Hanno Sauer

AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Blending insights from evolutionary biology, cognitive science and anthropology, Sauer has made a heroic effort to chart how morality has changed' Economist 'The best thing on morality I have ever read' Paul Bloom 'A brisk, engaging survey covering five million years of human history' Financial Times The history of humankind is punctuated by a series of transformational leaps. Just as good and evil cannot exist without the other, each new configuration for how we live together - how we distinguish and enforce right from wrong - was accompanied by new sins. Collaboration gives rise to division; culture requires exclusion; and justice demands punishment. The morality of early civilisations is markedly different from that in the dark ages or the enlightenment. As for the present day, did morality follow us here? Or did it lead the way? Philosopher and professor of Ethics Hanno Sauer traces the path of our moral transformations from our earliest ancestors to this very moment and beyond.

Una obra de grandes ideas en la que el fil sofo alem n Hanno Sauer nos presenta una nueva historia de la humanidad siguiendo las huellas de los valores y conceptos morales universales que nos unen a todos. El Sapiens de la moralidad. Desde la evoluci n de la cooperaci n hace cinco millones de a os hasta las recientes crisis de polarizaci n moral, La invenci n del bien y del mal nos ofrece una nueva historia de la moralidad humana en la que el doctor en Filosof a, Hanno Sauer, nos propone unir la filosof a a los datos emp ricos para explicar c mo los procesos de cambio biol gico, cultural y social, as como la evoluci n hist rica han contribuido a moldear la gram tica moral que nos define como seres humanos. A pesar de la desconcertante variedad de expresiones culturales que han existido a lo largo de la historia de la humanidad, Sauer sostiene que contamos con un conjunto de valores morales como la libertad, la seguridad, el placer, la justicia y la benevolencia que, a pesar de encontrarse en constante evoluci n, son congruentes y se han reflejado universalmente en todas las sociedades. El autor nos gu a a trav s de las transformaciones morales m s trascendentes, ofrece una perspectiva geneal gica que apunta a las contradicciones y a los potenciales conflictos de nuestras identidades morales y, desde una perspectiva optimista, nos expresa la dualidad de nuestra naturaleza. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION A work of big ideas in which German philosopher Hanno Sauer presents a new history of humanity by tracing the universal moral values and concepts that unite us all. The Sapiens of morality. From the evolution of cooperation five million years ago to today's crises of moral polarization, The Invention of Good and Evil offers a new history of human morality. Philosopher Hanno Sauer proposes combining philosophy with empirical data to explain how biological, cultural, and social change, along with historical evolution, have shaped the moral grammar that defines us as human beings. Despite the bewildering variety of cultural expressions throughout human history, Sauer argues that we share a set of moral values such as freedom, security, pleasure, justice, and benevolence which, though constantly evolving, remain consistent and have been reflected universally across societies. The author guides us through the most significant moral transformations, offering a genealogical perspective that highlights contradictions and potential conflicts within our moral identities, and from an optimistic standpoint, expresses the duality of our nature.

This book develops a unified theory of moral progress. The author argues that there are mechanisms in place that consistently drive societies towards moral improvement and that a sophisticated, naturalistically respectable form of teleology can be defended.The book’s main aim is to flesh out the process of moral progress in more detail, and to show how, when the right mechanisms and institutions of moral progress are matched together, they create pressure for the desired types of moral gains to manifest. The first part of the book deals with two issues: the conceptual one about what moral progress is, and the broadly empirical one whether it is possible. It shows that cultural evolution successfully explains the origins of modern forms of morally welcome change. The second part argues that there is logical space for a moderate, scientifically credible form of teleology, and that the converse case for moral decline is weak. It addresses the types, drivers, and institutions of moral progress that allow for the storage, transmission, and cumulative improvement of our normative infrastructure over time. Finally, the third part demonstrates why moral progress cannot be accounted for in metaethically realist terms.Moral Teleology will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working in ethics, moral epistemology, and moral psychology.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR 'An ambitious and anecdote-rich sweeping history of morality's growing influence over our lives' WALL STREET JOURNAL 'This fat, complex, good-natured and intriguing book is full of such memorable material...startling and often thrilling' SPECTATOR 'A heroic effort...rich with complex narrative, full of unexpected twists like the inquisitors' tale' ECONOMIST For almost five million years, humans have been locked in a relationship with morality, inventing and reinventing the concepts of 'Good' and 'Evil', and weaving them into our cities, laws and customs. Morality is a concept that can feel joyless and claustrophobic, associated with restraint and coercion, restriction and sacrifice, inquisition, confession and a guilty conscience. For many, it is a device used to shame us into compliance. This impression is not necessarily incorrect, but it is most certainly incomplete. Hanno Sauer traces humanity's fundamental moral transformations from our earliest ancestors through to the present day, when it can often seem that we have never disagreed more over what it means to be good, and what it means to be right. But we can use our past as a basis for a new understanding of our future. Our current political disagreements may feel like the end of the world, but where will the evolution of morality take us next?

Man brukar skilja mellan moral och etik. Moral är de föreställningar om rätt och fel, gott och ont som finns i och håller ihop ett samhälle. Etik är läran om moral, de olika teorier som utvecklats av filosofer genom århundradena. Denna bok handlar om moralens historia. Filosofen Hanno Sauer skildrar avgörande omvälvningarna i det moraliska medvetandets utveckling, från framväxten av mänskligt samarbete för fem miljoner år sedan fram till våra dagars upptagenhet av identitet. Den handlar om hur institutioner, tekniker, och kunskaper utvecklats i samspel med värden och normer – och om att varje framsteg har ett pris som skapar nya moraliska utmaningar. Vår tidiga evolution gjorde oss samarbetsinriktade, men också fientliga mot alla som inte tillhörde vår grupp – den som säger ”vi” säger snart också ”dom”. Moderniteten födde en idé om moralisk jämlikhet, men också kolonialism. Dagens försök att göra oss kvitt arvet av godtycke och diskriminering, med rasism, sexism och homofobi, visar sig också skapa polarisering och identitetskonflikter. Sauer beskriver hur det han kallar vår moraliska infrastruktur utvecklats i omgångar. I sju kapitel, med nedslag 5000000, 500000, 50000, 5000, 500, 50 respektive 5 år tillbaka skildrar han uppkomsten av föreställningar om samarbete och konflikt, vi och dom, brott och straff, jämlikhet och ojämlikhet, autonomi och individualitet, sårbarhet och tillhörighet, respekt och diskriminering. Det han erbjuder är inte historieskrivning i traditionell mening med händelser, årtal och namn, utan en sorts ”djup historia”. Baserad på biologisk, historisk och samhällsvetenskaplig forskning framkastar Sauer ett scenario för hur det ungefär kan ha gått till. Hanno Sauer, född 1984, är verksam vid filosofiska institutionen vid universitetet i Utrecht där han undervisar och forskar i etik. Boken var nominerad till 2023 års tyska fackbokpris. Sauer har tidigare kommit ut med bland annat "Moral Thinking, Fast and Slow" (2018) och "Moral Teleology: A History of Progress" (2023).

This book develops a unified theory of moral progress. The author argues that there are mechanisms in place that consistently drive societies towards moral improvement and that a sophisticated, naturalistically respectable form of teleology can be defended.The book’s main aim is to flesh out the process of moral progress in more detail, and to show how, when the right mechanisms and institutions of moral progress are matched together, they create pressure for the desired types of moral gains to manifest. The first part of the book deals with two issues: the conceptual one about what moral progress is, and the broadly empirical one whether it is possible. It shows that cultural evolution successfully explains the origins of modern forms of morally welcome change. The second part argues that there is logical space for a moderate, scientifically credible form of teleology, and that the converse case for moral decline is weak. It addresses the types, drivers, and institutions of moral progress that allow for the storage, transmission, and cumulative improvement of our normative infrastructure over time. Finally, the third part demonstrates why moral progress cannot be accounted for in metaethically realist terms.Moral Teleology will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working in ethics, moral epistemology, and moral psychology.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

In recent research, dual-process theories of cognition have been the primary model for explaining moral judgment and reasoning. These theories understand moral thinking in terms of two separate domains: one deliberate and analytic, the other quick and instinctive. This book presents a new theory of the philosophy and cognitive science of moral judgment. Hanno Sauer develops and defends an account of "triple-process" moral psychology, arguing that moral thinking and reasoning are only insufficiently understood when described in terms of a quick but intuitive and a slow but rational type of cognition. This approach severely underestimates the importance and impact of dispositions to initiate and engage in critical thinking – the cognitive resource in charge of counteracting my-side bias, closed-mindedness, dogmatism, and breakdowns of self-control. Moral cognition is based, not on emotion and reason, but on an integrated network of intuitive, algorithmic and reflective thinking.Moral Thinking, Fast and Slow will be of great interest to philosophers and students of ethics, philosophy of psychology and cognitive science.

In this crisply written book, Hanno Sauer offers the first book-length treatment of debunking arguments in ethics, developing an empirically informed and philosophically sophisticated account of genealogical arguments and their significance for the reliability of moral cognition. He breaks new ground by introducing a series of novel distinctions into the current debate, which allows him to develop a framework for assessing the prospects of debunking or vindicating our moral intuitions. He also challenges the justification of some of our moral judgments by showing that they are based on epistemically defective processes. His book is an original, cutting-edge contribution to the burgeoning field of empirically informed metaethics, and will interest philosophers, psychologists, and anyone interested in how - and whether - moral judgment works.

In recent research, dual-process theories of cognition have been the primary model for explaining moral judgment and reasoning. These theories understand moral thinking in terms of two separate domains: one deliberate and analytic, the other quick and instinctive. This book presents a new theory of the philosophy and cognitive science of moral judgment. Hanno Sauer develops and defends an account of "triple-process" moral psychology, arguing that moral thinking and reasoning are only insufficiently understood when described in terms of a quick but intuitive and a slow but rational type of cognition. This approach severely underestimates the importance and impact of dispositions to initiate and engage in critical thinking – the cognitive resource in charge of counteracting my-side bias, closed-mindedness, dogmatism, and breakdowns of self-control. Moral cognition is based, not on emotion and reason, but on an integrated network of intuitive, algorithmic and reflective thinking.Moral Thinking, Fast and Slow will be of great interest to philosophers and students of ethics, philosophy of psychology and cognitive science.

In this crisply written book, Hanno Sauer offers the first book-length treatment of debunking arguments in ethics, developing an empirically informed and philosophically sophisticated account of genealogical arguments and their significance for the reliability of moral cognition. He breaks new ground by introducing a series of novel distinctions into the current debate, which allows him to develop a framework for assessing the prospects of debunking or vindicating our moral intuitions. He also challenges the justification of some of our moral judgments by showing that they are based on epistemically defective processes. His book is an original, cutting-edge contribution to the burgeoning field of empirically informed metaethics, and will interest philosophers, psychologists, and anyone interested in how - and whether - moral judgment works.