The Moral Landscape
Jun 2011 · Random House
4.4star
19 reviewsreport
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384
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About this eBook
Sam Harris's first book, The End of Faith, ignited a worldwide debate about the validity of religion. In the aftermath, Harris discovered that most people - from religious fundamentalists to nonbelieving scientists - agree on one point: science has nothing to say on the subject of human values. Indeed, our failure to address questions of meaning and morality through science has now become the primary justification for religious faith.
In this highly controversial book, Sam Harris seeks to link morality to the rest of human knowledge. Defining morality in terms of human and animal well-being, Harris argues that science can do more than tell how we are; it can, in principle, tell us how we ought to be. In his view, moral relativism is simply false - and comes at an increasing cost to humanity. And the intrusions of religion into the sphere of human values can be finally repelled: for just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim algebra, there can be no Christian or Muslim morality. Using his expertise in philosophy and neuroscience, along with his experience on the front lines of our 'culture wars', Harris delivers a game-changing book about the future of science and about the real basis of human cooperation.
In this highly controversial book, Sam Harris seeks to link morality to the rest of human knowledge. Defining morality in terms of human and animal well-being, Harris argues that science can do more than tell how we are; it can, in principle, tell us how we ought to be. In his view, moral relativism is simply false - and comes at an increasing cost to humanity. And the intrusions of religion into the sphere of human values can be finally repelled: for just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim algebra, there can be no Christian or Muslim morality. Using his expertise in philosophy and neuroscience, along with his experience on the front lines of our 'culture wars', Harris delivers a game-changing book about the future of science and about the real basis of human cooperation.
Ratings and reviews
4.4
19 reviews
James Conigrave
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27 December 2013
Sam Harris suffers from the affliction of having such clear logic that his conclusions seem obvious. It's hard to deny his central argument, that the well-being of humans and other creatures depends on natural states and we must not avoid developing a science of morality any longer.
3 people found this review helpful
William Bennett
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8 September 2014
Another brilliant book from Sam Harris. Very well thought out, interesting and potentially important for the future of our justice system. Simply destroys the argument that science has no place in our dialogue about morality.
Marcel Bennett
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22 September 2014
Taking a sledgehammer to the myth and oxymoron of Christian ethics.
2 people found this review helpful
About the author
Sam Harris is a neuroscientist and the author of the New York Times bestsellers The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. His writing has appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Times, Nature and in many other journals. He holds a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA. He is a co-founder of Project Reason.
www.samharris.org
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