On 4/12/2012 2:29 PM, David Shemano wrote: > I will try one last time, because we are way off track. Maybe it would help > if you would read the introductory chapter to the book: > http://righteousmind.com/about-the-book/introductory-chapter/. Quoting from > Wikipedia, Haidt identifies six moral values which are cross-cultural: > > 1.Care for others, protecting them from harm. (He also referred to this > dimension as Harm.) > 2.Fairness, Justice, treating others equally. > 3.Loyalty to your group, family, nation. (He also referred to this dimension > as Ingroup.) > 4.Respect for tradition and legitimate authority. (He also referred to this > dimension as Authority.) > 5.Purity or Sanctity, avoiding disgusting things, foods, actions. > 6. Liberty/oppression: This foundation is about the feelings of reactance and > resentment people feel toward those who dominate them and restrict their > liberty. > > Haidt argues that there are a group of people for whom all six values are > real "values". Let's call them, just for fun, conservatives. And then there > are another group of people who "value" nos. 1, 2 and 6, but don't "value" 3, > 4, and 5. Just for fun, let's call them "progressive liberals." Then it > gets interesting, because Haidt then argues that because "conservatives" have > a broader range of key values than progressive liberals, progressive liberals > have a real difficult time understanding conservatives, because they can't > relate to the additional values held by the conservatives. Conversely, > conservatives do understand the progressive liberals, because they share the > same values -- the only difference is that they have additional competing > values that figure into the moral decision > making. >
I'm not sure I agree that liberal Democrats don't value 3, 4, and 5. I know many liberal Democrats who hold these values. Additionally many of these liberal Democrats would say that conservatives do no not value 1, 2, and 6. It will depend on how the values are defined. I think many who have studied Marx would consider these six items empty abstractions. They become real abstractions only when they take on historically specific forms. Moreover, the historical forms are continually changing and multiple variations in these forms will coexist at any historical point. Conservative Republicans and Liberal Democrats may both possess a value like "caring" but that value can and will manifests differently. Another issue is the claim that these six moral values are cross-cultural and the implication that there are not other moral values not in this list. Perhaps moral values number 7-11 are valued by liberals but not conservatives. I'm not encouraged to read this book. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
