The moral arc
Subtitle: how science and reason lead humanity toward truth, justice, and freedom
By: Michael Shermer
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 541
ISBN-13: 9780805096910
Subjects: Science; History
Description: "From Galileo and Newton to Thomas Hobbes and Martin Luther King, Jr., thinkers throughout history have consciously employed scientific techniques to better understand the non-physical world. The Age of Reason and the Enlightenment led theorists to apply scientific reasoning to the non-scientific disciplines of politics, economics, and moral philosophy. Instead of relying on the woodcuts of dissected bodies in old medical texts, physicians opened bodies themselves to see what was there; instead of divining truth through the authority of an ancient holy book or philosophical treatise, people began to explore the book of nature for themselves through travel and exploration; instead of the supernatural belief in the divine right of kings, people employed a natural belief in the right of democracy. In this provocative and compelling book, Shermer will explain how abstract reasoning, rationality, empiricism, skepticism--scientific ways of thinking--have profoundly changed the way we perceive morality and, indeed, move us ever closer to a more just world"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 441-526) and index.
Table of contents: title: Prologue: Bending the moral arc; title: The moral arc explained. Toward a science of morality; title: The morality of war, terror, and deterrence; title: Why science and reason are the drivers of moral progress; title: Why religion is not the source of moral progress; title: The moral arc applied. Slavery and a moral science of freedom; title: A moral science of women's rights; title: A moral science of gay rights; title: A moral science of animal rights; title: The moral arc amended. Moral regress and pathways to evil; title: Moral freedom and responsibility; title: Moral justice: retribution and restoration; title: Protopia: the future of moral progress.