Jonathan Haidt's much awaited new book, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion is coming out February 2012. Haidt will be constantly updating the overview of the book here:
"People who devote their lives to studying something often come to believe that the object of their fascination is the key to understanding history, life, and the universe. Books have been published in recent years on the transformative role in human history played by cooking, mothering, war… even salt. This book is one of those books. I study moral psychology, and I’m going to make the case that morality is the extraordinary human capacity that made civilization possible. I don't mean to imply that cooking, mothering, war, and salt were not also necessary, but in this book I'm going to take you on a tour of human nature and history from the perspective of moral psychology.
By the end of the tour, I hope to have given you a new way to think about two of the most important, vexing, and divisive topics in human life: politics and religion. Etiquette books tell us not to discuss these topics in polite company, but I say go ahead. Politics and religion are both expressions of our underlying moral psychology, and an understanding of that psychology can help to bring people together. My goal in this book is to drain some of the heat, anger, and divisiveness out of these topics, and replace them with awe, wonder, and curiosity. We are downright lucky that we evolved this complex moral psychology which allowed our species to burst out of the vegetation and into the delights, comforts, and relative peacefulness of modern societies in just a few thousand years. My hope is that this book will make conversations about morality, politics, and religion more common, more civil, and more fun, even in mixed company."
- 8th century Chinese Zen master Sen-ts’an
"People who devote their lives to studying something often come to believe that the object of their fascination is the key to understanding history, life, and the universe. Books have been published in recent years on the transformative role in human history played by cooking, mothering, war… even salt. This book is one of those books. I study moral psychology, and I’m going to make the case that morality is the extraordinary human capacity that made civilization possible. I don't mean to imply that cooking, mothering, war, and salt were not also necessary, but in this book I'm going to take you on a tour of human nature and history from the perspective of moral psychology.
By the end of the tour, I hope to have given you a new way to think about two of the most important, vexing, and divisive topics in human life: politics and religion. Etiquette books tell us not to discuss these topics in polite company, but I say go ahead. Politics and religion are both expressions of our underlying moral psychology, and an understanding of that psychology can help to bring people together. My goal in this book is to drain some of the heat, anger, and divisiveness out of these topics, and replace them with awe, wonder, and curiosity. We are downright lucky that we evolved this complex moral psychology which allowed our species to burst out of the vegetation and into the delights, comforts, and relative peacefulness of modern societies in just a few thousand years. My hope is that this book will make conversations about morality, politics, and religion more common, more civil, and more fun, even in mixed company."
The Perfect Way is only difficult
for those who pick and choose;
Do not like, do not dislike;
all will then be clear.
Make a hairbreadth difference,
and Heaven and Earth are set apart;
If you want the truth to stand clear before you,
never be for or against.
The struggle between "for" and "against"
is the mind's worst disease.- 8th century Chinese Zen master Sen-ts’an
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