Review: The Righteous Mind

Cover image from Amazon

Reason: a slave to emotion
The righteous mind is by nature a mind that is moralistic, critical and judgemental. Haidt contends this characteristic has been reserved for the righteous conservatives but is now exhibited by the post-modern progressives in society. It would seem that adherents to contemporary notions of social justice would hold that truth as being relative and rationalism as being delusional.

Generally people seem to condemn some distasteful actions very quickly, in doing so they tend not to use sufficient time to think carefully but act from a feeling orientation. Haidt supports Humes contention that most people are slaves to passion. For most of us our passions are automatic. This is particularly pertinent in an age where social justice and political correctness are emotionally sensitive issues. Ever since the Age of Enlightenment reason has been held to be our most noble attribute. However, arguments in the public sphere are no longer focussed on truth.  In the postmodern era truth is relative and has given way to passion and tribalism.

Reason and faith
Haidt claims that, "In the decades after Hume's death the rationalists claimed victory over religion and took the moral sciences off on a two-hundred year tangent." However, Haidt does not develop this important notion to any extent. He briefly mentions the contribution of Christianity to Western civilisation and progress. He also discusses the ethics of utilitarianism and deontology but does not elaborate on the sacred and man's relationship of being made in 'God's' image. This relationship elevates mankind as co-creators and as beings that are imbued with dignity. Creativity values both reason and faith. Reason without faith leads to reason's demise just as faith without reason is doomed to fail.

Six foundations: understanding the righteous mind
Haidt develops a particularly interesting premise on which to view current social development where both faith and reason are facing darker times. He draws a distinction between liberals, libertarians and social conservatives by showing how they are different and what drives their particular world views within contemporary society. Such values cut across political party lines to varying degrees. This is a useful tool in understanding the mess we are in at this moment in history.

These distinctions are given some extra depth by considering six foundational elements that further differentiate current political and social groupings: care/harm, liberty/oppression, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, and sanctity/degradation as moral foundations. For example, the political left strongly rests on care/harm and liberty/oppression which support the ideas of social justice and emphasise compassion for the poor and the marginalised. In contrast, conservatives care more about the fairness/cheating foundation.

He finishes with some good advice for the the next time you find yourself seated beside someone from a different orientation. Don't just jump straight into the conversation to defend your point of view by bringing up contentious issues of morality. Start by establishing some common ground, use a bit of praise and express some genuine interest the other person's concerns.

Haidt, J, The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion. London: Puffin.

Also read:
The death of postmodernism and beyond Alan Kirby

The Limits of Critique

Cover image from Amazon

Modern-day critics
Modern day critics of literature unmask and delve between the lines to determine hidden truths and repressed beliefs. It stems from Marxist critical pedagogy, that requires consumers of literature to adopt a critical and questioning approach to reveal embedded social and political power relationships that lie, often unnoticed, within text and other works of art. Critique is now the dominant form of interpretation in literate circles. Rita Feleski examines critique and situates it among other forms of literary examination and credits it with a worthwhile contribution. However, it does have its obvious limitations. It is essentially a poststructuralist notion of language whereby the practitioners of critical literacy search for discourses and reasons why they are included or left out of texts.

Suspicion
Interpretation is often motivated by a spirit of disenchantment and skepticism or outright condemnation. Freud and Nietzsche join Marx as the creators of this art of critical interpretation. They have instantiated a system of suspicion of motives.

To the postmodern critic meaning is not always apparent. It must be disentangled and discerned. Rather than revealing ultimate truth it seeks to unveil hidden meanings and power relationships. This view has been given impetus by post-structuralist language thinkers such as Foucault and Derrida, who have entrenched the notion of suspicion and made truth a relativist quagmire, particularly when combined with Marxist and Freudian thought. "This entrenching of suspicion in turn intensifies the impulse to decipher and decode. The suspicious person is sharp-eyed and hyper alert; mistrustful of appearances, fearful of being duped, she is always on the lookout for concealed threats and discreditable motives. In short: more suspicion means more interpretation".

Society and contemporary culture
The consequences are catastrophic because the focus on suspicion and skepticism serves as a catalyst for political dissent. Those that are marginalised and victimised are more likely to harbour mistrust of the motives of others. What now pervades contemporary culture is a sense of disbelief. "While poststructuralist critique rejects hidden truth and dogged or naive pursuit of ultimate meaning, it engages nonetheless in what I (Felski) call a second-level hermeneutics - a method of reading that looks beyond the individual text to decipher larger structures of cultural production." Emotional cues in text and film, for example, are intertwined with inferences and judgements that give vital clues to the characters and their world view. However, we must be cautious about imposing their own ideas and prejudices, in effect this has a serious ethical and moral dimension. In the end it comes down to an austere exercise in demystification rather than attention to aesthetics and associated affective qualities of a work. of art.  In other words, it is a metaphorical act of 'digging-down' rather than 'standing-back'.

Postcritical interpretation
Felski maintains that the act of criticism is an integral part of Western civilisation. Part of being a responsible individual in society is having the privilege to dislike and have a desire to bring about change. However, forms of disagreement in democratic societies has been couched in particular and acceptable forms that legitimate diverse views. Felski believes that ..."critique, as we have seen, is not one thing but an eclectic array of philosophical tenets, political ideologies, and modes of interpretation." Moreover, we in the west have built walls around cherished world views and interpreted art and public discourse through a narrow sense of mistrust and disbelief. The antidote to the critique of suspicion is what Felski calls a 'postcritical interpretation.

Postcritical interpretation takes into consideration a variety of critical perspectives and traditions. Rather than 'digging down' and 'standing back' critiques should engage with works of art and  appreciate aesthetics. This wider approach seeks to recontextualise what we know and to view our world with new perspectives. Often works of art, whether the written word, film, art, etc have the potential to reorient and refresh our situational perspectives. Such works may often stem from different regions, periods and personal world views but are always embedded within various religious, philosophical and cultural contexts. Thus, critique should not only be concerned with skepticism but should also consider beauty and creative work's inherent ability to challenge our own thinking and to open up new possibilities. Without this tolerant and wider view of critique we will become slaves to narrow ideology and dogmatism.

Felski: R. (2015). The Limits of critique. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

See also:
Postmodernism is dead -what comes next - Alison Gibbons

More than Matter

Cover image from Amazon

Consciousness
Keith Ward is a distinguished philosopher who delves into some of the most profound mysteries that give meaning and purpose to human kind. His book, entitled "More than Matter," challenges the notion that mind and consciousness result from haphazard accident or randomly arranged nerve cells and synapses.  In contrast to a purely materialistic and mechanical view of the mind he argues that consciousness transcends matter and gives worth, meaning and hope to existence and reflects purpose of the cosmos.

Dualism
He opens with a discussion of Descartes' dualism (often referred to as Cartesian dualism) which frames the world of persons in terms having two very distinct properties of mind and matter. Ward is a pupil of Ryle, however, he has some objections to the Ryle's notion that postulated the mind is a ghost (or illusion, see also previous blog - Sam Harris) that in some way drives the physical body-machine. Daniel Dennett, [one of the 'four horsemen of the new atheism', also a pupil of Ryle and a contemporary of Ward], is a materialist who rejects any idea of a metaphysical component of the self. In contrast, Ward proposes that consciousness and mind are not merely illusions but are quite distinct entities and quite distinct from that of matter.

Meaning and mind
This book is a philosophical examination of the essential characteristics of the meaning of persons. Ward investigates contemporary thinking about the nature of personhood and takes the reader on a meaningful ontological journey. In the first chapter he poses the question, "If all our knowledge begins from our own experience, how can we ever be sure that anything exists beyond our experience?" In some sense the essence of the world is a product of the mind. Kant "held that space and time, which seem so objective, are in fact forms of our own intuition. That is, they are essentially a framework the mind constructs in order to build a map on which our sense-perceptions can be located." Ward further develops the idea that the mind is a constructive force that induces the world of appearances and leads the reader to come to the conclusion that it must be a thing in itself and quite distinct from that of matter. For example, the mind interprets sensations of reflected light that gives the impression of the focused object that is being observed. In a sense the object itself is not what is seen but a sensual impression of that which is being perceived. In other words the mind constructs a situational model of the observed object.

The mind
We cannot know the mind itself because the mind is the consciousness that perceives the material world. "Nevertheless, it can seem plausible to think that consciousness cannot just arise out of nowhere, and be joined onto a brain in a completely accidental and unpredictable way."In other words the consciousness is transcendent, it is not a mere object that can be perceived like a chair or a table. We may not be able to know the mind as a material substance "we only know its phenomenal acts". Ward maintains, like Kant, that the basic activity of the mind is knowing, which is the foundation of reality and consciousness. Moreover, the nature of all reality is mind-like, the cosmos itself, is not mindless and purposeless, but oddly enough, it is mysteriously mind like, rule bound, logical and mechanistic.

Cosmology and consciousness
Albert Einstein developed the idea that time exists from first to last and our existence would seem to be timeless. Ward came to the conclusion, "Whether the passing of time is real or not, it might be just wrong to think that at the moment of the Big Bang nothing existed except a very simple physical state of infinite density. Most cosmologists suppose that there would also have been a whole set of quantum laws, and perhaps those very complex and precise balances of energy that would constitute what is called a "quantum vacuum". In modern cosmology, there is something outside space-time - a rich mathematical structure - from which space-time originates. There is, in other words, a "supernatural" reality; a more fundamental layer of reality beyond space-time.

Thus, these laws or supernatural structures are purposeful and goal-directed. The structure of matter and all lifeforms are the result of the coming together of complex systems, that may seem to be random but evolve and are the inevitable outcome of a logical universe. Metaphysics, mind, matter and flesh are intertwined and reflect the underlying structure and consciousness embedded within and determine the natural forces of the cosmology.

See also on YouTube:
Bishop Robert Barron on Stephen Hawking, atheism, philosophy, religion,  the new atheists, and  God as the non-contingent ground of being.
Jordan Petersen on atheism

Waking up: Searching for spirituality without religion

The Quest
In my quest for meaning I have decided to start a series of book reviews. Rather than delving into the intricate detail and spurious argument I thought that I would offer my first impressions. I am interested in different perspectives related to meaning. Certainly spirituality gives many people a sense of meaning.

Sam Harris
My first introduction to Sam Harris was through my interest in the writings of Jordan Petersen. I watched many of his interviews and debates on the Intellectual Dark Web, some of the debates were with Sam Harris. In one interview Jordan Petersen was asked who was it that he considered was his most formidable opponent. His reply was that he did not consider Sam Harris as an opponent but his arguments were quite well articulated and well thought through.  Sam Harris is a neurological scientist and philosopher, one of the "Four Horsemen of the New Atheism". His book, "Waking up: Searching for spirituality without religion." seem to me a good place to start the quest for meaning. The big question that I had was, can an atheistic scientist experience spirituality without religion.

Spirituality and Meaning
The main problem that I had in following his arguments was that he never adequately defined what spirituality actually was. Instead he took the reader on an experiential journey of eastern religion and chemically induced esoteric and pshycedelic encounters. He came to the conclusion that through meditation and mindfulness one could experience true spirituality, that is, if you divorced it from the religion on which it was founded. To some extent, he suggested one should empty themselves of conscious thought and enjoy the moment. He did, however, give many examples of devotees that have been abused by their spiritual leaders and Gurus. The tendency in eastern religions is to empty oneself of worldly thoughts and concerns. The problem (at least with the examples that he used) is that powerful personalities can use persuasion to invade that which has been emptied. In a similar way when one gives control of self over to psychedelic drugs one is open to fantastic experiences as well as experiences that are not very good at all, which can lead to profound negative consequences.

Experience and the Self
When discussing esoteric experience it always relates back to the self. However, Sam believes that the self may be just an illusion. This is quite understandable since he does not acknowledge a God. In contrast a Christian understanding of self is one that views the personage as made in the image of God with the Kingdom of God residing within. Christian meditation seeks to meditate on God, who is the ground of all being. In a sense it requires a spiritual filling rather than the emptying. However, this notion of God would seem to be fanciful to Sam because the God of his imagination, that which he does not believe in, is a harsh judging God.

What, then are we left with?
According to Harris, "Spirituality begins with a reverence for the ordinary that can lead us to insight and experiences that are anything but ordinary." However, if the self is illusionary and subjective experiences can be exciting or incredibly bad then we can only expect that we can be manipulated or, even worse, we can become the manipulators.

Harris, S. (2014). Waking up: Searching for spirituality without religion. London: Penguin.

Some other reviews from different perspectives may be of interest:

Nour, M. M. (2017) Waking up: Searching for spirituality without religion. BJPsych Bull, 41(1): 62–63.

Evans, J. A Review of Sam Harris's Waking up: Searching for spirituality without religion.
Blog site: Philosophy and other Dangerous Situations.

See also: The Guardian: Sam Harris, the new atheist with a spiritual side.

Connecting

Connecting ideas and networking often leads to new ideas.

People often credit their ideas to individual "Eureka!" moments. But Steven Johnson shows how history tells a different story. His fascinating tour takes us from the "liquid networks" of London's coffee houses to Charles Darwin's long, slow hunch to today's high-velocity web.

Three examples of Creativity through exploration.

Three examples of free Exploration and its effects on learning and creativity.

(some gleanings)
1. In a survey of unschooled children Dr Peter Grey discusses the notion of freedom to learn in an unschooled environment. 

Unschooling parents "do not establish a curriculum for their children, they do not require their children to do particular assignments for the purpose of education, and they do not test their children to measure progress. Instead, they allow their children freedom to pursue their own interests and to learn, in their own ways, what they need to know to follow those interests. They also, in various ways, provide an environmental context and environmental support for the child's learning. Life and learning do not occur in a vacuum; they occur in the context of a cultural environment, and unschooling parents help define and bring the child into contact with that environment." 

"The biggest benefits have been witnessing our daughters' creativity blossom full force, their ability to think outside the box when presented with problems, their resourcefulness, and their genuine desire to ask questions and learn as much as they can about the world around them. Also, seeing them internalize the lesson that making mistakes is a necessary and wonderful platform for growth and further learning, which means they see mistakes as a positive and necessary part of their education. They're not afraid to try their hand at just about anything."All of the respondents essentially emphasized the role of their children in directing their own education and in pointing out that education is part of life itself. 

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201202/the-benefits-unschooling-report-i-survey-231-families

2. What can we learn from a hole in the wall?
"In 1999, Sugata Mitra was chief scientist at a company in New Delhi that trains software developers. His office was on the edge of a slum, and on a hunch one day, he decided to put a computer into a nook in a wall separating his building from the slum. He was curious to see what the kids would do, particularly if he said nothing. He simply powered the computer on and watched from a distance. To his surprise, the children quickly figured out how to use the machine."
http://www.wired.com/business/2013/10/free-thinkers/

3. Exploration first and then instruction.
"Exploration, inquiry, and problem solving are not just are powerful learning mechanisms that increase performance. Students are better prepared to understand a theory after first exploring by themselves." These results of a study at Stanford University "indicate the value for learning of first engaging one’s prior knowledge and intuitions in investigating problems in a learning domain – before being presented with abstracted knowledge. Having first explored how one believes a system works creates a knowledge-building relevance to the text or video that is then presented."
http://www.futurity.org/exploration-first-boosts-classroom-learning/
Link to original study 
http://www.computer.org/csdl/trans/lt/2013/02/tlt2013020117-abs.html

Creativity and Life Experience

 "If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”  

Steve Jobs