Day: June 2, 2008

Morris vs. Hauser, or What’s Universal about Morality?

Seed Magazine featured this debate/discussion between the evolutionary psychologist Marc Hauser and the documentary film maker Errol Morris in a recent Seed Salon. The two sat down to discuss morality, given Hauser’s recent book Moral Minds: The Nature of Right and Wrong and Morris’ recent film Standard Operating Procedure on Abu Ghraib. So they are coming at the question from a wee bit different angle…

Hauser wants to argue for a universal moral module (or at least emotions) while Morris is the relativist. Hauser mentions the categorical imperative and selfish genes. Morris mentions social psychology and interpretations. In their explanations they talk past one another.

But what’s interesting is that the best part of their conversation revolves around the conjunction of people and context. This people/context conjunction is a universality both miss. Given how people and contexts and their interactions vary, it’s also relative.

I think Morris and Hauser miss understanding what they agree upon because we haven’t built a very good framework to give people like Hauser and Morris other ways to talk and to think.

Continue reading “Morris vs. Hauser, or What’s Universal about Morality?”

100 ways to improve your brain health

One of our readers, Fiona King, sent a link to me for the page, Brain Power: 100 Ways to Keep Your Mind Healthy and Fit, by Alisa Miller. Usually, when I get this stuff, it’s someone trying to sell something, like ‘brain health’ online programs or tapes or something, but this list looks legit, and it’s not trying to plug some product (well, there’s some kind words for chai and avocado, for example, and some mild criticism of the blogger’s fuel of choice: caffeine).

The page is provided by the Online Education Database, which appears to be a network of online educational resources.

Thanks to Fiona for providing it, although the anthropologist in me is still squeamish with the notion of ‘brain health.’ I still think that it often encourages an idea that there is a ‘best way’ to have a brain, when, in fact, there are a number of ways that brains are grown, and they likely all have mixed ‘health’ consequences. But I’ll write more on that some other time…