Conscience : the origins of moral intuition
Draws on social behavior and twin studies to explore how moral systems arise from the physical self in combination with environmental demands, evaluating whether people have a predisposition to adopt specific ethics.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781324000891
- ISBN: 1324000899
- Physical Description: 226 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2019]
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (pages [195]-213) and index. |
Formatted Contents Note: | Wired to care -- The snuggle for survival -- Getting attached -- Learning and getting along -- Norms and values -- I'm just that way -- Conscience and its anomalies -- What's love got to do with it? -- The practical side. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Conscience Conscience PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy |
Show Only Available Copies
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Homer Public Library | 171.6 CHU (Text) | 000152116 | Nonfiction | Available | - |
Conscience : The Origins of Moral Intuition
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Summary
Conscience : The Origins of Moral Intuition
In her brilliant work Touching a Nerve, Patricia S. Churchland, the distinguished founder of neurophilosophy, drew from scientific research on the brain to understand its philosophical and ethical implications for identity, consciousness, free will, and memory. In Conscience, she explores how moral systems arise from our physical selves in combination with environmental demands. All social groups have ideals for behavior, even though ethics vary among different cultures and among individuals within each culture. In trying to understand why, Churchland brings together an understanding of the influences of nature and nurture. She looks to evolution to elucidate how, from birth, our brains are configured to form bonds, to cooperate, and to care. She shows how children grow up in society to learn, through repetition and rewards, the norms, values, and behavior that their parents embrace. Conscience delves into scientific studies, particularly the fascinating work on twins, to deepen our understanding of whether people have a predisposition to embrace specific ethical stands. Research on psychopaths illuminates the knowledge about those who abide by no moral system and the explanations science gives for these disturbing individuals. Churchland then turns to philosophy--that of Socrates, Aquinas, and contemporary thinkers like Owen Flanagan--to explore why morality is central to all societies, how it is transmitted through the generations, and why different cultures live by different morals. Her unparalleled ability to join ideas rarely put into dialogue brings light to a subject that speaks to the meaning of being human.