The Righteous Mind (2012) by Jonathan Haidt

When

I read this a couple of summers ago.

Why

I read some of Haidt’s work in my doctoral program, as it represents one of the more robust challenges to Social Cognitive Domain Theory (SCDT) and the constructivist view of moral development more broadly.

How

While Haidt’s intuitionist approach to moral development as articulated in Moral Foundations Theory operates under fundamentally different assumptions from those I hold, I think the arguments are well-designed, well-researched, and should be considered. Thinking through the basics of the theory and supporting research has both improved my understanding of SCDT and clarified some of the areas where SCDT may not have an adequate explanation (at least not yet). Concerning the latter, I think an important consideration is that what constitutes the moral domain within MFT does not fully jive with what constitutes the moral domain within SCDT.