Jonathan Haidt

James Croft on Humanist Values, Opposing Religion, and Supporting Gay Marriage as Sacred

October 2, 2012 By Daniel Fincke Leave a Comment

James Croft will be on the Camels With Hammers Show on Sunday morning at 10am EST. In this post, I put up two excellent speeches he gave this year. In one he explains how Humanists historically have, and in the future can, play a special role as moral reformers. In another he attempts to give a morally and politically influential speech–and succeeds. Along with the videos, I quote an illuminating section of an interview I conducted with him last summer.

Filed Under: About This Blog, Atheism, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Homosexuality, LGBTQAA Tagged With: Chris Christie, Chris Christie Veto Gay Marriage, Chris Christie's Veto, Felix Adler, Gay Marriage, Gay Marriage as Sacred, Humanism, Humanism And Moral Reform, James Croft, James Croft on Chris Christie, James Croft on Jonathan Haidt, Jonathan Haidt, National Organization For Marriage, National Organization for Marriage vs. James Croft, Robert Ingersoll, Sacredness in Moral Argument, Speech Against Chris Christie, Speech for Gay Marriage Leave a Comment

Some Suspicions About The Superiority Of Liberal Moral Values

June 18, 2010 By Daniel Fincke 7 Comments

Earlier today, I drew attention to Greta Christina’s article formulating some ideas she picked up from Rebecca Newberger Goldstein. If you have already read either or both of those posts, you can just skip the next two paragraphs meant to catch up new readers. The Goldstein/Greta Christina argument built off of Jonathan Haidt’s theory of [...]

Filed Under: Authority, Autonomy, Contemporary Ethics, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Evolution, Evolutionary Psychology, Featured, Hypocrisy, Moral Psychology, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Prejudice, Psychology, Social Psychology, Social Sciences, Sociobiology, Sociology, Teleology, Virtues Tagged With: Conservative Values, Flourishing, Greta Christina, Hierarchy, Impartiality, In-group Loyalty, Jonathan Haidt, Liberal Values, Loyalty, Moral Modules, Moral Universalism, Purity, Rebecca Goldstein, Universalism 7 Comments

Are Liberal Values Objectively Better Than Conservative Ones?

June 18, 2010 By Daniel Fincke 3 Comments

In recent years, Jonathan Haidt has been influentially arguing that there are five essential modules in the mind from which human moral concerns originate. He has made this claim in several places, most prominently among philosophers in his contribution to Moral Psychology, Volume 2: The Cognitive Science of Morality: Intuition and Diversity (from Walter Sinnott-Armstrong’s groundbreaking [...]

Filed Under: Contemporary Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Moral Psychology, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Social Psychology, Social Sciences, Sociology, Videos Tagged With: Golden Rule, Greta Christina, Jonathan Haidt, Rebecca Goldstein 3 Comments

A Brief Overview Of My Dissertation

November 7, 2009 By Daniel Fincke 5 Comments

Nietzsche’s writings on morality are famously provocative and controversial. His criticisms of morality in both theory and practice are so extensive and rhetorically scathing that many philosophers assume that he can offer little or nothing constructive to moral philosophy. Additionally, his glorification of the will to power sounds prima facie like a celebration of excessively [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Autonomy, Contemporary Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Duty, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Featured, Historical Ethics, Historical Philosophy, Moral Psychology, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, New Atheism, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Virtues Tagged With: "On Deriving and Defending An Axiology of the Will To Power", Absolutism, Christian Morality, Consequentialism, Dissertation, Duty, Happiness, Heteronomy, Immoralism, Indirect Consequentialism, Instrumental Goods, Intrinsic Goods, Jonathan Haidt, Kantian Moral Philosophy, Moral Absolutism, Pleasure, Self-Overcoming, Virtue, Will to Power 5 Comments

Philosophical Or Psychopathic?

August 9, 2009 By Daniel Fincke Leave a Comment

This made me laugh: If you are able to rise to this challenge, if you are able to honestly examine the moral arguments in favor of slavery and genocide (along with the much stronger arguments against them), then you are likely to be either a psychopath or a philosopher. Snipped from Jonathan Haidt and Fredrik [...]

Filed Under: Ethics, Moral Psychology, Philosophy Tagged With: Fredrik Bjorklund, genocide, Jonathan Haidt, Psychology of Philosophers, Psychopaths, Slavery Leave a Comment

An Argument For Gay Marriage And Against Traditionalism

July 27, 2009 By Daniel Fincke 12 Comments

I am puzzled by appeals to history to oppose gay marriage because history is only the story of what people have done and never of itself directly tells us anything about right or wrong. Results of history can serve as warnings about effective and uneffective approaches to goal x or goal y but what people [...]

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Autonomy, Civil Rights, Cultural Secularism, Culture, Ethics, Evolutionary Psychology, Gay Marriage, Homosexuality, Jesus, Moral Psychology, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Politics, Psychology, Religion, Religious Secularism, Same Sex Marriage, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Social Psychology, Sociobiology, Sociology, Virtues Tagged With: Attractions, Aversions, Beauty, Civil Unions, Definition of Marriage, Disgust, Gay Adoption, Homophobia, Irrational Moral Judgments, John Richardson, Jonathan Haidt, Joshua Greene, King David, Michel Foucault, Misogyny, Nathan The Prophet, Nietzsche, Polygamy, Separate But Equal, Socrates, Traditionalism, Ugliness 12 Comments

Further Towards A “Non-Moral” Standard Of Ethical Evaluation

July 17, 2009 By Daniel Fincke 1 Comment

In reply to a recent post, Tyler writes: Your definition of ethics and morality is well taken and allows for further interesting debate on culture and moral systems but it still requires assumption of benefit. Defining phrases like “fully flourishing life” and “most excellent characters we can develop” require a standard of evaluation which I [...]

Filed Under: Authority, Duty, Ethical Pluralism, Uncategorized Tagged With: Arete, Atheistic Ethics, Autonomy, Care, Equality, Ethics, Evolutionary Psychology, Excellence, Fairness, Fruits and Ladders, Harm, Human Flourishing, Ingroup Loyalty, Jonathan Haidt, Justice, Moral Goods, Moral Psychology, Moralism, Motives, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Non-Moral Goods, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Purity, Quality vs. Quantity, Sociobiology, Tyler Samien, Values, Virtues 1 Comment

Towards A “Non-Moral” Standard Of Ethical Evaluation

July 6, 2009 By Daniel Fincke 2 Comments

In a previous post, I raised some remarks from psychologist of morality Jonathan Haidt, in which he discussed his theory that moral thinking appeals to 5 essential modules hardwired into our brains by evolution. In the interview I cited from a couple of years ago he only referred to 4 of the 5 modules but [...]

Filed Under: Atheistic Ethics, Authority, Autonomy, Duty, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Evolutionary Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Sociobiology, Virtues Tagged With: Arete, Aristotle, Care, Equality, Excellence, Fairness, Harm, Human Flourishing, Immanuel Kant, Ingroup Loyalty, Jonathan Haidt, Justice, Moral Goods, Moralism, Motives, Nietzsche, Non-Moral Goods, Purity, Thomas Hurka, Tyler Samien, Values, Virtues 2 Comments

Sincerity, Hypocrisy, and Mark Sanford

June 30, 2009 By Daniel Fincke Leave a Comment

I loathe witch hunts over people’s personal lives. What interests me are some observations on sincerity and hypocrisy which seem apparent to me watching the bizarrely unself-aware and narcissistic way that Sanford has acted as though he is a character in the Bible or some other morality tale in which he is the star. I [...]

Filed Under: Ethics, Hypocrisy, Moral Psychology, News Discussion, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Psychology, Religion Tagged With: Duality, Freud, Jonathan Haidt, Lack of Self Awareness, Mark Sanford, Narcissism, National Review, Nietzsche, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Sincerity, Vice Leave a Comment

Experimental Philosophers Profiled On BBC

June 30, 2009 By Daniel Fincke Leave a Comment

Click here for a half hour audio broadcast, introducing the basic notions of “experimental philosophy,” the new movement causing waves in moral philosophy the last few years.

Filed Under: Contemporary Ethics, Moral Psychology, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Psychology Tagged With: Anthony Appia, Experimental Philosophy, Jonathan Haidt, Joshua Greene, Joshua Knobe, Philosophy Leave a Comment

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