One of my primary areas of interest is the field of ethics. Specifically, for the last few years I have been extremely interested in the relationship between science and ethics. Can or should scientific findings inform our ethical theories? In what ways should our findings in psychology and neuroscience shape our ethical judgements of right and wrong or of moral innocence and guilt?
Given this interest, I was quite excited to stumble across a 2010 TED Talk by Sam Harris entitled “Science Can Answer Moral Questions.” For those unfamiliar with Harris, he is a neuroscientist/philosopher who is probably best known for his criticism of religion and as a co-founder of Project Reason. In 2010 he wrote a book entitled The Moral Landscape in which he proposes that science can, in principle, offer answers to moral questions.
The talk I link to below basically gives a brief summary of the view argued for in The Moral Landscape. I find the proposal rather interesting and am sympathetic to his arguments, though I do have some concern that the ethical theory he sketches (which he explicitly notes in the book is a form of utilitarianism) faces some serious complications and objections.
That said, I thought I would share the TED Talk in the hopes that it will lead to some interesting discussions. I personally am quite interested to hear about what others think of his definition of “value” and of his project in general.
Tom
Trin Turner
Scott Pellegrino
joshuaupson
