Category Archives: Morality

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.

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Ls&Cs: Morality, Left and Right

Posted on 23 August 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Two items recently that dovetail nicely.

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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Wishing Things Away: The Gays, and Abortions

Posted on 24 April 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Several recent items about two topics recently struck me as similar in the way some conservatives deny their reality or think they can simply wish them away. In Chechnya, there have been reports in recent weeks that authorities are rounding … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker on the future under Trump

Posted on 27 February 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

An interview, conducted by Phil Torres, of Pinker: The United States Is Not an Apocalyptic Wasteland, Explains Steven Pinker. Pinker is well-known for his book The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011) arguing (with copious references to sources of evidence) … Continue reading →

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