Reading Time: 4 minutes Some interesting research involving the US, Saudi Arabia and Poland has shown that social conservatives prefer to use nouns against liberals (On the Grammar of Politics – or Why Conservatives Prefer Nouns). Here is the abstract: Previous research indicates that political conservatism is associated with epistemic needs for structure and certainty (Jost et al., 2003) […]
Alan Duval
Posted inPolitics, Psychology
Interview with Progressive Christian, Brian McLaren, Part 2
Reading Time: 7 minutes I (Alan Duval) have interviewed progressive Christian, former Evangelical pastor, and vocal part of the emerging church movement, Brian McLaren. McLaren is an interesting figure in progressive Christianity, not least because one seldom hears the words “progressive” and “evangelical” in the same sentence, and when you do, one is seldom in reference to the other. […]
Posted inEducation, Ethics and Morality, Health, Psychology
The Parable of the Down Syndrome Child
Reading Time: 14 minutes I would like to present a modern-day parable of sorts. Unlike most parables, this one is based on a scientific paper, and unlike most parables, I will draw explicit parallels with my intended target at the end. Background In my final year of my degree I attended a lecture on ‘Plasticity, Constraint, Expertise and Talent’, […]
Posted inPolitics, Psychology
Interview with Progressive Christian, Brian McLaren
Reading Time: 11 minutes I (Alan Duval) have interviewed progressive Christian, former Evangelical pastor, and vocal part of the emerging church movement, Brian McLaren. McLaren is an interesting figure in progressive Christianity, not least because one seldom hears the words “progressive” and “evangelical” in the same sentence, and when you do, one is seldom in reference to the other. […]
Posted inUncategorized
Alan Duval to Interview Progressive Christian Brian McLaren
Reading Time: < 1 minute Coming soon, I (Alan Duval) will be interviewing progressive Christian, former Evangelical pastor, and vocal part of the emerging church movement, Brian McLaren. McLaren is an interesting figure in progressive Christianity, not least because one seldom hears the words “progressive” and “evangelical” in the same sentence, and when you do, one is seldom in reference […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, Psychology
Duval on Moral Epistemology, pt. 3.3: Conservatives and Education
Reading Time: 8 minutes Following on from the previous post, where the focus was corporal punishment, here we look at corporal punishment in school, as well as authoritarian teaching styles Talwar, Carlson and Lee (2011[1]) found that children educated in highly punitive environments performed as well as children in non-punitive environments whilst in kindergarten but, from about the age […]
Posted inEthics and Morality, Politics, Psychology
Duval on Moral Epistemology, pt. 3.2: Conservatives and Corporal Punishment
Reading Time: 9 minutes Following on from my last post, wherein I noted the demographics of American Conservatism’s core, and picking up on a thread that was introduced with attachment and religious affiliation, I will now look at the seemingly close, yet indirect relationship between Evangelicalism and corporal punishment. Most Born-Again Christians (predominantly Evangelicals) agree that spanking is an […]
Posted inPolitics, Psychology
Duval on Moral Epistemology, pt. 3.1: Demographics of US Conservatism
Reading Time: 7 minutes Following on from my last post, and across the next three posts, I will discuss how conservative educational preferences, and particularly the use of corporal punishment, create much of the American Conservatism that Haidt has done so much to document. I have clearly stated that Haidt underestimates the complexity of Liberal morality, by focusing on […]
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Posted inEthics and Morality, Politics, Psychology
Duval on Moral Epistemology, pt. 2: learning under parental supervision
Reading Time: 15 minutes In the previous installment, I detailed how a stimulus might pass through some or all of the values on the circumplex whilst being assessed. I showed that the hallmarks of natural conservative thought make an appearance in all social undertakings, and thus must form a part of liberal thought and be a necessary part of […]
Posted inEthics and Morality
God as the Grounding of Morals
Reading Time: 2 minutes I happen to agree with the idea of grounding morality in God, I just think that what most theists think that God is, is wrong. Religion is (or at least was, before the advent of world travel and the internet) connected to culture. For example, Christianity arose from Judaism, a religion practiced by a geographically […]