Just Babies

The Origins of Good and Evil

By: Paul Bloom

Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain

A leading cognitive scientist argues that a deep sense of good and evil is bred in the bone.

From John Locke to Sigmund Freud, philosophers and psychologists have long believed that we begin life as blank moral slates. Many of us take for granted that babies are born selfish and that it is the role of society—and especially parents—to transform them from little sociopaths into civilized beings. In Just Babies, Paul Bloom argues that humans are in fact hardwired with a sense of morality. Drawing on groundbreaking research at Yale, Bloom demonstrates that, even before they can speak or walk, babies judge the goodness and badness of others’ actions; feel empathy and compassion; act to soothe those in distress; and have a rudimentary sense of justice.

Still, this innate morality is limited, sometimes tragically. We are naturally hostile to strangers, prone to parochialism and bigotry. Bringing together insights from psychology, behavioral economics, evolutionary biology, and philosophy, Bloom explores how we have come to surpass these limitations. Along the way, he examines the morality of chimpanzees, violent psychopaths, religious extremists, and Ivy League professors, and explores our often puzzling moral feelings about sex, politics, religion, and race.

In his analysis of the morality of children and adults, Bloom rejects the fashionable view that our moral decisions are driven mainly by gut feelings and unconscious biases. Just as reason has driven our great scientific discoveries, he argues, it is reason and deliberation that makes possible our moral discoveries, such as the wrongness of slavery. Ultimately, it is through our imagination, our compassion, and our uniquely human capacity for rational thought that we can transcend the primitive sense of morality we were born with, becoming more than just babies.

Paul Bloom has a gift for bringing abstract ideas to life, moving seamlessly from Darwin, Herodotus, and Adam Smith to The Princess Bride, Hannibal Lecter, and Louis C.K. Vivid, witty, and intellectually probing, Just Babies offers a radical new perspective on our moral lives.

Great Insight

This books gives you a view of how complex morality can be, and how much the system was thought as it was developed

Feels like taking a hot shower

Author touches many scientific studies in a very fast pace. In my opinion this makes the book a good pointer to these studies.

Excellent science, irritating narrator

I'm biased because I really dislike narrators with American accents and far prefer listening to the author read their own work. I found the narrator really grating on the ears. But the science and content of the book is excellent, as expected from Bloom who did an amazing MOOC on Coursera on morality (which led me to read the book)

The best book about morality that I've ever read

Fascinating perspective of developmental psychology, combined with very rich range of insights from philosophy, history, literature and religion. I've read quite a lot on the subject, yet this reading was a significant leep forward. Highly recommended!

Loved it

The narrator was clear and articulate. The book was compelling and concise. It did a wonderful job of arguing a scientific foundation for inborn morality.