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The Moral Arc: How Science Makes Us Better People, by Michael Shermer
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Bestselling author Michael Shermer's exploration of science and morality that demonstrates how the scientific way of thinking has made people, and society as a whole, more moral
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 The Moral Arc, 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.
- Sales Rank: #173682 in Books
- Published on: 2015-01-20
- Released on: 2015-01-20
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.53" h x 1.69" w x 6.29" l, 1.66 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 560 pages
Review
“This is one of the best recent books that I have read, and it's the one that I expect to re-read most often. It's an honest, clear account of morality and justice that makes those theoretical concepts come alive as ubiquitous real-life choices. In the process of reading it, you'll learn about wrenching moral dilemmas such as paying ransoms to Somali pirates, maintaining nuclear weapons as deterrents, good people becoming Nazis, and the immorality of the Bible and of the Ten Commandments.” ―Jared Diamond, Pulitzer-prize-winning author of the best-selling books Guns, Germs, and Steel, Collapse, and The World until Yesterday
“I suspect that people will be arguing with Michael Shermer's premise before they read a page: ‘The moral arc is bending toward truth, justice, and freedom? Is he hallucinating? Just look at...' In these cynical times, where right and left foresee disaster and despair (albeit for different reasons), Shermer's monumental opus, spanning centuries, nations, and cultures, is bound to provoke debate and open minds. Exactly what an important work of skepticism, science, and reason should do.” ―Carol Tavris, Ph.D., social psychologist and author of The Mismeasure of Woman and coauthor of Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)
“A thrilling and fascinating book, which could change your view of human history and human destiny. If you wanted a sequel to The Better Angels of Our Nature, one which explored all of our spheres of moral progress, not just the decline of violence, this is it.” ―Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and author of The Blank Slate and The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
“It is difficult to imagine how the arc of morality can bend toward justice without rational examination of the consequences of one's actions. As Michael Shermer passionately describes in this ambitious, thoroughly researched, yet remarkably accessible work of scholarship, the fabric of modern morality derives not from religion, but in large part from secular notions of rational empiricism. This message needs to be shared more broadly for the good our society, and hopefully this book will do just that.” ―Lawrence M. Krauss, Foundation Professor and Director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University, and bestselling author of A Universe from Nothing and The Physics of Star Trek
“Michael Shermer makes the astonishing claim that science, precisely because of its rational, dispassionate, and enlightened attitude towards revealing the truth, has helped to lay the moral groundwork for modern society, pointing the way to a more just and moral world. Instead of being a passive observer to the dance of history and the evolution of ethics, Shermer makes the outrageous claim that science has in fact been one of the principle actors. Bravo, I say.” ―Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist, author of the best seller The Future of the Mind, and Physics of the Future
“Michael Shermer argues that science, reason, and critical thinking come first; these are the ideas that produce stable, peaceful democracies. He documents and assesses society's successes and failures through the troubled history of humankind--and he's relentless. He connects the arc of the rise of reason and science with a country's economic success, and the overall worldwide decline in violence and suppression of our fellow humans, especially women. If you are religious, have a look. Shermer takes your faith to task and celebrates science as a path to the better moral future that citizens everywhere long for.” ―Bill Nye, The Science Guy, CEO, The Planetary Society
“The Moral Arc displays the impressive depth of Michael Shermer's scholarship, wisdom and empathetic humanity, and it climaxes in a visionary flight of futuristic optimism. A memorable book, a book to recommend and discuss late into the night.” ―Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion
“Michael Shermer is a beacon of reason in an ocean of irrationality.” ―Neil deGrasse Tyson
About the Author
Michael Shermer is the author of Why People Believe Weird Things, The Believing Brain, and eight other books on the evolution of human beliefs and behavior. He is the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, the editor of Skeptic.com, a monthly columnist for Scientific American, and an adjunct professor at Claremont Graduate University. He lives in Southern California.
Most helpful customer reviews
144 of 155 people found the following review helpful.
Disjointed and Anecdotal. Weakly defended thesis, but interesting at times nevertheless.
By Swift
Michael Shermer has inspired and informed legions of budding critical thinkers both as contributor to and editor of Skeptic (Skeptical Inquirer) magazine and similar publications. More recently he's morphed into a more visible popularizer of a rational worldview through his TV, YouTube and other media appearances. He is everyman's skeptic and the opposite of "the angry atheist." Shermer is a nice guy whose personal quest for truth and clarity is I believe fully reflected in his personality and work. I have the highest admiration for the man, his bravery, his honestly, and his quest and I personally share his skeptical, inquisitive, scientific worldview.
It brings me no joy therefore, to have come to the conclusion that "The Moral Arc" is, if considered as a work promoting a specific thesis, profoundly disjointed and unconvincing. The basic idea, as it were, is that as man becomes more scientific and rational he also necessarily becomes more moral. This is a "grand thesis" that encompasses virtually every aspect of human endeavor, so Shermer's building it up with what are in effect disconnected cherry-picked "data set" (the abolition of slavery over time, enfranchisement, acceptance of gay marriage) building blocks to me is completely unconvincing even if I am inherently sympathetic to the underlying ideas. In many ways, Shermer's anecdotally evidenced thesis embarrassingly mirrors the same sort of flim-flammery that he has elsewhere exposed as the hallmarks of charlatans from astrologers to homeopaths and beyond. Were Shermer's philosophical theorizing more taught and insightful, the whole thing might pass my smell test as an "inductive and reasoned argument towards a semi-important proposition", but, alas, it just doesn't.
At some point in this book, perhaps about where Shermer spends the better part of a page discussing how elephants have been shown to be able to understand human pointing gestures (to a much higher degree of generality than chimpanzees and dogs can), I had to re-look at the cover and ask myself "what, exactly, am I reading here?" The conclusion I came to is this: "The Moral Arc" is a hodgepodge of the well-travelled Shermer's notes from and summaries of a selection of the doubtlessly fascinating lectures, conversations, papers, and books that his hard work and fame have made him privy to over the years. And, even though most adult readers will already be familiar with some of the examples and stories (for example, who of us is not at this point familiar with the Milgram experiment?), others will doubtlessly be new to us. In this newness lies the real value of the book. The "moral arc" theory by contrast seems almost like an afterthought meant to string the examples together. Let me be clear - there very much is good value and good reading in many of the examples. In fact, you can almost pick up the book and start reading at any point to find one.
I am an atheist not because I think that atheism leads to the best of all possible worlds but because I see no credible evidence for god or gods. I am a proponent of rational skepticism and the scientific method because of its descriptive usefulness, not because of its normative possibilities. And while I'd like Shermer's thesis to be true, I also suspect that it's only by dint of historical accident that it might be true. As an atheist, I'd ask the reader to contemplate the full extent of General Omar Bradley's often abbreviated quotation:
"We have men of science, too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner."
Even as an atheist, I can say that Bradley was on to something--not because of his pushing of any particular religious claims, of course, but because he has correctly allowed for the possibility that science and morality might proceed along orthogonal paths. Shermer is not totally blind to this idea, but still the core thesis of "the Moral Arc" basically falls flat because it posits a stronger causal connection than I think the evidence really supports. We're one nuclear bomb in the hands of a madman away from Shermer's argument failing spectacularly and utterly as it won't be a more moral universe if we are all dead.
Conclusion: read it for the examples, not the thesis. For a more challenging and tautly argued thesis advocating for a new "science of morality", see Sam Harris' "the Moral Landscape."
"The Moral Arc" by Michael Shermer: Recommended, but with reservations.
64 of 78 people found the following review helpful.
Great Moral Case Studies, but Scientific Morality--Not So Much
By Terry Sunday
I had a bit of a hard time reading parts of "The Moral Arc."
I chose it right away when it showed up as an Amazon Vine selection. As an unabashed secular humanist, I was interested to learn about author Michael Shermer's thesis that the scientific way of thinking has made people, and society as a whole, more moral.
Well, I'd like to believe that. You'd never find a more ardent proponent of the scientific method than me. My skepticism runs broad and deep. My watchwords are, "Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear." I'd be a good Fair Witness (you'll know what I mean if you're familiar with the late Robert A. Heinlein's work). I think all religions, rather than being forces for moral good as their practitioners would like us to believe, have the opposite effect, and are primarily responsible, now and throughout history, for most of the misery and suffering that have plagued the human race since time immemorial.
So, having said that, I think my slightly muted reaction to "The Moral Arc" is not so much due to its content as it is to the fact that I can't support Mr. Shermer's thesis. The content of the book is mostly outstanding. He analyzes in detail the moral aspects of war, terrorism, slavery, women's rights, gay rights, animal rights and more. His treatments are not superficial, by any means. He delves deeply into the topics, looking at them from many possible perspectives. I learned a lot about all of these subjects, even those with which I thought I was already very familiar. I found these historical and cultural "case studies," which constitute the bulk of the book, to be interesting and significant.
But I had less interest in those sections where he tried to show the value of scientific thinking in advancing the morals of society. Why? I think it's because I do not believe, at the gut level, that the morals of society ARE advancing. To my mind, much of society is backsliding furiously to the "bad old days" of fear, superstition, ignorance, intolerance and mindless violence. True, I haven't done an exhaustive survey, and true, I hold that belief without having subjected it to the scientific method which I so strongly endorse. Yet, my impression is that the world is becoming more divided, more hostile, more tribal, less willing to compromise and less moral day by day--as exemplified in microcosm by the sad deterioration of the U.S. Congress in recent years. You can guess where I place the blame for that. It's a discouraging viewpoint, but one that I can't shake based on what I see going on around me.
So I enjoyed reading the parts of "The Moral Arc" dealing with the `whats,' `hows', `whens' and `wheres' of humanity's adventures in morality. But I had a hard time accepting Mr. Shermer's `whys.'
20 of 23 people found the following review helpful.
A Challenging Emancipatory Vision
By Herbert Gintis
Is science leading to social emancipation or to our enslavement by technologically sophisticated masters? This question has been the perennial subject of learned disquisitions. It is relatively new that they are now asked by behavioral scientists using scientific evidence. Science historian Michael Shermer’s The Moral Arc is a brilliant contributions to this contemporary branch of sociopolitical discourse.
Applying scientific principles to human society is hard. Society is a perfect example of a complex dynamical adaptive nonlinear system. Moreover, it is non-ergodic: rapid technical change, increased population density and globalization mean that we cannot reliably predict the future from the past. Even human nature, forged in the remote Pleistocene, turns out to be stunningly plastic.
Shermer’s The Moral Arc, while grounded in recent advances in behavioral game theory and social psychology, is a challengingly speculative book. He offers a rallying defense of science and reason as emancipatory tools in the face of bigotry, pseudoscience and faith. He too argues that humans are basically moral and cooperative, but adds that they are extremely parochial, willing to fight for and contribute to their community. When this community is threatened, people turn compassion for kith and kin into hatred for outsiders. This propensity, Shermer observes, is part of our evolved human nature and arguably always will be so.
Shermer’s central point is that even evil people are generally morally motivated. Violence perpetrated against outsiders is the application of justice in the perpetrators’ minds. This justification requires that the enemy be morally inferior and the cause of a community’s problems — an excuse historically manipulated by Machiavellian leaders to gather support for their ambitions, as when the Nazis blamed the Jewish people for Germany’s economic woes. Here is where science, technology and reason come into play, Shermer argues: the growth of our global information and communications networks has rendered it increasingly difficult to perpetrate the falsehoods authoritarian leaders demand to maintain their rule. In Shermer’s view, an increasingly educated populace with access to information technology tends to undermine parochialism and pseudoscience, allowing people to judge for themselves. The role of cell phones and social media in fueling the recent Arab Spring uprisings is a case in point.
This is a curious and welcome turn-around from The Believing Brain (2011), in which Shermer argues the rather nihilistic postmodern position that “beliefs come first, explanations for beliefs follow”. That would imply, for example, that people who believe autism is caused by vaccines would only listen to supporters of that belief. But in The Moral Arc Shermer, founder of the Skeptics Society, adheres to classical Enlightenment thought. The subtitle, How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom, evokes the call to arms of eighteenth-century philosopher Immanuel Kant in What is Enlightenment?: “Have the courage to use your own understanding.”
Some of Shermer’s positions ¬would have surprised Enlightenment writers. Kant, for instance, believed that the oppressive state and authoritarian church were the sole impediments to truth and justice. We know now that even people with access to the ballot box and a modicum of free expression can embrace intolerant and obscurantist doctrines. Moreover, Voltaire and others believed that the uneducated lacked a capability for applying reason to the affairs of life. Shermer, by contrast, is a vigorous proponent of political democracy and equal rights.
Shermer’s is an exciting, emancipatory vision, but he is mistaken in thinking that truth, freedom and justice are the inevitable byproducts of scientific advance. Modern liberal democracy is indeed the product of masses of people collectively throwing off the yoke of authoritarian states. But the power of popular action was made possible by a new military technology, the handgun: this displaced elite cavalry and required nations to cede the vote to peasants and citizens, who became the lifeblood of national military defense. Despite an awesome array of modern military technology, the foot soldier with portable fire power remains the bedrock of military power. Even the United States, with its formidable drones and missiles, cannot win a war without “troops on the ground”.
We cannot predict the future of technology, but we must be on constant guard against new instruments of information control, persecution and death that could once again render secular and religious totalitarianism a viable social alternative. Constant vigilance by rationalists such as Michael Shermer may in the end win the day.
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