Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
“Illuminating, entertaining and wise.” —Nicholas A. Christakis, Nature
Conscience, a finalist for the PEN / E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, explores why all social groups have moral systems and how these systems are formed. Distinguished professor Patricia S. Churchland brings together an understanding of the influences of neuroscience, genetics, and physical environment to elucidate how our brains are configured to form bonds and care for children, while also investigating why amoral psychopaths can arise. Churchland then turns to philosophy to understand how morality is transmitted through generations, and why it has become a foundation of all societies. Conscience joins ideas rarely put into dialogue and brings light to a subject that speaks to the meaning of being human.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this fascinating work, Churchland (Touching a Nerve), a philosophy professor emerita at UC San Diego, argues that human conscience is neurobiological in origin, rather than stemming, as contemporary philosophers commonly maintain, from universal moral laws. She proposes a fusion between Hume's theory that humans are "born with a predisposition to be socially sensitive" and her former colleague Francis Crick's conviction that biological evolution ought to figure into any discussion of the origin of ethics. Churchland expresses her view in the simple formula, "Attachment begets caring; caring begets conscience," theorizing that human neurobiology, in having a reward system that "internalizes social norms" via the "pleasure of social approval," leads to a "brain construct" designated as the conscience. Accordingly, humans want to do what their consciences deem right because it enhances their bonds with others. The philosophical divide, as Churchland sees it, comes down to an argument between "wisdom seekers" with whom she identifies such as Aristotle, Hume, and the Dalai Lama, who see conscience and morality as intertwined with sociality, and "rule purveyors," from Kant to the present, who search for universal moral laws that can govern all societies. This intellectually rigorous yet highly readable work is well worth the time of anyone interested in why humans feel and think as they do.
