The Complete World Philosophy Collection: The Stolen Psychology Volume

PART 1 Self Manual — How to Handle Yourself

Haidt's Elephant and Rider : Emotion Decides, Reason Makes Excuses

A fight logic cannot win: He and she are fighting about the dishes. Who does more of them, who has it harder, who is more considerate. They produce evidence and lay out arguments. Two hours later, no one has been persuaded. Only feelings have been hurt. What went wrong? Haidt would have said: “The two of you were fighting rider against rider. But the real fight was taking place between your elephants. You tried to persuade only the rider, and that is why you failed.”

Haidt, psychologist of morality: The concern of the American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt was simple. “How do human beings judge right and wrong?” Through experiments, Haidt overturned the mainstream view of Western philosophy that “human beings judge by reason.” He presented his subjects with a moral dilemma. “Julie and Mark, a sister and brother, had sex by mutual consent. They used contraception, and no one was hurt. Is this wrong?” Most people answered that it was wrong. Asked why, they gave reasons. Deformed children, trauma… The reasons were refuted one by one. “They used contraception, and both said they were fine with it.” Yet people did not change their conclusion.