The Independent Whig
Reason and Experience
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
Yes, I Am “Judgmental”: An Overview of the Position of The Independent Whig
JSWagner, a reader of this blog, made a fair and well reasoned comment to the post in which I observed that Opennes Is Not A Moral Foundation. He said that I can be judgmental, and that there’s sometimes a negative tone to my writing about ideas I don’t agree with. He said that I “castigated” … Continue reading
Conservatism is not Resistance to Change, it is Respect for Experience.
Conventional wisdom holds that conservatism is about resistance to change, adherence to customs and traditions, preservation of institutions, and defense of the status quo. This is incorrect. Those things are merely the effects of a much deeper cause. The deeper cause is an inherent respect for experience – the collected wisdom of the ages – … Continue reading
Liberal and Conservative – Reason and Experience
Before stumbling upon the work of Jonathan Haidt I had developed my own ideas about the roots of liberalism and conservatism, and how the two sides seem to think differently. Even though I approached the topic from a perspective that is entirely different from his I think my own conclusions are compatible with his findings. … Continue reading
What is Conservatism?
(This post is an excerpt, with some minor updating, from the longer essay in the post What Is Rick Perry Talking About? ) What is Conservatism? Conservatism is the morality which is built on all of the moral foundations in equal balance, as illustrated in this 19 minute video on TED.com: The Moral Roots of Liberals … Continue reading
Themes Overview
Several themes, observations, about the differences between liberals and conservatives, and liberalism and conservatism, run throughout The Independent Whig. The links in the “Themes” sidebar menu take the reader to the posts which reflect the themes.
Reason and Experience
Before stumbling upon the work of Jonathan Haidt I had developed my own ideas about the roots of liberalism and conservatism, and how the two sides seem to think differently. Even though I approached the topic from a perspective that is entirely different from his I think my own conclusions are compatible with his findings. … Continue reading
What is Rick Perry Talking About?
One of the most quoted passages from Rick Perry’s book Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington is this: We are tired of being told how much salt to put on our food, what kind of cars we can drive, what kind of guns we can own (and) what kind of prayers we are … Continue reading
About The Independent Whig
NOTE: This post shows the About page as it originally appered. The About page will be updated occasionally as this blog develops and matures. Introduction: This blog takes its name from a series of essays written in 1720 by John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, whose later work was serialized in The London Journal, and then … 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 