we are at a standstill holy a hotel and
and low i california
the reason we here is that just across the street is u c san diego
and with patricia chuck's linda's professor emeritus a philosophy at u c san diego and
she has any vocal a call brain trust
down the street is the cell institute you're also an edge on fellow of that
this is
a seminal book in my view the title of this one is what neuroscience tells
is about morality
why is this such a about a crucial time
for us to understand how the neuroscience can inform
the way will behave
well that several things have happened at in science but also in the larger society
that make these issues particularly relevant right now
one thing is that
evolutionary biology is much richer than it was ten or fifteen years ago additionally we
understand much more about animal behavior especially about of primates and the respects in which
it's similar to and differs from human behaviour
but finally in terms of the brain itself
we really begun to understand certain aspects of what makes us solution
and that
the way it is that humans are social has much in common with the way
in email model is social
and it has to do with our evolutionary origins
and the fact that
there was a huge change
that had to do with making mammals social so that if you are liz there
or nude or afro log you layer eggs the eggs
hatch
but you don't have to take care of the infants
with me models
that all changed and what it meant was that the circuitry in the brain organized
itself so that this the need to care for oneself x
suspended two
caring for other recent in the first instance those others were offspring
so i think is you know sites that came of understanding mammalian evolution and understanding
the way that
certainly formal rewire of the brain to make caring for and trusting and being without
there is essential was a critical thing
this is one of the
most lovely books i we have the c is an amazing jacket illustration call brain
by sebastian collapse key from shot the shock
it is a lovely thing actually and i already have said that they had intended
to by the electronic version and put it on there can be over there i
had until they saw physical object
you have on the
the before the contents page couple quotes
once from center could it suffice to trust everyone an equally of ice to trust
someone
but also very nice one from the in my q and the great novelist from
his book eternal of
this is the mainly in conflict want to give to of those and what to
keep for yourself
treading that line
keeping others in czech
i'm being kept in check by them
is what we call morality
you must at what they're because you
think that's pretty accurate
i think it's a uniform way of summing up the sort of four
of morality
and its practical nature
and that is that in a certain sense we really need each other we function
much better we prosper remote to how much greater extent if what you're part of
a group
at the same time that means we are in competition with others in the group
there were things they want from us to the man from oz
and that we have to somehow navigate or social space
without losing our own bearings
and
without being somewhat noxious that we get thrown out of the group
and finding misspell what's is not a matter
a following the particular rule
it's a matter of judgement experience
understanding listening to stories and developing with in a certain kind of loving social context
what do think is the drawing for some people being so
at this moment variations of morality
well you know it's always a hazardous thing to try to speculate about the origin
of the zeitgeist
and so i can sort of tell you a little bit about what motivated me
and i can speculate that bit about
why there is this interest in morality but my speculations maybe no better than anybody
else
but my speculation really it is that we all are we humans are much more
interconnect now on a global scale then we have ever be and that makes us
sometimes possible about how other people do things why they're conventions are different from mars
and in some very famous kinds of cases
it means that there can be a kind of clash value swear it isn't just
a matter of i tolerate you when you tolerate me but one group may feel
that the others way of life is intolerable
and so we reflect on these things and i my senses that since nine eleven
but also since
the great increase in interconnectedness globally
that these questions the rice for people and they want to understand
at the same time i think there is a recognition
that
really just absolute it's
in the moral domain
is likely to be a hindrance rather than to help
in this larger project of us getting along together as humans
and by that i mean that there can be quite a lot of tolerance with
regard to various sorts of social practise
that of a particular original religion or some other religion might adopt but that where
we where people draw the line is in thinking that only a are only me
and my religion
have the right answer set the rest of you are well
and i think there is a growing awareness who
right
actually work
that you can have your particular rituals in the privacy of your own
but at on the other hand you don't get to below me up
because you have a particular religious but
the critique that you're reducing things
just to molecules and what has happened to
so and being in all those good things and how you want so that stuff
well i think
it in an interesting way actually the neural biological approach that sees an important role
for oxytones and then phase the present in bonding and the attachment and hence entrust
is that kind of from a change of the reality
of social values and if you like of moral values
and so where as some people might be tempted to say that these social values
are not real they're in some sense lose rate i think this helps us understand
how they or real and how morality is a real thing as real assumption of
life
why did you write that book
well i always wonder
about morality and always felt very that is about the origins of morality
and
i used to talk to have a crack to francis crick about this
and
and he would say well look there must be
a biological part story
otherwise
it would be harder to explain why the
certain kinds of model source of the
i will talk about what that might be so forth
but it was really only reese
that i came to see
how this story of attachment and wanting
in male models
could
really be the key to understanding the nature of
sort of social need and so she already in general
and how if you once you've got that
and then you have a brain that can solve problem
as mammalian brains in general can but as human brains in particular
to vary from one and l
imitation is o
however for humans we see that in all primary
and in humans and in certain birds he who actually are
and so you could begin to see that
of what might seem like a very humble beginning
came this kind of sociology that
produces
cooperation contrast and allows people to work together to do this absolutely extraordinary things
well it's been one of all talking to you the book again which i highly
recommend to anybody is brain trust
by patch action
nice to see