Dissecting Morality: What do Scientists Have To Say About Ethics? (Part 2)
New Books in Science, Technology, and Society
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The World Has Far Too Much Morality
In his 2011 book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Why Violence Has Declined, Harvard cognitive psychologist Stephen Pinker wrote that the world has far too much morality. What Pinker was referring to was the way human beings can let their moral instincts and emotions drive them towards potentially immoral levels of violence. We should realize that we get an autonomous pleasure and sense of righteousness out of punishing what we conceptualize as moral infractions.
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