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.

Continue ReadingTempleton Foundation asks whether moral action depends on reasoning

Illusions and personal decision-making

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely uses classic visual illusions and his own research to show that we are often not in personal control of our own-decision-making. Outside factors often compel our decisions, even though we always insist that we are always in control or our choices. The organ donation and ibuprophen examples are phenomenal. He also advocates a method for bar-hopping. Fun-filled and educational talk. The serious message is that we need to understand our vulnerabilities as "rational" people and then build our way around these vulnerabilities. This talk thus has implications for those who believe whole-heartedly in free will.

Continue ReadingIllusions and personal decision-making

What it means to feel certain: review of “On Being Certain”

Consider these words of George W. Bush, spoken in Rome, in 2001

“I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe — I believe what I believe is right.”

This is not an isolated case. These sorts of fact-free assertions occur all the time. Consider another example, this one a hypothetical. Assume that you overhear some guy claiming that homeopathic medicine [or fill in the blank with your own favorite snake oil treatment] is effective and powerful. Because you suspect that he doesn’t have his facts right or that his reasoning is unreliable or invalid, you speak up and question his statement. He responds by saying something like the following:

I’m certain I am correct. I’m absolutely sure that I’m right. I have no doubts about this.

Despite the many claims of certainty that we hear, we often remain unconvinced, and for good reason. There’s a saying, “Show, don’t tell.” Show me the facts so that I myself can see whether I am certain. Don’t just tell me that you’re certain. Nonetheless, people constantly make claims that are based on inner feels of certainty, quite often wild and unsubstantiated claims about politics and religion, as well as claims about science, history or just about everything else.

People often use such claims that they have a “feeling of certainty” as bootstraps to convince themselves that they are even more certain than they actually are, thereby completely dispensing for the need for meticulous …

Share

Continue ReadingWhat it means to feel certain: review of “On Being Certain”

If you are exposed to arguments that there is no free will, you’ll be more likely to cheat

Ouch! The serious study of philosophy or neuroscience might make you less moral. That’s my take-away from a recent article: “The Value of Believing in Free Will: Encouraging a Belief in Determinism Increases Cheating,” by Kathleen D. Vohs and Jonathan W. Schooler. This particular article by Vohs and Schooler purports…

Continue ReadingIf you are exposed to arguments that there is no free will, you’ll be more likely to cheat