I engaged in a Facebook fight recently. This hasn’t happened in a while. I try to avoid commenting on the status updates and posts that particularly (and regularly) annoy me–not so much out of a sense of honor as an awareness that my blood pressure can’t take it. But when I read a comment posted […]
A Few Thoughts on Righteous Minds and Religious Liberty
I believe it was Austin Powers’ father Nigel who once remarked, “There are only two things I can’t stand in this world. People who are intolerant of other people’s cultures… and the Dutch.” That movie came out while I was in college, and the joke struck a chord. Having been educated in proudly ‘progressive’ institutions, […]
The Rationalist Delusion and the Perils of Certainty – Jonathan Haidt
Didn’t think we’d reached the end of the videos, had you? Not by long shot! Here’s Dr. Haidt’s fantastic presentation from Saturday morning:
The Ratonalist Delusion & the Perils of Certainty ~ Jonathan Haidt from Mockingbird on Vimeo.
Why Scandals Are So Entertaining (and Hypocrisy So Infectious)
A particularly incisive passage from the fourth chapter of Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis, in which he expounds on the universality of hypocrisy and the intoxication of self-righteousness: There is a special pleasure in the irony of a moralist brought down for the very moral failings he has condemned. It’s the pleasure of a well-told […]
Another Week Ends: Hoffman and Addiction, Parenting Confessionals, Harris v Haidt, Trite Apologies, Super Bowl Commercials and Transform(ers)ational Ministry
1. Philip Seymour Hoffman, of Magnolia and, more recently, The Master fame, passed away this week in what the press generally called a “heroin overdose”. On the subject of addiction, it was painful and touching recalling his role in Owning Mahowny, and a moving reflection on Hoffman’s death comes from fellow Hollywood icon and recovering addict Aaron […]
Surviving November Pt 4: Partisan Narratives, Universal Sympathies and Keith Richards’ Choirmaster
Just in the nick of time, the final installment of our series on Jonathan Haidt’s wonderful The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. To read part one, go here. Living in a “swing battleground state” (VA), I’ve had the distinct privilege of witnessing the escalation of hostilities this fall. And […]
Another Week Ends: Taylor Swift, Tragedy’s Tragedy, Friday Night Faith, Crises of Boredom, and More November Haidt
David Zahl is finishing up his paternity leave this week. Congratulations amigo! Love to you and yours. 1) In his “Life of Reilly” magazine series, ESPN’s Rick Reilly covered a hummer of a story about one of the most backwards high school football games in history, in which there were “rivers running uphill” and “cats […]
Surviving November, Pt 3: Fact Checkers, Missing Ethics Books, and the Must/Can Distinction
Have you noticed the increase, this election, in talk about “fact-checkers”? I can’t seem to escape articles and tweets about post-debate/-speech tallies of “checked facts.” While no doubt we could use a little help wading through all campaign hyperbole and Wiki-what-have-you, it sometimes seems that we’ve forgotten the time-tested cliche that one man’s fact is […]
Surviving November Pt 2: (Inner) Lawyers, (Inner) Press Secretaries and Presidential Debates
I’m sure I wasn’t the only one thinking about Jonathan Haidt during the recent debates. When it comes to The Righteous Mind, they have been pretty much an Exhibit A situation. That is, for all the learning and sophistication and charisma up on that stage, when two ‘righteous minds’ are locked in what Haidt calls […]
Surviving November, Pt 1: Political Divides, Intuitive Dogs, and Rational Tails
Maybe the non-stop and increasingly ludicrous “opposition ads” have started to make you dread turning on the TV. Maybe you can’t read your (predominantly pop culture-focused!) Twitterfeed without getting depressed about the dehumanizing level of partisanship being so casually embraced by otherwise thoughtful people. Maybe you find blind loyalty to (or hatred of) a particular […]
Argumentative Apes and the Wisdom of Foolishness: A Social Science Roundup
Two weeks ago, New Scientist wrote an excellent article alluding to many of the social science themes we cover. We’ll start with two thought-experiments noted in the article that illustrate human selfishness or irrationality: 1. Imagine an outbreak of disease threatening a small town of 600 people. Given budget constraints, we can develop treatment A, which […]
Don’t Think About a White Bear: Perverse Imps, Divided Minds, and Bad Sermons
I think we can safely say that The Raven has come and gone without sullying our beloved Edgar Allen Poe’s name too badly (21% on Rotten Tomatoes is not exactly high praise…). We’ll nevertheless do our part in the rehabilitation of his reputation with a passage about “mental intrusion” from Jonathan Haidt’s social psychology tour-de-force, […]
