According to various brain imaging studies, mindfulness meditation can change the brain in ways consistent with observed or self-reported improvements in concentration, memory, and mood. The same has been found with prayer, cognitive behavioral therapy and psychodynamic therapy.
According to one study, being around the rich makes us want to buy status-enhancing "visible goods", like fancy cars or clothes. And that might reduce household savings by about 3% a year for the non-rich folks.
...plenty of environmentalists include humans in their circle of caring. It's just that their circle includes more than humans. Such caring doesn't need a rationale. It doesn't even need to be rational.
In the olden days, substantial down payments were required to buy a home. Rule of thumb was 20% - imagine! Nowadays, the average down payment amount for first time buyers ranges between 5 and 10 percent.
Between home equity, investment savings, pensions, Social Security, Medicare, and supplemental insurance, most older Americans have the assets, income streams, and protections against adversity that are the envy of the age-impaired.
The decline in savings among rich countries is global, so whatever is behind this trend is unlikely to be specific to the US.
So it’s okay for thoughts, feelings, and sensations to make an appearance – to show up at the door - but it’s actually not okay to let them in. It’s about “letting go”, not “letting in”. Acknowledge and move on.
...mental activity (“thoughts and feelings”) the object of awareness, rather than sensory or somatic information. Is there something problematic about mental activity unattended by awareness, whereas sensory/somatic information doesn’t need to be supplemented with awareness?
Might the consistent application of these Moral Principles reduce overall well-being in society at large? If so, why might this happen and should anything be done about it?
I'll be brief: no self-respecting liberal would use the following terminology or concepts without wink wink irony: purity, decency, conformity, tradition, God as source of authority, pride of country, the rightness of gender roles, something being unnatural, chastity as virtue.
...start with questions, listen, ask follow-up questions, and keep your own opinions to yourself until after you have heard them out. That’s how you show respect.
If needs are for scarce resources that cannot be distributed equally, is the answer just to prevent everyone from accessing those resources? Why? Why not?
The big picture is not only about what really matters but also about how things work. People change political beliefs in part because they've come to a different understanding of how the world works. These changes in understanding often come about gradually in response to life experience and whatever narratives are available that help make sense of these experiences.
What constitutes an “uncomfortable thought”? For some people, thinking about unfinished business does that, or thinking about the gap between one’s goals/values and current behavior, or thinking about recent social missteps.
...people often change their political philosophies as they get older - and not just in lock-step with changes in their moral intuitions. Experience matters. Arguments and evidence matter. Reflection matters. Our ideas about how to make the world a better place aren't frozen in time and temperament. Of course we can't escape our psychology - but our psychology is not the absolute ruler of our politics.
...check out those libertarians: like liberals, they don't care much about Ingroup Loyalty, Respect for Authority, or Sanctity/Purity. Unlike liberals, Harm does not figure prominently in their moral universe. So what matters to libertarians?
The theory was never intended to be limited to five moral intuitions and researchers have continued to consider additional intuition candidates. Liberty is gaining acceptance as a sixth moral intuition. Conceived both as a freedom from (interference) and a freedom to (pursue happiness), Liberty is especially meaningful to libertarians. (Duh).
...pundits and partisans have embraced the idea that conservatives have one moral profile, liberals another. To simplify: conservatives are heavy on Loyalty, Sanctity, and Authority and liberals are big time in the Care department. I know many people who are quite taken with this apparent division of moral labor.
...is it actually possible to see the whole truth and nothing but the truth? How do you know? Doesn’t everyone have a point of view? Why do you think some people can see the whole truth/elephant?
It’s only when we're stopped in our tracks that we realize we were looking down the road we were traveling.