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Beyond Bad: How obsolete morals are holding us back Hardcover – March 29, 2022

by Chris Paley (Author)
3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 27 ratings
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'Vital reading' - THE TIMES

'Brilliantly unillusioned thinking... It could hardly be more necessary in these all-too-moralistic times' - James Marriott, THE TIMES

Morals have held empires together, kept soldiers marching under fire, fed the hungry, passed laws, built walls, welcomed immigrants, destroyed careers and governed our sex lives. But what if morality's all meaningless rubbish, a malfunctioning relic of our evolutionary past?

This is the provocative argument that Chris Paley makes. This isn't an attack on one set of moral codes or one way of thinking about ethics: it's a call for abolishing the whole caboodle.

He uses evolutionary psychology to show how and why morality emerged: they
enabled our forebears to survive and prosper in tribal groups. Today, our morals constrain us, bias us, and push us in the wrong direction.

The biggest challenges our species faces, whether global warming, nuclear proliferation or the rise of the robots, are pan-human. These challenges are beyond what our moral minds were designed to cope with. You can't build smartphones with stone-age axes, and you can't solve modern humanity's problems with tools that are designed to create primitive, competitive groups.

From Chris Paley, author of the 'extraordinary', 'startling' and 'thought-provoking' Unthink, comes Beyond Bad, which shows morals hinder us from achieving what we want to achieve. Beyond Bad is the book that 'does for morals what Dawkins did for God'.

Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    272 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Coronet
  4. Publication date
    March 29, 2022
  5. Dimensions
    8.75 x 2 x 5.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1529327091
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1529327090
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

'I love the prose. I wish more scientists wrote like this... Paley thinks that in the modern world our moral certainty is not only misguided but dangerous. After reading his book, so do I... The book is distinguished by its author's brilliantly unillusioned thinking. For me his basic argument is irrefutable. It could hardly be more necessary in these all-too-moralistic times.'―James Marriott, THE TIMES

Hold your breath! If you believe that moral values are the foundations of humanity, you are fundamentally wrong. In his exciting and exceptionally well written book, Chris Paley will convince you about the many downsides of morality. It is a challenge, but highly recommended.―Fritz Strack, Professor Emeritus, University of Würzburg

Truly thought-provoking. Paley puts forth an astonishingly original hypothesis and defends it eloquently, marshalling cutting-edge science to argue against the very idea of morality.―Kurt Gray, Associate Professor, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

There is a serious challenge here to received ways of thinking for the lay public and professional moral philosophers alike.―John P Burgess, John N Woodhull Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University

Paley has a giftfor distilling and illuminating the implications of science reminiscent of Richard Dawkins. Many of the insights he describes will startle but, in this era of political polarisation, we all need to explore how our ethical minds work―Paul Bingham, Associate Professor, Stony Brook University, and co-author of Death from a Distance and the Birth of a Humane Universe

A fun and fascinating journey through the surprising world of human morality.―Will Storr, author of The Science of Storytelling

One to watch' and 'hard to ignore―The Bookseller

Of Unthink: 'an extraordinary thought-provoking book... quite startling. It is a book well worth reading... I look forward to reading his next one on "Freedom and Moral Choices"―Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor

A groundbreaking study of how human morality itself is at the root of much of our modern woes.―Neil Mackay, THE HERALD

About the Author

Dr Chris Paley has an MSci and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Unthink: Why You Don't Think The Way You Think You Think.

In Chris's view the greatest scientific leap of his generation is throwing off common-sense assumptions about the mind: what it's doing for us, why we have morals, and how we make decisions. This leaves scientists free to overturn millennia of fruitless theorising and truly explain why we are what we are and think what we think.

He has a wife, three blameless daughters and an imaginary, but mischievous, cat. Chris might believe himself to be thoroughly amoral, but his wife thinks him 'a good man'.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Coronet (March 29, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1529327091
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1529327090
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.75 x 2 x 5.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 27 ratings

About the author

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Chris Paley

Chris Paley

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Dr Chris Paley has an MSci and a PhD from the University of Cambridge.

In Chris’s view the greatest scientific leap of his generation is throwing off common-sense assumptions about the mind: what it’s doing for us, why we have morals, and how we make decisions. This leaves scientists free to overturn millennia of fruitless theorising and truly explain why we are what we are and think what we think.

He has a wife, three blameless daughters and an imaginary, but mischievous, cat. Chris might believe himself to be thoroughly amoral, but his wife thinks him ‘a good man’.

Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
27 global ratings

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EDWARD MARTIN
5.0 out of 5 stars Can you justify your beliefs?
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 22, 2021
Verified Purchase
Love this book. I have discussions which are "off the wall" with my friends regularly. I enjoy how this book attacks established thought around morals and what is widely considered right and wrong. Examining the demise of religion and why morality had maintained a foothold is an interesting point. A timely book for today's age when many people wish to be seen or heard when advertising how "woke" they are. If only they could explain why they think what they do and the basis for it.

I would highly recommend this book. Equally suited for debates at the pub or academic reading.
7 people found this helpful
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Wade wyatt
5.0 out of 5 stars An enlightening, scientific review of the purpose of morals and why they are now obsolete.
Reviewed in Australia on April 10, 2021
Verified Purchase
This book was enlightening, the best read I've had for a long time. It is a original, refreshing, scientific approach to understanding how and why morality evolved, its impact on human evolution, and why we act as we do. If these things interest you, then this is a book for you.

The author advances the proposition, that, in this modern interconnected world, morals, which in the tribal world were a major element in our success , are now passed their use by date and should be discarded as no longer useful.
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Will Mac
3.0 out of 5 stars Some merit / some disappointment
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 7, 2021
Verified Purchase
Chris Paley's book 'Beyond Bad' is difficult to assess. I suspect that a first year undergrad might find much new information in it, but that someone with more life experience might cringe at some of the assumptions/ assertions. This doesn’t mean that some of his arguments aren’t correct and / or useful (though those are often already obvious) but the general promise of the book - its subtitle- "how obsolete morals are holding us back" - fails to materialise.
That said it has interest and is well written. There is much about how the convincing of others is important - especially faking morality - and how it might not hold us back. There is also a raft of interesting references / studies to entertain. But there's little on the specifics, especially of what is out of date and yet we, society, still cling to. Surely there was much to be said about the changed morality of sex before marriage - now almost gone in mature countries with the introduction of reliable contraceptives - and yet persistent in many religious communities across the world. Much, too, about how specific charlatans often succeed / make themselves popular despite society realising they are indeed charlatans (a couple of Johnsons comes to mind).
Paley quotes Machiavelli (of course) but does not aim to teach people in the way that old Niccolo sought. Fair enough. But he doesn’t develop a more modern argument by illustration of how we're limiting ourselves for lone gone morals/ beliefs - a few modern examples might have been instrumental in the tenor he seeks to make.
Final point: his bias for Cambridge (his alma mater) over Oxford is mostly intended to be humorous - but creeps in a bit too often.
2 people found this helpful
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Crossfell3000
1.0 out of 5 stars What nonsense
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 26, 2021
Verified Purchase
Appalling tosh. On page 63 Paley speculated I might want my money back; I wanted it back long before page 63. It is a fact that we are the only species on the planet with conscience, a sense of duty and moral awareness. We all know this ourselves, and Paley's Hobbesian nonsense does nothing to undermine it. I'm astonished the book was so well reviewed in the press.
3 people found this helpful
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