"Addresses an all-important contemporary issue: whether a tolerant liberal politics is possible given basic facts about how the human brain brain works--in particular, its in-group and out-group classifications and the resultant dehumanization of others in extreme cases. The book argues that if we take seriously the challenges posed by these findings rather than dismissing or ignoring them, relying instead on goodwill, we will have a better chance of achieving this goal. It is both an individual and a collective ethical ...
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"Addresses an all-important contemporary issue: whether a tolerant liberal politics is possible given basic facts about how the human brain brain works--in particular, its in-group and out-group classifications and the resultant dehumanization of others in extreme cases. The book argues that if we take seriously the challenges posed by these findings rather than dismissing or ignoring them, relying instead on goodwill, we will have a better chance of achieving this goal. It is both an individual and a collective ethical duty to hold ourselves accountable to liberal social and political values in the face of our own tendencies to undermine them. Liya Yu makes the case that research demonstrates that the tendencies to stigmatize others are innate, and yet we must find ways to temper them in order to protect political virtues such as tolerance, human rights, and antiracism. In advancing suggestions for "cognitive humanization," she contributes to a long-standing effort to advance social neuroscience in an ethically and historically responsible way"--
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