Overview

"Sam Harris's first book, The End of Faith, ignited a worldwide debate about the validity of religion. In the aftermath, Harris discovered that most people--from religious fundamentalists to non-believing scientists--agree on one point: science has nothing to say on the subject of human values. Indeed, our failure to address questions of meaning and morality through science has now become the primary justification for religious faith.In this highly controversial book, Sam Harris seeks to link morality to the rest of human knowledge. Defining morality in terms of human and animal well-being, Harris argues that science can do more than tell how we are; it can, in principle, tell us how we ought to be. In his view, moral relativism is simply false--and comes at an increasing cost to humanity. And the intrusions of religion into the sphere of human values can be finally repelled: for just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim algebra, there can be no Christian or Muslim morality. Using his expertise in philosophy and neuroscience, along with his experience on the front lines of our ""culture wars,"" Harris delivers a game-changing book about the future of science and about the real basis of human cooperation."

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9781797107608

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Reviews

Harris argues forcefully for the superiority of science over religion as a means of determining morality and understanding the subtle gradations between permanent truths and culturally and historically determined values. -- Publishers Weekly A lively, provocative, and timely new look at one of the deepest problems in the world of ideas. Harris makes a powerful case for a morality that is based on human flourishing and thoroughly enmeshed with science and rationality. It is a tremendously appealing vision, and one that no thinking person can afford to ignore. -- Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate. Sam Harris breathes intellectual fire into an ancient debate. Reading this thrilling, audacious book, you feel the ground shifting beneath your feet. Reason has never had a more passionate advocate. -- Ian McEwan, author of Atonement Philosophers of mind have already discovered that they can't duck the study of neuroscience, and the best of them have raised their game as a result. Sam Harris shows that the same should be true of moral philosophers, and it will turn their world exhilaratingly upside down. As for religion, and the preposterous idea that we need God to be good, nobody wields a sharper bayonet than Sam Harris. -- Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion

Author Information

Sam Harris is the author of the bestsellers The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, and Lying. The End of Faith won a 2005 PEN Award for nonfiction, and his writing has been published in over fifteen languages. Harris' work has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the Atlantic, and Newsweek, among others. He is cofounder and CEO of Project Reason, a nonprofit foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge in society. He received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA.

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