Themes

A Response To “Why are there so few non-liberals in social psychology? A closer look”

This month’s blog updates email from Heterodox Academy features an essay entitled Why are there so few non-liberals in social psychology? A closer look, by Bo Bennett. I believe the essay to be fatally flawed. The farther into it I read the more my blood boiled.  Let me explain. The first step in writing an essay like … Continue reading →

Yeah, about that (purple) cake

I posted a couple comments recently to a blog post entitled Let Them Eat (purple) Cake at The Village Square. I love and support the ideals of The Village Square, which, if I understand them correctly, are to bring a more fact-based empirical reality and intellectual humility, and through these increased civility and friendship, to … Continue reading →

The Hole in Moral Foundations Theory and a Speculation On How To Fix It

Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) does not explain everything it purports to explain, i.e., the workings of our righteous minds.  I suggest that in order to be a complete theory it must. In this essay I describe what I think MFT does not explain, and I speculate on what’s missing from it such that it might. The … Continue reading →

Liberalism Is Anti-Science Magical Thinking

See the discussion of how Obama’s “Pollyannaish belief in historical predetermination seems to substitute for action” in the article Blinded by Banalities by Victor Davis Hanson at National Review online. I believe that the thought process Obama demonstrates is characteristic of the three-foundation brain type.   It is dangerously disconnected from the realities of human nature and it … Continue reading →

“The Righteous Mind” Critiqued in Three Pictures

Religion, Morality, and Ideology: Like Things That Should Be Judged Alike.

Introduction This post is the second half of a two part essay.  In part one I argued that religions, moralities, and ideologies are different manifestations of a single underlying element of human nature: our tendency to form into groups of like-minded people and compete with other groups.  In this post I continue that argument and make the additional claim that since … Continue reading →

What Moral Foundations Really Are, and How They Help Us To Diagnose and Treat The Political Divide

1) Moral foundations are evolved psychological mechanisms of moral and social perception. They are senses. Each moral foundation provides its possessor with a predisposition to perceive the particular aspect of human behavior that is associated with that foundation. The metaphor I like to use is this: Moral foundations are to moral and social perception as … Continue reading →

Some of Haidt’s Metaphors Contradict His Findings

[Note:This post was edited on 3/30/13 to include the sentence in bold font.] This post is critical of select portions of Jonathan Haidt’s work so I want to make it clear at the outset that I think his approach, research, findings, and interpretations of those findings in the academic sense are right on the money.  … Continue reading →

Catch-22

Scott Wagner is a liberal blogger whom I hold in high esteem. He writes about how liberals might do a better job in their efforts to Reach the Right. Scott often relies on the work of Jonathan Haidt. He and Haidt epitomize the liberal ideal of openness to new ideas. They have the ability to … Continue reading →

The Elephant in the Room

I think The Asteroids Club, and more broadly Haidt’s Yin/Yang metaphor of the relationship between liberalism and conservatism scrupulously, though possibly not intentionally, avoid discussing the elephant in the room and strongly steer discussions toward liberal thought patterns and conclusions. I made a suggestion on the Club’s web site for some reading materials about the Asteroid of Entitlement Spending.  … Continue reading →