Michael Shermer is a bit of an anomaly. He’s fun, even while lecturing on difficult topics. He embodies skepticism, but sometimes I think he takes on a very non-skeptical narrative. The video is good, but before I found this, I came across a substackof his from last year, where he talked about wokeness. At first, his take was interesting, then came up with some lists that sounded like Thomas Sowell. He was making a case for a “realistic view” of people, to explain why there is inequality. Things like the failure of communes and utopian communities and intolerance of free riders and, my favorite, in-group amity and between-group enmity. So completely circular.
It led me look for his recent work and he wrote a book on this topic of Good and Evil. It connects where we are now with our ancient ancestry and the evolution of our minds. I have some more notes, somehow Januarys are busy. I’ll get them up someday.
Meanwhile, this is a good juxtaposition with Carrier and his more technical analysis of morality. It’s less formal, but still well-grounded in research.