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How Science Can Determine Human Values
Free Press
October 2010
On Sale: October 5, 2010
304 pages
ISBN: 1439171211
EAN: 9781439171219
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
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 most common
justification for religious faith. It is also the primary
reason why so many secularists and religious moderates feel
obligated to "respect" the hardened superstitions of their
more devout neighbors.In this explosive new book, Sam Harris
tears down the wall between scientific facts and human
values, arguing that most people are simply mistaken about
the relationship between morality and the rest of human
knowledge. Harris urges us to think about morality in terms
of human and animal well-being, viewing the experiences of
conscious creatures as peaks and valleys on a "moral
landscape." Because there are definite facts to be known
about where we fall on this landscape, Harris foresees a
time when science will no longer limit itself to merely
describing what people do in the name of "morality"; in
principle, science should be able to tell us what we ought
to do to live the best lives possible. Bringing a fresh
perspective to age-old questions of right and wrong and good
and evil, Harris demonstrates that we already know enough
about the human brain and its relationship to events in the
world to say that there are right and wrong answers to the
most pressing questions of human life. Because such answers
exist, moral relativism is simply false—and comes at
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.
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