Key Information
About the content
How can we explain kindness and cruelty? Where does our sense of right and wrong come from? Why do people so often disagree about moral issues? This course explores the psychological foundations of our moral lives.
Syllabus
- Week 1 - Welcome to Moralities of Everyday Life!
- Week 1 - The Big Questions
What is morality, anyway? What are the big debates in the field of moral psychology? - Week 2 - Compassion
Where does concern for others come from? How is it related to empathy—and is more empathy necessarily a good thing? And what can we learn from the study of those who seemingly lack normal moral feelings, such as violent psychopaths? - Week 3 - Origins of Morality
Here, we ask about which aspects of morality are universal. We discuss evolution, cross-cultural research, and the fascinating new science of the moral life of babies. - Week 4 - Differences
How does culture influence our moral thought and moral action? What role does religion play? Why are some of us conservative and others liberal, and how do political differences influence our sense of right and wrong? - Week 5 - Family, Friends, and Strangers
Our moral feelings are usually most powerful towards our kin (such as our parents and our children) and our friends and allies. We will discuss these special bonds, and then turn to the morality of racial and ethnic bias. Then we use the tools of behavioral ec... - Week 6 - The Big Answers
We’ll discuss some clever studies that show how our moral behavior is powerfully influenced—often at the unconscious level—by the situations that we find ourselves in. Such findings raise some hard problems about determinism, free will, and moral responsibilit...
Instructors
Paul Bloom
Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale University
Psychology
Content Designer
Platform
Coursera is a digital company offering massive open online course founded by computer teachers Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller Stanford University, located in Mountain View, California.
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Great teacher, eloquent and a good story teller. Very interesting material, current and classic. Good pace, and just the right amount of interactive questions and personal commenting opportunity.
I appreciate the way Prof. Bloom present ideas: objectively teach students both sides, and let we think about the big questions ourselves, in my opinion this is valuable for psychology ---- such a subtle and complex subject.
One of the best thing that has happened to my . I've always thought about these ideas in my mind, but Professor Bloom gave meaning to those ideas.
Brilliantly taught and eye-opening content. I've bought the books and am engaged in follow-up self-study. Thank you Professor Bloom for helping me understand the world in a new way!
Great teacher, eloquent and a good story teller. Very interesting material, current and classic. Good pace, and just the right amount of interactive questions and personal commenting opportunity.
It's smart, it's sensible and the course gives you and undeniable hunger for further literature regarding the human wiring! Paul, please make an other course!
