Moral tribes
by Joshua David Greene · first published 2013
80% recommend20% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Explains morality through intuition versus reason, using a camera analogy for how gut reactions and careful thinking fit together. It is nuanced and suited to readers of moral philosophy and human behavior.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Our brains were designed for tribal life, for getting along with a select group of others (Us) and for fighting off everyone else (Them). But modern times have forced the world's tribes into a shared space, resulting in epic clashes of values along with unprecedented opportunities. As the world shrinks, the moral lines that divide us become more salient and more puzzling. We fight over everything from tax codes to gay marriage to global warming, and we wonder where, if at all, we can find our common ground. In this grand synthesis of neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy, a pathbreaking neu
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…principles of moral thought, a point of near-consensus is that if all other things are equal, we should try to reduce needless suffering as much as possible. For a great and nuanced treatment, see: "Moral Tribes" by Joshua Greene.
on “The ‘effective altruists’” ↗…(this is a fantastic illustrated text book with great explanations; fully worth the 72 euros I paid for it) • Behave and Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers by Sapolsky (I wrote my "why" for Behave here[1]) • Moral Tribes by Joshua Greene • The Evolution of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod • Chimpanzee Politics by Frans de Waal • Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture by Johan Huizinga • Metaphors We Live…
on “Revisiting “The 4-Hour Workweek”” ↗…of the planet through everyday objects they use, etc) it is important to use reason and careful thinking when it comes to morality, not just our gut feelings. The best writeup of all this comes from Moral Tribes by Joshua Greene - where he uses the photo camera analogy for morality: the automatic setting (gut feelings - great for usual scenarios evolution prepared us - like day to day courtesy with others), and…
on “Moral Competence” ↗…you run into a circular reasoning by the end of that sentence (advertising is morally justifiable because some people are okay with it). May I suggest the following summer read: http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Tribes-Emotion-Reason-Between/dp... and http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/17/moral-tribes-jo... and then http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115279/joshua-greenes-mor...
on “Is Advertising Morally Justifiable? The Importance of Protecting Our Attention” ↗Along the same lines is Moral Tribes by Joshua Greene. I learned a huge amount about the human condition from that book.
on “Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?” ↗I recommend the book Moral Tribes by Joshua Greene, which treats this topic at book length. https://www.amazon.com/Moral-Tribes-Emotion-Reason-Between/d...
on “Moral Machine” ↗Moral Tribes, by Joshua Greene [0] has a more in-depth analysis of honor and other cultural attributes. You can find large geographical differences in the importance of honor within the US. Cooperation also varies…
on “The world's most toxic value system (2001)” ↗Also moral tribes, by Joshua Greene. These 2 were the best books I read this year.
on “'Mindful people' feel less pain” ↗In the book "Moral Tribes", Joshua Greene outlines a great point that rights are not arguments. I think the Facebook/Twitter censorship issue demonstrates this pretty clearly. Rights always have some context and without specifying…
on “Citing 'Censorship' Concerns, North Idaho ISP Blocks Facebook, Twitter” ↗What you cite about cooperation rings a bell from Joshua Greene's book Moral Tribes[1]. Greene is an experimental psychologist, neuroscientist, and a philosopher. He did extensive research, including fMRI brain studies of the famous trolley problem[2], prisoner's dilemma situations…
on “Why 'Long Rituals' Matter” ↗…idea, and it's one that's been better discussed elsewhere, from the SCC posts on the subject (see also the recent one on Albion's Seed[1]) to Jonathan Haidt's The Righteous Mind[2] to Joshua Greene's Moral Tribes[3] to the many, many articles[4][5] that have already been written about partisan polarization in the U.S. (and probably globally, if Europe is any indication). I mean I'm glad that a random NYT column…
on “The Liberal Blind Spot” ↗…read them all, but slow-juggling a few of 'em over several months. These range from neuroscience to game theory to primate behaviour to human culture and more: • Descartes' Error by Antonio Damasio • Moral Tribes by Joshua Greene • Chimpanzee Politics by Frans de Waal • Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture by Johan Huizinga • The Evolution of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod • A Human Being Died…
on “Chomsky – The Machine, the Ghost and the Limits of Understanding (2012) [video]” ↗…work. (If you wonder where to start, might want to have a gander at this[1].) And here's the cherry on top from science: the celebrated neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky in Behave (and Joshua Greene in Moral Tribes) talk about experimental evidence on how "virtue ethics (Stoicism is an example of it) is on to something", in a cheerful sense. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22990579
on “How to Think about Pleasure” ↗I read: - The Courage to be Disliked. - Moral Tribes - Crazy like us - Careless People - Madness Made Me - The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion. And a few that were on my 2025 list that I didn’t make it through, and…
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗