The Moral Animal: Virtue, Vice & Human Nature

In Tolstoy’s famous novella, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, a rich and meaningful inner life is sacrificed in pursuit of material rewards and social status. How can we cultivate something intrinsic that transcends our worldly accomplishments? Assuming a basic model or map of human nature is needed to navigate the road to the good life, what desires, tendencies, and aversions comprise our core nature? How has our evolutionary history shaped our moral impulses? Are we inherently good, or fundamentally flawed? Philosopher Christian Miller joins forces with cognitive neuroscientist Heather Berlin and science writer Michael Shermer to take a closer look at our moral ecology and its influence on our underlying assumptions about human nature.