Jonathan Haidt's "Scientific" Emotionalism

The rider [reason] evolved to serve the elephant [emotions]. — Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind

Jonathan Haidt is the most prominent modern champion of the idea that, as Hume put it, “reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.”

Like many modern defenders of ancient errors, Haidt dresses up his philosophical ideas as scientific theories. In this case, he defends his conception of reason as mere rationalization by claiming that, in the process of man’s biological evolution, nature selected for his ability to make excuses for doing whatever he feels like, not for his ability to acquire an abstract level of awareness.