The Righteous Mind
OCLC 713188806 | | |
Website | righteousmind |
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The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion is a 2012 social psychology book by Jonathan Haidt, in which the author describes human morality as it relates to politics and religion.
In the first section, Haidt demonstrates that people's beliefs are driven primarily by intuition, with reason operating mostly to justify beliefs that are intuitively obvious. In the second section, he lays out his theory that the human brain is organized to respond to several distinct types of moral violations, much like a tongue is organized to respond to different sorts of foods. In the last section, Haidt proposes that humans have an innate capacity to sometimes be "groupish" rather than "selfish".
Summary
In the first part of the book,
In the second portion of the book, he presents
In the third part of the book, Haidt describes a hypothetical "hive switch", which turns a selfish human "chimp" into a "groupish" human "bee". He describes how cultures and organizations have techniques for getting people to identify with their groups, such as dancing, moving, and singing in unison.
Key concepts and scholars discussed
- Rationalistdelusion
- Social intuitionism
- Moral foundations theory
- Jean Piaget and developmental psychology
- Moral development and works by:
- Richard Shweder on cultural anthropology
- Humeanphilosophy
- Platonic philosophy
- Glaucon and the Ring of Gyges
- Steven Pinker on human nature (The Blank Slate)
- E.O. Wilson:
- Antonio Damasio and Descartes' Error
- Howard Margolis on psychology
- Philip E. Tetlock on accountability
- Dan Ariely on Predictably Irrational
- Dan P. McAdams on personalities
- Émile Durkheim on sociology
- Charles Darwin on group selection
- Religion
- critiques by Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett
- David Sloan Wilson and Darwin's Cathedral
- Barbara Ehrenreich and Dancing in the Streets
Reception
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The book was #6 on The New York Times Best Seller list for non-fiction in April 2012.[5]
Journalistic reception
William Saletan wrote in The New York Times in 2012 that the book is "a landmark contribution to humanity’s understanding of itself".[4]
The book received two reviews in
Journalist Chris Hedges wrote a review of The Righteous Mind in 2012 in which he accused Haidt of supporting social Darwinism.[8]
Academic reviews
- Blum, Lawrence (September 2013). "Political identity and moral education: A response to Jonathan Haidt's The Righteous Mind". S2CID 143148783.
- Guthrie, Clifton F. (2013). "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt". .
- S2CID 153463108.
- LaFollette, Hugh; Woodruff, Michael L. (13 September 2013). "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion". S2CID 142745897.
- Miller, Dale E. (14 January 2014). "Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (New York: Pantheon, 2012), pp. xvii + 419". S2CID 143318822.
- Vaisey, Stephen (11 January 2013). "The Righteous Mind – About Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind". European Journal of Sociology. 53 (3): 448–451. S2CID 147268530.
See also
References
- ^ a b "Jonathan Haidt – The Righteous Mind" (MP3). Point of Inquiry (podcast). Center for Inquiry. 19 March 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
- ^ "How Jonathan Haidt's 6 Moral Tastebuds Can Heal a Divided World". HighExistence | Explore Life's Deepest Questions. 2016-12-19. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
- ^ "Jonathan Haidt on the Righteous Mind". Econtalk.
- ^ a b Saletan, William (March 23, 2012). "Why Won't They Listen? 'The Righteous Mind,' by Jonathan Haidt". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
- ^ "Best Sellers". The New York Times. 1 April 2012. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
- ^ Birrell, Ian (22 April 2012). "The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
- ^ Lezard, Nicholas (7 May 2013). "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
- ^ Hedges, Chris (June 28, 2012). "The Righteous Road to Ruin". Truthdig. Archived from the original on November 9, 2012. Retrieved July 19, 2019.