Barry Schwartz on our loss of wisdom | Video on TED.com
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/barry_schwartz_on_our_loss_of_wisdom.html

Video on TED.com

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely studies the bugs in our moral code: the hidden reasons we think it's OK to cheat or steal (sometimes). Clever studies help make his point that we're predictably irrational -- and can be influenced in ways we can't grasp.

TED Talks Behavioral economist Dan Ariely studies the bugs in our moral code: the hidden reasons we think it's OK to cheat or steal (sometimes). Clever studies help make his point that we're predictably irrational -- and can be influenced in ways we can't grasp.

Philosophy class online from Harvard University.

<<Justice is one of the most popular courses in Harvard’s history. Nearly one thousand students pack Harvard’s historic Sanders Theatre to hear Professor Sandel talk about justice, equality, democracy, and citizenship. Now it’s your turn to take the same journey in moral reflection that has captivated more than 14,000 students, as Harvard opens its classroom to the world. This course aims to help viewers become more critically minded thinkers about the moral decisions we all face in our everyday lives. In this 12-part series, Sandel challenges us with difficult moral dilemmas and asks our opinion about the right thing to do.>>

Introduction by John Brockman "What is this stuff, you ask one another," says the narrator in Rebecca Newberger Goldstein's new novel 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction, "and how can it still be kicking around, given how much we already know?"

There's an excerpt from novel here, but the important part is the non-fiction appendix analyzing and refuting the actual arguments for God.

Morality in animals

This thinking is another indicator of a change in human assumptions about animal consciousness -- from uncaring reductionism to reflective respect. This is not new. In 1966, Conrad Lorenz made much the same point in On Agression, but noted that humans are the only animals whose moral principles against violence are so often breached in the form of murder and war.

Scientists studying animal behaviour believe they have growing evidence that species ranging from mice to primates are governed by moral codes of conduct in the same way as humans.

Animals possess a sense of morality that allows them to tell the difference between right and wrong, according to a controversial new book.

Sam Harris - brilliant!