Nature, Nurture, and Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong

We all know the difference between right and wrong, but why do we know that one action is morally superior to another? Philosophers and scientists have long argued that our ability to reason, coupled with our education and socialization have developed the “moral compass” which guides each of us through life. Harvard biologist Marc D. Hauser argues that we are born with an innate “moral grammar” that drives our judgments of right and wrong in his new book “Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong” (Ecco, 2006). Marc Hauser will join us for the hour.