0:00:00we are at a standstill holy a hotel and
0:00:04and low i california
0:00:07the reason we here is that just across the street is u c san diego
0:00:11and with patricia chuck's linda's professor emeritus a philosophy at u c san diego and
0:00:17she has any vocal a call brain trust
0:00:20down the street is the cell institute you're also an edge on fellow of that
0:00:24this is
0:00:27a seminal book in my view the title of this one is what neuroscience tells
0:00:32is about morality
0:00:35why is this such a about a crucial time
0:00:39for us to understand how the neuroscience can inform
0:00:43the way will behave
0:00:45well that several things have happened at in science but also in the larger society
0:00:52that make these issues particularly relevant right now
0:00:56one thing is that
0:00:58evolutionary biology is much richer than it was ten or fifteen years ago additionally we
0:01:05understand much more about animal behavior especially about of primates and the respects in which
0:01:12it's similar to and differs from human behaviour
0:01:15but finally in terms of the brain itself
0:01:18we really begun to understand certain aspects of what makes us solution
0:01:23and that
0:01:24the way it is that humans are social has much in common with the way
0:01:29in email model is social
0:01:31and it has to do with our evolutionary origins
0:01:35and the fact that
0:01:37there was a huge change
0:01:39that had to do with making mammals social so that if you are liz there
0:01:45or nude or afro log you layer eggs the eggs
0:01:51hatch
0:01:51but you don't have to take care of the infants
0:01:54with me models
0:01:55that all changed and what it meant was that the circuitry in the brain organized
0:02:01itself so that this the need to care for oneself x
0:02:07suspended two
0:02:09caring for other recent in the first instance those others were offspring
0:02:14so i think is you know sites that came of understanding mammalian evolution and understanding
0:02:21the way that
0:02:22certainly formal rewire of the brain to make caring for and trusting and being without
0:02:29there is essential was a critical thing
0:02:32this is one of the
0:02:34most lovely books i we have the c is an amazing jacket illustration call brain
0:02:39by sebastian collapse key from shot the shock
0:02:43it is a lovely thing actually and i already have said that they had intended
0:02:49to by the electronic version and put it on there can be over there i
0:02:53had until they saw physical object
0:02:57you have on the
0:03:00the before the contents page couple quotes
0:03:03once from center could it suffice to trust everyone an equally of ice to trust
0:03:08someone
0:03:10but also very nice one from the in my q and the great novelist from
0:03:13his book eternal of
0:03:15this is the mainly in conflict want to give to of those and what to
0:03:21keep for yourself
0:03:23treading that line
0:03:24keeping others in czech
0:03:26i'm being kept in check by them
0:03:30is what we call morality
0:03:32you must at what they're because you
0:03:35think that's pretty accurate
0:03:36i think it's a uniform way of summing up the sort of four
0:03:41of morality
0:03:43and its practical nature
0:03:46and that is that in a certain sense we really need each other we function
0:03:50much better we prosper remote to how much greater extent if what you're part of
0:03:54a group
0:03:56at the same time that means we are in competition with others in the group
0:04:00there were things they want from us to the man from oz
0:04:03and that we have to somehow navigate or social space
0:04:08without losing our own bearings
0:04:10and
0:04:10without being somewhat noxious that we get thrown out of the group
0:04:14and finding misspell what's is not a matter
0:04:18a following the particular rule
0:04:21it's a matter of judgement experience
0:04:25understanding listening to stories and developing with in a certain kind of loving social context
0:04:32what do think is the drawing for some people being so
0:04:38at this moment variations of morality
0:04:41well you know it's always a hazardous thing to try to speculate about the origin
0:04:46of the zeitgeist
0:04:47and so i can sort of tell you a little bit about what motivated me
0:04:53and i can speculate that bit about
0:04:56why there is this interest in morality but my speculations maybe no better than anybody
0:05:01else
0:05:02but my speculation really it is that we all are we humans are much more
0:05:08interconnect now on a global scale then we have ever be and that makes us
0:05:13sometimes possible about how other people do things why they're conventions are different from mars
0:05:19and in some very famous kinds of cases
0:05:22it means that there can be a kind of clash value swear it isn't just
0:05:27a matter of i tolerate you when you tolerate me but one group may feel
0:05:33that the others way of life is intolerable
0:05:37and so we reflect on these things and i my senses that since nine eleven
0:05:43but also since
0:05:44the great increase in interconnectedness globally
0:05:49that these questions the rice for people and they want to understand
0:05:53at the same time i think there is a recognition
0:05:58that
0:05:59really just absolute it's
0:06:01in the moral domain
0:06:03is likely to be a hindrance rather than to help
0:06:07in this larger project of us getting along together as humans
0:06:14and by that i mean that there can be quite a lot of tolerance with
0:06:18regard to various sorts of social practise
0:06:21that of a particular original religion or some other religion might adopt but that where
0:06:27we where people draw the line is in thinking that only a are only me
0:06:33and my religion
0:06:35have the right answer set the rest of you are well
0:06:39and i think there is a growing awareness who
0:06:43right
0:06:44actually work
0:06:46that you can have your particular rituals in the privacy of your own
0:06:52but at on the other hand you don't get to below me up
0:06:56because you have a particular religious but
0:06:59the critique that you're reducing things
0:07:02just to molecules and what has happened to
0:07:06so and being in all those good things and how you want so that stuff
0:07:11well i think
0:07:11it in an interesting way actually the neural biological approach that sees an important role
0:07:18for oxytones and then phase the present in bonding and the attachment and hence entrust
0:07:24is that kind of from a change of the reality
0:07:29of social values and if you like of moral values
0:07:33and so where as some people might be tempted to say that these social values
0:07:39are not real they're in some sense lose rate i think this helps us understand
0:07:43how they or real and how morality is a real thing as real assumption of
0:07:50life
0:07:51why did you write that book
0:07:55well i always wonder
0:07:58about morality and always felt very that is about the origins of morality
0:08:03and
0:08:04i used to talk to have a crack to francis crick about this
0:08:08and
0:08:09and he would say well look there must be
0:08:13a biological part story
0:08:15otherwise
0:08:17it would be harder to explain why the
0:08:21certain kinds of model source of the
0:08:23i will talk about what that might be so forth
0:08:27but it was really only reese
0:08:30that i came to see
0:08:32how this story of attachment and wanting
0:08:36in male models
0:08:38could
0:08:39really be the key to understanding the nature of
0:08:44sort of social need and so she already in general
0:08:47and how if you once you've got that
0:08:50and then you have a brain that can solve problem
0:08:53as mammalian brains in general can but as human brains in particular
0:08:59to vary from one and l
0:09:03imitation is o
0:09:05however for humans we see that in all primary
0:09:09and in humans and in certain birds he who actually are
0:09:14and so you could begin to see that
0:09:18of what might seem like a very humble beginning
0:09:22came this kind of sociology that
0:09:25produces
0:09:27cooperation contrast and allows people to work together to do this absolutely extraordinary things
0:09:34well it's been one of all talking to you the book again which i highly
0:09:39recommend to anybody is brain trust
0:09:41by patch action
0:09:43nice to see