(Community Matters) The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Ideas, aka The Moral Mind.
[the author:] I chose the title The Righteous Mind to convey the sense that human nature is not just intrinsically moral, it’s also intrinsically moralistic, critical, and judgmental.
Intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second. The second principle of moral psychology, which is that there’s more to morality than harm and fairness. Morality binds and blinds – we are indeed selfish hypocrites so skilled at putting on a show of virtue that we fool even ourselves.
I’ve been keenly observing some of the premises of this book as I’m toggling between the red sea of Midland-Odessa and blue waters of Austin. Six moral taste buds: harm & suffering, fairness & injustice, liberty, loyalty, authority, and sanctity. And, I mean this graciously. Engagement of the full spectrum is obvious among many of my new, conservative Permian Basin friends – as is my own, sometimes limited engagement
Community Matters 