Templeton Foundation asks whether moral action depends on reasoning

Does moral action depend on "reasoning?" The Temple Foundation has assembled various prominent thinkers and sought their answers. Neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga's essay is devoid of any ghost in the machine:

What if most humans, regardless of their culture or religious beliefs or age or sex, chose the same option when faced with a moral conflict? What if those same people gave wildly different reasons for why they made their particular choices? This, in fact, is the state of affairs for much of our moral behavior. Recent research in human brain science and ancillary fields has shown that multiple factors feed into the largely automatic and deterministic processes that drive our moral decisions.
Gazzaniga cautions us his mechanistic view of human decision-making does not make obsolete "the value of holding people in a society accountable for their actions, though it does suggest that the "endless historical discussion" of "free will and the like has little or no meaning." What evidence substantiates Gazzaniga's view?

First, most scientific research shows that morality is largely universal, which is to say, cross-cultural. It is also easily revealed to be present in young infants. It has a fixed sequence of development and is not flexible or subject to exceptions like social rules. Indeed, recent brain-imaging studies have found that a host of moral judgments seem to be more or less universally held and reflect identifiable underlying brain networks. From deciding on fairness in a monetary exchange to rendering levels of punishment to wrongdoers, the repertoire of common responses for all members of our species is growing into a rich list. [Further,] all decision processes resulting in behaviors, no matter what their category, are carried out before one becomes consciously aware of them.

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Obstinate spinning dancer

A few years ago, I could make her spin either way. I'm having trouble with her tonight. She strongly wants to spin clockwise (relative to the floor). To make her spin counterclockwise, I need to cover her top half, then focus carefully lest she slips into the clockwise spin again. spinning_dancer What an incredibly elegant illusion! In fact, she is one of Wikimedia Commons' "Featured Pictures," "which means that members of the community have identified it as one of the finest images on the English Wikipedia . . . " This NYT blog entry identifies the creator of this image: Nobuyuki Kayahara. Here is further explanation:

The silhouette image of the spinning dancer doesn’t have any depth cues. As a result, your eyes will sometimes see the dancer standing on her left leg and spinning to the right. And sometimes they will perceive her as standing on her right leg and spinning to the left. Most people, if they stare at the image long enough, will eventually see her turn both ways.

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Time to vote on the year’s worst toy

Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) is offering its five finalists for worst toy of the year for those who would like to cast their ballot:

CCFC will present its TOADY (Toys Oppressive And Destructive to Young Children) Award for the worst toy of the year. From thousands of toys that promote violence and/or precocious sexuality to children and push branded entertainment at the expense of children’s play, CCFC has selected five exceptional finalists.

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The psychology of becoming a soldier

In 1983, PBS gave this extraordinary unvarnished view of what it means to be trained to be a soldier. The six-part documentary is called "Anybody's Son Will Do," and the documentary focuses on boot camp at Paris Island. Here's one of the opening quotes: "The secret about basic training is that it's not really about teaching people things at all. It's about changing people so that they can do things they wouldn't have dreamed of doing otherwise." In Part III, the instructor asks the trainees to name that special person to whom they are dedicating all of their hard training. The answer: To your enemy, so that he can "die for his country." The commentator adds that it doesn't really matter who the enemy is. Rather, it's the idea of an "outside threat that binds a combat unit together so strongly that its members will make the most extraordinary sacrifices for each other." In part V, the commentator mentions another key point of basic training: They indoctrinate the recruits with the idea that the enemy--whoever he may be--is not fully human, and so it's all right to kill him." Here's an excerpt from an actual training session (also from Part V, starting at the 2:30 mark), discussing the extent which the Marines need to destroy the enemy:

You want to rip out his eyeballs, you want to tear apart his love machine. You want to destroy him, privates! You don't wanna have nothing left of him. You want to send him home in a glad bag to his mommy." [loud laughing from the recruits] . . . Marines are born trained killers, and you've got to prove that every day."
Here's part I: It's apparent throughout this documentary that soldier training depends upon hating one's enemy. It is also apparent that many of the members of the military are religious. Somehow, through this mix, the religious command to "Love your enemy" co-exists with the military command to "Hate your enemy."

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People Are Idiots. A Cynical Observation

The video below from TED is chilling in many ways. Michael Specter touches on observations about the resistance people have toward anything that seems to threaten their hobbit-hole view of the world. A little of this, as he rightly points out, is fine, even agreeable, but when it burgeons into matters that threaten lives and seek to derail all that has made this present era as wonderful as it is---and it must be stressed, in the face of overwhelming negative press, that we are living in a magnificent period of history---then it loses whatever quaint appeal it might otherwise have. We respect the Amish, but they don't tell the rest of us how to live and try their level best to be apart from the world they disapprove. When you see people filing lawsuits with the intent to halt necessary, beneficial progress because they have bought into some bogeyman horror movie view of science or politics or morality, it behooves us to come to terms with a fundamental reality with which we live today. First, though, the video. Watch this, then read on. Okay, what reality? That many people are just idiots. I cannot think of a more tasteful way to phrase it. But when you consider the list, justifications and rationalizations fade. The Tea Party. The Anti-vaccine Movement. The Birthers. Young Earth Creationists. Medjugorje. Deepak Chopra. PETA. Free Market Capitalism. Global Warming Deniers. Holocaust Deniers. Abstinence-Only. Just Say No. The Shroud of Turin. Astrology. Texas Board of Education. Evolution Deniers. Frankenfood Protesters. Homeopaths. Herbalists. Psychics. Scientology. I could go on. [more . . . ]

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