The Righteous Mind

Overall, I liked this book a lot. I really appreciated thinking and describing ways that you could feel some outrage. I quote the Atlantic:

“That the five most important taste receptors of the moral mind are the following...care/harm, fairness/cheating, group loyalty and betrayal, authority and subversion, sanctity and degradation. And that moral systems are like cuisines that are constructed from local elements to please these receptors.”

So my major challenge with the book is that I want morality to be reason based instead of based on my monkey brain. I have a kind of stoic feel that while our feelings and passions will drive us to do things, we should constantly strive to apply reason to our feelings and live a happier life for it. This means that while I recognize and feel the moral ‘senses' of loyalty, authority and sanctity I often dismiss the feelings as not useful in modern life and a evolutionary dead end in some ways. The book doesn't seem to want to take a stand as to if these moral senses that are ignored by WEIRD people is the right thing to do. Maybe there's some cultural relativism at play here or something, IDK.

Anyways, it gave me lots to think about and was interesting and engaging so it gets full marks.