Alex’s Heresies - embracing a physical reality

If you want a laugh, then have a look at http://www.theamericannightmare.org/. I particularly enjoyed the blasphemy section! Admittedly I found its shouting style (large bold fonts) tedious after a while. Of course I wouldn’t recommend too much time on this site any way. I’m sure you have better things to do.

To be balanced here is a more reasonable Christian-based site: http://templeton.org.

Alex McCullie

As soon as you jetison the supernatural, you as a naturalist are forced to see human morality as strictly human affair without divine fear or favour. If unlike most, you want to think about morality and moral decision-making, here are naturalised resources that may help. You’ll need to think about the type of decisions that qualify as moral ones and, as Steven Pinker points out below, the boundaries of moral and non-moral issues shift and change. Also you should look at how how we currently make these decisions and typically they are make at a subconscious level. And, finally, what methods or tools can be used to reflect on moral decisions. Don’t forget that ethics and morality is a big part of philosophy and can provide useful ideas for reflection.

Neuroscience is doing a lot of research today on how we make moral decisions - links below. I’ve also provided links for some interesting research areas about humans in a physical world - (1) Marc Hauser and moral grammar; (2) Lakoff and Johnson “Embodied realism” and (3) evolutionary psychology.

A good place to start is with Steven Picker’s article The Moral Instinct (NYT, 13 Jan 2008).

Alex McCullie

Neuroscience

Scientific American - Mind Matters (see feed on this site) regularly covers recent research. Like the rest of science, neuroscience is about describing how we make moral choices and not the best ones for a good life. Here is some recent research to whet your appetite - Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Thinking about Morality.

Joshua Green, Harvard University, conducts neuroscience research into moral decision-making using iMRI scanning techniques. You can download his PhD thesis and other papers.

Patricia Churchland, Philosophy University of California. To quote her website “I explore the impact of scientific developments on our understanding of consciousness, the self, free will, decision making, ethics, learning, and religion and issues concerning the neurobiological basis of consciousness, the self, and free will, as well as on more technical questions concerning to what degree the nervous system is hierarchically organized, how the difficult issue of co-ordination and timing is managed by nervous systems, and what are the mechanisms for the perceptual phenomenon of filling-in. Also check my links sections for links to YouTube videos.

Moral Minds - Marc Hauser

Marc Hauser, Psychology & Biology Harvard University proposes that we evolved a common moral grammar enabling rapid moral decision-making at a subconscious level.

Radio broadcast              Interview with Discover magazine

Complete an online moral sense test (hosted by Harvard)

Book reviews - (NYT by Richard Rorty) (The Guardian)

Embodied realism - George Lakoff and Mark Johnson

George Lakoff Linguistics, Berkeley and Mark Johnson Philosophy Oregan University with others have developed a theory from neuroscience, linguistics and philosophy that sees the brain, correctly, as an embodied within our bodies and, therefore, brain processing should be seen as a natural consequence of our interactions with our environments. Furthermore our cognitive processing is seen as metaphoric with the higher-level concepts being processed metaphorically by the same responses used by lower level perceptions.

Books:

Lakoff, G and Johnson, M 1980, Metaphors We Live By, University of Chicago

Lakoff, G and Johnson, M 1999, Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought, Basic Books

Johnson, M 2007, The Meaning of the Body: Aesthetics of Human Understanding, University of Chicago

Book reviews: (NYT)  (Steen)

Edge interview with George Lakoff

Evolutionary Psychology/Biology

This applies the implications of evolution on our behaviour including moral decision-making. Even though a controversial area the area of study contributes to our understanding of human moral behaviour.

Steven Pinker Evolutionary psychology, Harvard - many articles available

Other articles

Jon Haidt, Psychology Virginia - Moral Psychology article (The Edge)

Debate with Reza Aslan: part1 part2 part3 part4 part5

Religious faith: part1 part2 part3 part4 part5 part6

Holy Scriptures vs Modernism

Secular fundamentalism

Conversational intolerance

Misconceptions of atheism (full video)

Alex McCullie

Selection of interesting YouTube videos. Revisit under Links category.

Brain processing overview

Christof Koch’s webpage: Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology, Caltech

Christof Koch: Consciousness part1 part2 part3 part4 part5 part6 part7

Christof Koch: The Quest for Consciousness part1 part2 part3 part4 part5 part6

John Bickle on neuroscience and reductionism: part1 part2

Alex McCullie

Patricia Churchland is Professor of Philosophy University of California - webpage. Her research concentrates on the interface between philosophy and neuroscience covering areas as consciousness, free will and the self.

Philosophy in the Age of Neuroscience Presentation: part1 part2 part3 part4 part5 part6

Open questions in Neuroscience: part1 part2 part3

Beyond Belief conference: part1 part2 part3 part4

Decisions, Responsibility and the Brain: part1 part2 part3 part4 part5 part6

Interview: part1 part2 part3

Alex McCullie

I’m collecting interesting links of articles and research showing that moral decisions are strictly a human (brain) affair. Each link is dated as research findings are updated frequently in the fast-moving area of neuroscience. I’ll post this entry under Links so keep checking.

• Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Thinking about Morality - When we are in a pinch, surprising factors can affect our moral judgments, By Adina Roskies and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (SCIAM - Mind Matters, 29 Jul 2008)
• The Moral Instinct, by Steven Pinker (NYT, 13 Jan 2008) - excellent overview article on morality from an evolutionary perspective.

Alex McCullie

link to Complete Works of Charles Darwin

To quote:

“Only this site contains Darwin’s complete publications, 20,000 private papers, the largest Darwin bibliography and manuscript catalogue and hundreds of supplementary works: specimens, biographies, obituaries, reviews, reference works and much more.”

Alex McCullie

From Naturalism.org

This article reviews and supports the new book The Secular Conscience by philosopher Austin Dacey. It provides are very good discussion of secularism with comments about worldviews and the need to keep naturalism separate. (full article)

Alex McCullie

Atheist Foundation of Australia Inc http://www.atheistfoundation.org.au/

Council of Australian Humanist Societies http://www.humanist.org.au/

Rationalist Society of Australia http://www.rationalist.com.au/

Australian Skeptics http://www.skeptics.com.au/

The Australian National Secular Association http://home.vicnet.net.au/~secular/

The Atheist Network – Australia http://www.theatheist.net/e107/news.php

Evolution - the Experience (Conference 8-13 Feb 2009 Melbourne Convention Centre) http://www.evolution09.com.au/

Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (Skeptical Inquiry magazine): http://www.csicop.org/

Center for Inquiry http://www.centerforinquiry.net/

Skeptic (Skeptic magazine) http://www.skeptic.com/

What is science?: http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/railsback_1122science1.html

Complete works of Charles Darwin http://darwin-online.org.uk/

Evolution - the Experience (Conference 8-13 Feb 2009 Melbourne Convention Centre) http://www.evolution09.com.au/