I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being, and that is enough for me; he can’t be any worse. Mark Twain I found Haidt’s presentation about moral foundations quite stimulating. I think his work might be relevant not only to understand people’s moral reasoning (or rather: rationalizations), but also to online outrage mobs. Given that I am interested in ideas — and ideas can be difficult to convey and some ideas “trigger” a lot of reactance — it might really be useful. So I’ve ordered his book (“The Righteous Mind — Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion”). But before I read it, I’d like to think a bit about what he has said. It’s nice to write down expectations/assumptions and check them with what you’ve read later. It avoids hindsight bias in checking for pre-post-understanding (“I knew he would say this, because I don’t remember what I expected him to say and what happened seems so obvious now.”). It can also preserve a few ideas that would otherwise be crushed under the (usually) better and well-thought out writing of an author. [...]
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