The Righteous Mind: Jonathan Haidt in Search for the Moral Foundations of Politics

Abstract

The article provides an extended critical review of the key arguments of the book “Righteous Mind" by Jonhatan Haidt and an analysis of the intellectual context in which his influential theory of moral foundations (MFT) had emerged. Authors reconstruct Haidt’s intention of reinterpreting and possibly overcoming the ever growing “culture wars" in American society - the difference between liberals and conservatives in their understanding of what constitutes the basic set of moral foundations. The opposition between intuitionist (Hume) and rationalistic (Kant) approaches to morality in social psychology is considered, followed by the discussion of the complex relationship between biological, evolutionist and sociocultural mechanisms according to Haidt, as well as his original revision of the theory of “homo duplex” by Emile Durkheim, who understood collective identity in terms of the sacred bonds. In the final part of the article authors show that the most vulnerable arguments of Haidt are not those related to the “biological reductionism” often erroneously attributed to the American thinker, but issues related to the insufficient elaboration of the criteria of the identification of the five or six specific foundations, and to self-contradictory character of the strategic move of the book: Haidt tries to extend the too narrow spectrum of the moral foundations of his liberal colleagues and compatriots by the force of his rational arguments, but at the same time he shows that moral reactions are rather intuitive and not rational by nature.