10/9/13.
Notes of a Psychology Watcher
The following article is published in the Michigan Psychological Association Newsletter, Fall, 2013.
On Reading Books
"People who have read with love and respect understand that the larger message behind all books, great and good and even some not so good as they might be, is finally, cultivate your sensibility so that you may trust your heart. The charmingly ironic point of vast reading, at least as I have come to understand it, is to distrust much of one’s education. Unfortunately, the only way to know this is first to become educated, just as the only way to properly despise success is first to achieve it…"
--- Joseph
Epstein in Narcissus Leaves the Pool.
The quote above from
Joseph Epstein, teacher, editor, essayist and short-story writer, reminds me of
the work of philosopher David Hume. In 1739 Hume wrote that reason is, and
ought only be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to another office
than serve and obey the passions. Our moral intuitions are the way to
understand moral truths.
David Hume would approve
of the work of Jonathan Haidt (pronounced “height”), professor of social
psychology at the University of Virginia. He has brought Hume and Epstein into
the laboratory, moving moral psychology from a rationalist model to an
intuitive, emotional level. He explains
his moral model in his new best-seller, “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and
Religion.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907
– 1972)
by, Steven J.
Ceresnie, Ph.D.
The following article is published in the Michigan Psychological Association Newsletter, Fall, 2013.
"The most complex
lesson the literary point of view teaches --- and it is not, to be sure, a lesson
available to all, and is even difficult to keep in mind once acquired --- is to
allow the intellect to become subservient to the heart. What wide reading
teaches is the richness, the complexity, and the mystery of life…
"People who have read with love and respect understand that the larger message behind all books, great and good and even some not so good as they might be, is finally, cultivate your sensibility so that you may trust your heart. The charmingly ironic point of vast reading, at least as I have come to understand it, is to distrust much of one’s education. Unfortunately, the only way to know this is first to become educated, just as the only way to properly despise success is first to achieve it…"
Moral Reasoning: The
Emotional Dog and the Rational Tail
Professor Haidt, a
committed liberal Democrat, defines morality as that which binds people
together in teams that seek victory, not truth. Moral issues close hearts and
minds to opponents – a confirmation bias – as it makes cooperation possible within
groups.
Haidt’s research shows
that liberals are strong on evolved values he defines as caring and fairness.
Conservatives value caring and fairness too, but tend to emphasize the more
tribal values like loyalty, authority, and sanctity.
He says political
parties are most emotional and argumentative on issues they “sacralize.” For
the right, it’s taxes and abortion, among others. For the left they make sacred
issues of race, gender, global warming, and gay marriage, among others.
To his credit, Haidt
recommends reading economist Thomas Sowell’s “A Conflict of Visions,” a
brilliant book describing the differences in beliefs about human nature found
on the political right and the left.
When I reflect on the politically contentious
time we live in and the complexity of the moral issues of the day, I am
comforted by the words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel:
When I was young, I admired
clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
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