On the Morality of Torture & Utilitarianism
I personally do not believe in torture, but I have to admit that when I think of it, my mind prototypically thinks of the potential harm that might befall an innocent person caught by an unscrupulous policeman who is all too sure of his moral superiority. What would I do if I knew with 100% [...]
Sam Harris’ TED video and the danger of liberal atheist moral absolutism
A fellow graduate student recently shared the below Sam Harris TED video with me and I was quite surprised at the premise of the talk. In it, Sam Harris gives a spirited defense of moral absolutism, the idea that there are objective truths about what we should and should not value. Below is the video.
Harris [...]
The Psychology of Aggression and the Ugliness of the Health Care Reform Debate
Most people are not violent people. From an evolutionary perspective, it makes very little sense for a species to kill members of it’s own species. Soldiers in war have to be trained out of their natural impulse not to fire weapons. For the vast majority of people, aggression is a last resort and I’m guessing [...]
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Last 30 Posts:
- May 17, 2012
When should we believe social science findings? - April 25, 2012
Empathizing vs. Systemizing – A Book Review of Tattoos On The Heart - April 5, 2012
Big Data Should Measure Value Fit - March 6, 2012
Five ways that technology will democratize social science - February 20, 2012
The importance of wisdom in social science research - February 18, 2012
Big 5 Personality Traits of would-be Owners vs. Renters - January 25, 2012
Why doesn’t Ron Paul use the word ‘America’ much? - January 7, 2012
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Should Protect Fair Negotiations (not the poor) - December 11, 2011
The Experiential Economy - November 2, 2011
The Moral Foundations of ThinkProgress, Alternet, Daily Kos, & the NY Times - October 15, 2011
Liberals vs. Conservatives:innocent until proven guilty? - September 11, 2011
Does social psychology try too hard to be perceived as a “science”? - August 31, 2011
Equity trumps Equality in arguments about taxation - July 31, 2011
Hypermoral Debt Ceiling Quotes - July 17, 2011
Libya as a moral war (except for libertarians) - July 10, 2011
Oregon’s Medicaid Experiment vs. Motivated Reasoning - June 18, 2011
Relative vs. Absolute Good Choices for Liberals, Conservatives, and Libertarians - May 23, 2011
Personality profiles of readers vs. non-readers and saving your local bookstore. - May 9, 2011
When Ingroup Love does not equal Outgroup Hate - May 2, 2011
Osama Bin Laden’s Death is a chance to escape Zero-Sum thinking - April 23, 2011
Liberals place more value on being funny than conservatives and libertarians. - April 21, 2011
Jon Kyl’s Moral Confabulation is something we all do. - March 30, 2011
Why should the US lead in Libya? Liberal-Conservative Value Differences. - March 24, 2011
Perceptions of Scarcity & Responsibility inform Budget Negotiations - February 27, 2011
Psychological Correlates of Feelings Toward Labor Unions among Liberals - February 22, 2011
Reagan was a Union Member – Visiting his Library as an exercise in Civil Politics - February 15, 2011
Psychology is generally Continuous, not Categorical - February 11, 2011
Are liberals more neurotic than conservatives? - February 10, 2011
Can liberal academics study conservative ideology? - January 17, 2011
Rush Limbaugh says Civility is the New Censorship
Civil Politics Posts
- What Does it Mean to be Civil? May 8, 2012 Hal
- WNPR Connecticut Hosts a Discussion of Civil Politics April 27, 2012 Ravi Iyer
- The No Labels 12-Point Plan: CivilPolitics Analysis March 22, 2012 Jonathan Haidt
- My data-driven conversion to (relative) political moderation March 15, 2012 Jarret Crawford
- Today is Town Meeting Day in Vermont (and what that has to do with civil politics) March 6, 2012 Liz Joyner
The Psychology of the JournoList “Scandal”: Mirror Image Stereotypes
As a regular reader of political blogs, I could not help but notice that a number of my favorite sites were writing about the same thing, specifically, their participation in a discussion group called JournoList, which included numerous media members such as Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight and Politico writer Ben Smith, both of whom I [...]