Can We All Get Along?

Abstract

"This book," writes Jonathan Haidt in his introduction to The Righteous Mind , "is about why it's so hard for us to get along." His core premise is that moral psychology can sort out problems that moral philosophy and political theory cannot. In the end, however, the problem of getting along is not sorted out. Maybe it's Haidt's cheerful view of humanity that explains this failure. Some of us, especially on the left, believe that class inequality, poverty, greed, corruption, prejudice, orthodoxy, and ignorance divide us no matter how hard we try to see the other person's point of view.