The Moral Landscape
Sam Harris makes a strong case for the use of science to vet and direct what would normally be called a moral judgement. Quite simply, he points out that just because the questions we have about morality are difficult to answer does not mean that there are not objective answers to those questions. And, in fact, if we frame moral judgements as answers to the question, “Does this promote human flourishing?” it becomes quite clear that science and all of its associated methods can be used to find objective, rational and meaningful results that will ultimately lead to improvements in the lives of conscious beings. Overall, the book is definitely worth reading, if a bit on the dense and dry end of the spectrum (not unexpected given that the book is based at least partially on his PHD thesis).