The Moral Sense (Free Press Paperbacks)

The Moral Sense (Free Press Paperbacks)

James Q. Wilson

Language: English

Pages: 336

ISBN: 0684833328

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


"James Q. Wilson has taken an unfashionable, but undeniable crucial question about our moral nature, and produced a bracing, elegant, carefully researched and closely argued book."--Michael Crichton.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

most promises, play games by the rules respect the rights and claims of others, and work at our jobs even when the boss isn’t looking. Most of us wait our turn in line and cooperate with others to achieve a common goal even when it would be more convenient to go to the head of the line or let others do the work. We usually are courteous to strangers, regularly leave tips for waitresses, occasionally help people in distress, and sometimes join campaigns that benefit others but not ourselves. We do

persuade them when the time comes and the chips are down that you are a moderate and decent person. Contemporary American society is filled with examples suggesting that a lot of people, especially young ones, believe that these other ways are better. Standards of dress have become increasingly casual; getting “dressed up” is now something that is done only for special occasions (if that; one young man attended my son’s formal wedding dressed in gym shorts and sneakers). People who dress up for

with the view that children are intuitive moralists. An intuitive moralist will always be comparing how he is treated with how his brother or sister is treated, judging the treatment as fair or unfair and reacting accordingly. Now, it is impossible—literally impossible—for parents to treat two children exactly alike (with the possible exception of two identical twins). Even if the children are of the same sex, they will usually differ in age and almost certainly in temperament, intelligence, and

others argued with him on scientific grounds: the evidence is less clear than he suggested, the experience of children in cultures where nonparental care is common is good, and whatever ill effects exist (if any) do not last.43 Sorting out these competing claims is difficult. One argument is indisputable: the evidence is inconsistent. But inconsistent evidence should not be interpreted as meaning “no cause for concern” rather, it means that there is reason to believe that under some

protector. The moral education that families supply to us does not cease with the end of childhood, but for all we scholars know about this continuing saga it might as well not exist. That the more complex aspects of family life have escaped scholarly attention is rather remarkable, considering that the shelves of our libraries are filled with novels about families, daytime television programs consist almost entirely of dramas about family relationships, and the everyday discourse of most people

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