Marc Hauser
"Moral Minds"

NPR - WBUR - On Point
5 September 2006

Five years ago, Harvard psychologist and evolutionary biologist Mark Hauser took us deep into his "talk to the animals, Dr. Doolittle" realm with his big book "Wild Minds." Now, the good doctor has turned from the animal kingdom to the human sphere, and from treetop chatter to the checkered world of human morality.

His new book "Moral Minds" argues that humans are born hardwired to do the right thing, born with an innate moral grammar that drives our judgments of right and wrong. Looking out across an all-too-human history of death, destruction and immorality, Hauser's "born moral" argument has got a lot to contend with. Hear a conversation with Mark Hauser about his "Moral Minds."

· Marc Hauser, Professor of Psychology, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, author of "Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong"
· Jack Beatty, On Point News Analyst and Senior Editor at the Atlantic Monthly