Category Archives: Morality

E.O. Wilson: THE SOCIAL CONQUEST OF EARTH (2012)

Posted on 19 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

E.O. Wilson’s THE SOCIAL CONQUEST OF EARTH, from 2012, is in my estimation one of the four most significant books by this scientist and writer. (The others are ON HUMAN NATURE, 1978; CONSILIENCE, 1998; and THE MEANING OF HUMAN EXISTENCE, … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Changing One's Mind, Culture, Evolution, Morality, Religion | Comments Off on E.O. Wilson: THE SOCIAL CONQUEST OF EARTH (2012)

Ls&Cs: Some Things Never Change; Some That Do Go Unremembered

Posted on 17 November 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

How racism persists while changing its expression; how cherry-picking the Bible has been done for centuries; and how the seven-day week has only recently become the worldwide standard.

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Morality, Politics, Religion | Comments Off on Ls&Cs: Some Things Never Change; Some That Do Go Unremembered

Ls&Cs: You Suggest Having Ice Cream, They Hate Ice Cream

Posted on 14 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

The principles of an angry 3-year-old; the anti-business party; Supreme Court justices’ motivations.

Posted in Morality, Politics | Comments Off on Ls&Cs: You Suggest Having Ice Cream, They Hate Ice Cream

Ls&Cs: Morality, Left and Right

Posted on 23 August 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Two items recently that dovetail nicely.

Posted in Morality, Religion | Comments Off on Ls&Cs: Morality, Left and Right

Principles and Moral Guidelines, Update

Posted on 7 November 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

I polished my Principles page today, tightening a bit, and adding a section at the end listing my favorite alternatives to the Biblical Ten Commandments.

Posted in Humanism, Morality, Philosophy, Psychology | Comments Off on Principles and Moral Guidelines, Update

Notes for the Book: Hierarchy of Morality

Posted on 26 June 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

This one isn’t mine; this is Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of moral development, which I first became aware of in Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011), page 624, and later recalled when I reread E.O. Wilson’s foundational On … Continue reading →

Posted in Morality, Social Progress, The Book | Comments Off on Notes for the Book: Hierarchy of Morality

Links and Comments: Religious Morality; Natural Law

Posted on 5 June 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

On the heels of yesterday’s post is this “Jesus ‘n’ Mo” comic, posted by Jerry Coyne, on exactly the subject of deciding what seems right to you first, and looking for scriptural authority to support it second. Jesus ‘n’ Mo … Continue reading →

Posted in Morality, Religion | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Religious Morality; Natural Law

Gladstone: THE TROUBLE WITH REALITY

Posted on 20 February 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

The Trouble with Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time (Workman, 2017) is by Brooke Gladstone, co-host of a syndicated radio program, “On the Media,” that I occasionally hear on my NPR station. The book is small, 91 … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Morality, Politics | Comments Off on Gladstone: THE TROUBLE WITH REALITY

Links and Comments: The Profound and the Pernicious

Posted on 13 November 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

From NPR, The Answer To Life, The Universe — And Everything? It’s 63. The headline is a riff on the famous episode in Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Wikipedia) in which a vast computer called Deep Thought … Continue reading →

Posted in Cosmology, Morality, Politics, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: The Profound and the Pernicious

George Lakoff on the Conservative Moral Hierarchy

Posted on 14 July 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Retired UC Berkeley professor George Lakoff answers Two Questions About Trump and Republicans that Stump Progressives, a piece that has gotten some circulation the past couple weeks. The questions are: 1) Why don’t Trump supporters turn against Trump even though … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Evolution, MInd, Morality | Comments Off on George Lakoff on the Conservative Moral Hierarchy