The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values
n this explosive new book, Sam Harris tears down the wall between scientific facts and human values, arguing that most people are simply mistaken about the relationship between morality and the rest of human knowledge. Harris urges us to think about morality in terms of human and animal...
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n this explosive new book, Sam Harris tears down the wall between scientific facts and human values, arguing that most people are simply mistaken about the relationship between morality and the rest of human knowledge. Harris urges us to think about morality in terms of human and animal well-being, viewing the experiences of conscious creatures as peaks and valleys on a "moral landscape." Because there are definite facts to be known about where we fall on this landscape, Harris foresees a time when science will no longer limit itself to merely describing what people do in the name of "morality"; in principle, science should be able to tell us what we ought to do to live the best lives possible.
Bringing a fresh perspective to age-old questions of right and wrong and good and evil, Harris demonstrates that we already know enough about the human brain and its relationship to events in the world to say that there are right and wrong answers to the most pressing questions of human life. Because such answers exist, moral relativism is simply false—and comes at increasing cost to humanity. And the intrusions of religion into the sphere of human values can be finally repelled: for just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim algebra, there can be no Christian or Muslim morality.
Using his expertise in philosophy and neuroscience, along with his experience on the front lines of our "culture wars," Harris delivers a game-changing book about the future of science and about the real basis of human cooperation.
źródło opisu: Simon & Schuster, 2010
źródło okładki: http://books.simonandschuster.com/
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Format: papier
ISBN:
9781439171219
Publish date: październik 2010 (data przybliżona)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Inc
Pages no: 304
Edition language: English
Category:
Non Fiction,
Science,
Biology,
Culture,
Religion,
Philosophy,
Sociology,
Psychology,
Neuroscience,
Atheism,
Skepticism
I find Sam Harris to be the most interesting and least abrasive of the so-called new atheists, a group that is comprised of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and others. But in his earlier The End of Faith he was taken to task by atheists and believers alike for suggesting that what we call Spi...
Somewhat disappointing. Seemed rather disjointed to me. Too much diatribe against religion and not enough real description of how science could provide evidence for moral values. Digression on freewill also lost me, but it wasn't too long. This book is more just a call to possible action than a f...
I feel as though I have a lot to say about this book, but I'm not totally sure what it is. Outstanding work, Dr. Harris.
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The reviews I'm reading don't make it sound very compelling.