The Independent Whig
Morality
Human History Explained in Ten Statements
This is first attempt at communicating an idea I’ve been kicking around for a while. It has finally formed clearly enough out of a cloud of thoughts for me to write it down. With time I may refine or enhance it, expand or contract it, or morph it into something else. For the moment, here’s what I’m … Continue reading
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
Religion, Morality, and Ideology: Different Names for the Same Underlying Element of Human Nature
Religion, morality, and ideology, all, are manifestations of a single underlying evolutionary, anthropological, and psychological phenomenon; human groupishness, aka “hivishness,” aka our “tribal mentality.” It’s long been taken for granted that humans are selfish. As Haidt describes in The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion Political theorists since Marx had … Continue reading
Morality is Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts
Haidt has observed that the greatest miracles on earth are not natural wonders like the Grand Canyon; they are the great societies that have been created throughout human history through our ability to cooperate. Humans pull off these miracles through the use of an equal balance of “all the tools in the tool box” of … Continue reading
Moral Foundations Help To Define the Elephant
Morality is our sense of right and wrong. It is the sets of behaviors that we, as a society and as individuals, consider to be acceptable and unacceptable. It is our collection of notions about how we should act and relate to one another. It is the instant, instinctual feeling of like or dislike that … Continue reading
Why Rep. Carson Thinks the Tea Party is Racist
Democratic Rep. Andre Carson told a Miami crowd last week that the Tea Party movement would “love” to see black Americans “hanging on a tree.” (1) He is not alone among liberals in depicting the Tea Party as racist. Janeane Garofalo attributed the Tea Party to “racism, straight up,” (2) and Keith Olberman agreed with … 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 