The Independent Whig
The Moral Mind In Action
Liberal and Conservative – Literal and Conceptual
The limited employment of moral foundations in the liberal moral matrix and cognitive tool kit, and the liberal faith in reason as the arbiter of truth, together tend to lead liberals to interpret things literally. Their positions tend to center on objective analysis of discreet facts. The liberal view on religion is an example of … Continue reading
The Bees and the Hive: Liberal and Conservative Perceptions of Human Nature
The liberal vision employs only the moral color receptors cognitive tools of care/harm, fairness/cheating, and liberty/oppression. These are the Big E of the moral visual acuity chart. They, and the Liberal vision, are focused almost entirely on the individual; the bee in the hive of society. The moral intuitions of loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, sanctity/degradation, are the … Continue reading
Protecting the Weak
Conventional wisdom says that liberalism protects the weak better than conservatism does. I submit that this conventional wisdom is unwise, and in fact, the wrong way around. Haidt explains in his TED talk that the most successful attempts at creating human societies have come when people used “all the tools in the toolbox.” I submit … Continue reading
Do Liberals Really “Care” More?
In Moral Psychology and the Misunderstanding of Religion Haidt makes the following observation about liberal morality: But if you try to apply this two-foundation [i.e., liberal] morality to the rest of the world, you either fail or you become Procrustes. Most traditional societies care about a lot more than harm/care and fairness/justice. Why do so … Continue reading
The Root Cause of the Political Divide
Liberals and conservatives literally live in different worlds with different dimensions. It is not enough to describe moral foundations merely as taste buds as Haidt does in one of the metaphors he uses to help us understand his theory. And it is not even enough to describe moral foundations as the color receptors of … Continue reading
I Support Viewpoint Diversity
A politically diverse group of social scientists, natural scientists, humanists, and other scholars who want to improve our academic disciplines and universities. We share a concern about a growing problem: the loss or lack of “viewpoint diversity.” When nearly everyone in a field shares the same political orientation, certain ideas become orthodoxy, dissent is discouraged, and errors can go unchallenged.
Venn Diagram of Liberal and Conservative Traits and Moral Foundations and
The Independent Whig 