• ISBN13: 9780199218974
• Binding: Hardcover
• Subject: Politics and Current Affairs
• Publisher: Oxford UP
• Publisher Imprint: Oxford UP
• Publication Date: August 6, 2007
• Pages: 256
• Original Price: GBP 14.99
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 500 grams

About the Book Everywhere people share certain moral principles--it is bad to steal, to kill, to lie--and yet we often subvert these rules. As Robert Hinde points out in this provocative book, the politician will vote with his party instead of his conscience, a lawyer will argue a point that he or she personally abhors. And this constant bending the rules ultimately endangers our world.
Hinde, an eminent Cambridge biologist and psychologist, here presents a new approach to morality--combining insights from evolutionary science with observations on how people actually behave. Featuring contributions by Nobel Peace Laureate Sir Joseph Rotblat, the book illuminates how rule-bending--hardening in-group boundaries, putting duty over other moral obligations, and much more--occurs within personal relationships, law, science, medicine, politics, business, and war. Hinde argues that many of the world's problems are related to the disregard of moral rules--for instance, racism, religious intolerance, excessive consumerism, and global warming. With growing reliance on nuclear weapons, we are heading for a world ruled by threat and fear, instead of one ruled by law and mutual understanding. We need a new understanding of morality, its nature, sources, and importance for communal living. This book helps to provide that understanding.