Category Archives: Morality

The Absence of Empathy

Posted on Friday 7 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

I’m still working this past week on summarizing and assessing the 2006 Jonathan Haidt book THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS. I can’t quite wrap it up today, or soon, because we’re doing a quick trip down and back to LA tomorrow and … Continue reading →

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Jonathan Haidt, THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS, post 4

Posted on Friday 7 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom” With second subtitle “Why the Meaningful Life is Closer than You Think” (Basic Books, 2006, xiii + 297pp, including 54pp acknowledgements, notes, references, and index. Hardcover with no dust jacket.) (Post 1, Post … Continue reading →

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Jonathan Haidt, THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS, post 3

Posted on Thursday 6 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom” With second subtitle “Why the Meaningful Life is Closer than You Think” (Basic Books, 2006, xiii + 297pp, including 54pp acknowledgements, notes, references, and index. Hardcover with no dust jacket.) (Post 1, Post … Continue reading →

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Jonathan Haidt, THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS, post 2

Posted on Wednesday 5 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom” With second subtitle “Why the Meaningful Life is Closer than You Think” (Basic Books, 2006, xiii + 297pp, including 54pp acknowledgements, notes, references, and index. Hardcover with no dust jacket.) (Post 1) Once … Continue reading →

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Jonathan Haidt, THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS, post 1

Posted on Tuesday 4 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom” With second subtitle “Why the Meaningful Life is Closer than You Think” (Basic Books, 2006, xiii + 297pp, including 54pp acknowledgements, notes, references, and index. Hardcover with no dust jacket.) Here is a … Continue reading →

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Sam Harris: THE MORAL LANDSCAPE

Posted on Thursday 30 October 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “How Science Can Determine Human Values” (Free Press, Oct. 2010, 291pp, including 100pp of acknowledgements, notes, references, and index) Sam Harris came to fame in the years after 9/11 for writing a critique of religion called THE END OF … Continue reading →

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Useful Categories

Posted on Wednesday 29 October 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Five ideas to tell when America has become a dictatorship; A Jesus and Mo cartoon that reflects my discussions of secular awe and religion; Phil Zuckerman on how social justice is secular; Short items about worries of American’s impending population … Continue reading →

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Moral Rot

Posted on Tuesday 28 October 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Paul Krugman on food stamps/SNAP; the common conservative belief that recipients are malingerers; and some facts about who actually gets those benefits; The Labor Department’s white supremacist posters; Short items; Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld on Trump’s disrespect, and how he’s … Continue reading →

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The Need for Community

Posted on Monday 20 October 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

An essay about how humans raised children in villages, throughout most of history; Another essay about how Gen Z-ers are drawn to conservative Christianity, not because it’s in any way true, but because of that same need for community; Heather … Continue reading →

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Moral Collapse, or Moral Immaturity?

Posted on Friday 17 October 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Has MAGA’s morality collapsed, or has it always been this way — immature? With references to that hierarchy of morality, and Peter Singer’s expanding circle of morality; Karoline Leavitt says Democrats are made up of “Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and … Continue reading →

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