Cultivating the Mind: Reason and the Pursuit of Ethical Transformation

Rationality, long considered a distinctive characteristic of the human mind, provides us with the capacity for understanding and discernment, as well as the ability to introduce order into our thoughts by allowing us to form higher-order volitions, adopt values, establish priorities, and achieve a level of consistency in our actions across time. The ancient Socratic ideal of the “examined life” in pursuit of truth and justice relied on a definition of human nature that was to be cultivated in a systematic way. If the key to fully realizing our humanity lies in the cultivation of our minds, what ethical principles and practices in modern life can help our minds to flourish? How can reason be blended with emotion to nurture a more ethical life? In this regard, experimental psychology and neuroscientific research may have much to teach us, as might the age-old wisdom traditions.

Psychologist and neurobiologist Richard Davidson, classics scholar Edith Hall, and psychologist Dacher Keltner analyze how reason and the mind can facilitate ethical development.