Synopses & Reviews
A leading cognitive scientist argues that a deep sense of good and evil is bred in the bone.From Sigmund Freud to Jean Piaget, psychologists have long believed that we begin life as amoral animals. After all, isn't it the role of society—and especially parents—to transform babies from little psychopaths into civilized beings who can experience empathy and shame, and override selfish impulses? In Just Babies, Paul Bloom argues that humans are in fact hardwired with a sense of morality. Drawing upon years of original research at Yale, he shows that babies and toddlers can judge the goodness and badness of others' actions; that they act to soothe those in distress; and that they feel guilt, shame, pride, and righteous anger.
Yet this innate morality is tragically limited. Our natural morality extends toward those in our own group, but this is offset by ingrained dislike, even hatred, of those in different groups. Put simply, we are natural-born bigots. Vivid and intellectually probing, Just Babies argues that it's only through our uniquely human capacity for reason that we can transcend the primitive sense of morality we are born with. This erudite yet accessible book will captivate readers of Steven Pinker, Philip Zimbardo, and Robert Wright.
About the Author
Paul Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology at Yale University. His previous books include the highly acclaimed How Pleasure Works, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, American Scholar, Slate, the Atlantic Monthly, and The Best American Science Writing. His 2011 TED Global talk on the origins of pleasure has been viewed more than one million times. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface 1
1 The Moral Life of Babies 7
2 Empathy and Compassion 33
3 Fairness, Status, and
Punishment 59
4 Others 101
5 Bodies 131
6 Family Matters 159
7 How to Be Good 187
Acknowledgments 219
Notes 223
Index 265