unique approach to understanding political affiliation, as well as with his calls for greater civility and a willingness...

United States on Apr 26, 2012

Sphex: The title of this astonishing book by Jonathan Haidt appears simple enough, and to be an unpalatable conclusion of any enquiry into the human condition. Who wants to think of themselves as righteous, let alone self-righteous? And who wants to read a book with the take-home message, however ancient, that "we are all self-righteous hypocrites"? Of course, when it comes to science, whether or not we like the conclusion has no bearing on its truth. But is it true? Insofar as I understand the arguments in the book (and Haidt provides copious references to the scientific literature), I'm persuaded by them (I'm also reassured that the author knows the difference between explanation and speculation). However, it should come as no surprise that any "portrait of human nature that is somewhat cynical" is not the whole story. Yes, we do "care a great deal more about appearance and reputation than about reality" and, yes, people are selfish, but it's also true that people are "groupish". I found this approach to understanding ultrasociality particularly fascinating, especially how it begins with cognitive psychology and then draws upon moral and political psychology.

The three parts of...

United Kingdom on Apr 10, 2012