Born to be Good - Book Report/Review Example

Are Human’s Inherently Good? Introduction In Born to be Good, Datcher Keltner approaches the examination of human moral behavior and its origin from a scientific perspective. Keltner relates Darwin’s evolutionary theory to the moral evolution in human beings. He did research on human moral behaviors and developed a formula of calculation the effects of moral behaviors in human beings using the Jen ratio (Keltner 4). His advanced research provided significant evidence that there exists a relationship between Darwin’s theory and the evolution of human morals in society. However, despite this his research did not provide a clear relationship to an individual moral change (Keltner 5). In the book Born to be Good, Keltner forwards the thesis that human beings are born to be good. He approaches this theory through investigations into the old miseries that were profound in human beings during evolution. The author believes that human behavior comprises of ethical behaviors, gratitude, and compassion, all of which are very important in the societal formation (Keltner 28). The content in the Born to be Good focuses on studying the effects of emotions in living a ‘good life’ and how emotions are important in the development of the human relations between people in the a society (Kitzinger 56). Embarrassment is also an important point featured in the introduction of the book; the author suggests that this is basically the source of positive emotions such as reconciliation and forgiveness. In specific circumstances, such as those involving mentally ill persons, the effect of embarrassment may have less influence because the senses are not functioning to their full potential. Throughout the book, Keltner mainly refers to reverence and kindness as in shown in Jens combination. The argument that Keltner forwards is: “Jen is felt in that deeply satisfying moment when you bring out the good in others” (Keltner 26). This perspective shows how humans relate and interact with one another in society. There exists both positive and negative interaction between human beings. Therefore, the inclusion of Jen in Keltner’s work shows how human interactions bring about the perception of both a negative and positive outcome. The Jen ratio is an important factor in the selection and the determination of the human relationships in the society. Understanding the concepts of human relations and interactions would further increase the Jen ratio in a given society. The author mentions Darwin’s theory of evolution and other studies regarding emotional effects on human interactions. Darwin argued that emotions are in fact the intensity of how humility prevails in a society, in relation to this Keltner mentions the study done by Ekman, which was mainly based on facial expressions. These studies showed that emotions are influential in the development of moral behaviors in the society further tying the concept of Jen ratio. From these theories, the author argues that some interactions result in situations such as love, smiling, compassion and embarrassment forms weight in the calculation of Jen ratio (Keltner 34). Keltner states that evolution has a great influence on emotional behaviors and this is the reason behind all the actions that humans tend to display, this implies that all of these are a result of the effects of emotional evolution in humans. Various studies also show how behaviors resulting from embarrassment have been changing; these notions are related to the act of emotions such as forgiveness and reconciliations. Keltner, in his book Born to be Good, further expresses the idea that mankind as well as hominid evolution has transformed humans into developing intuition of altruism. The attributes of altruism such as: kindness, reverence generosity and self-sacrifice, are important components in human evolution as these promote harmony and social cohesion in the human existence (Cooney 95). Human altruism occurs by means of emotions and feelings. These emotions and feelings are in the form of happiness, awe, gratitude, embarrassment and compassion. Keltner also argues that the human capacities to contain these attributes of altruism are instinctive and developed in the mind, body, daily social practices and genes. Keltner also complements other research from various scientists that vagus nerve activation has a greater association with human instinct, as do the social and ethical intuitions that are common in all humans. He argues that humans with a higher tendency of emotions and feelings associated with altruism tend to have high vagus nerve activation, citing that altruism promotes and determines the social behavior of humans. From his mentor, Keltner states that humans across all the diverse cultures and societies tend to have the same facial expressions on certain specific emotions, this is seen within the most common and basic emotions such as surprise, fear, anger and happiness. Keltner uses this observation to attempt to explain the origin of humanity. Additionally, from his dissertation he mainly proposes that human moral and social intuitions are developed and shaped by the process and acts of evolution (Kitzinger 56). Since Keltner was a scientist, most of his research was based on scientific evidence and methodology. One hypothesis that he promoted was the evolution of brain hypothesis. His work was essentially a success, and he was able to considering the activity in the brain through analyzing emotions based on the originality, emotional evolutions and the positive alignment of emotions in the society. The expectation for such books is to feature the link between science, religion and the books of compassion. Keltner focused on explaining the virtues, which are related to the compassions and also to Lama’s research. The Jen ratio suggests that “Happier couples are guided by high Jen ratio: this gives an explanation why couples generously give credit to their partners and see hidden virtues accompanying their partner’s foibles and faults.” (Keltner 35) From this perspective, Keltner stresses and places emphasis on these factors that influence Jen’s ratio. The use of this focus by Keltner is sometimes considered to be biased, as there is no deep relationship between Keltner’s work and Darwin’s theory of evolution. Basically, the book was written with the notion of explaining the relation between the social morals in the society and their origin. Although it was a good idea for the research on the origin of these emotions and the evolution link, it was not really necessary to overemphasize on the existence of a significant relation between the two. The moral ethics from the book however are good in developing positive practices in the society. The book features many of the fields that are popular among scholars in the field of psychology. Positive psychology is basically one of the fields where its incarnation is based on the positive developments in the society. Naturally, human beings are positive in moral uprightness; they are courteous, clean, kind, trustworthy, brave and obedient therefore whenever humans speak out these virtues, it is certainly the truth. Emotions tell a lot about human beings behavior in the manner they are not supposed to behave. Although human beings have some aspects of destructive behavior in relation to each other, there has been a strong link to doing the good in the context of cooperation. Moreover Darwin’s theory of evolution has been widely applied in defining human behavior and in essence that prosperity brought by the pursuance of cooperation. Keltner argues that happiness in humans is something that can be quantified and he provides evidence about how some emotions can be quantified and measured through the theories developed by Charles Darwin and those provided by the research of his mentor Paul Ekman. He further shows that emotions can be observed even without the movements of hands, in the form of expressions such as the gestures, posture and other related facial appearances. Keltner introduced the concept of Jen ratio to support his studies and to further analyze the research done by Darwin and his mentor. Based on Keltner’s research and theories, for a successful and happy life, a positive Jen ratio is necessary. He gives an example of his daughter who had a Jen of 1.5, taking into consideration the measure of her happiness, he provides an explanation that a high Jen ratio for an infant has a positive effect for the rest of one’s life. The conclusion that can be taken from Keltner’s research is that emotions can be an indication of an imperfect prediction of nature, therefore having a high Jen is basically better, although in some situations such as masochist would mean otherwise (Kitzinger 15). In other parts of the book, Keltner demonstrated how measurements of emotions involving happiness, love, companion teasing among others can be achieved. Keltner made a remarkable effort in developing a methodology of conducting a research on areas involving emotions. He also mentions other methods, which have been applied earlier by other scholars and the results obtained from the various methodologies. He goes further by making analysis and contrasts of the obtained results with the appearance of emotions and the social behaviors embedded in human life. The themes and the and the aim of the author of this book is clearly explained, thus increasing the Jen ratio of its readers. The Jen factor, as argued by Keltner, is increased by the gained knowledge from the book itself (Kitzinger 58). In Born to be Good, Keltner does not give any substantive evidence for his theories, instead he concentrates on evidence from research undertaken by other scholars during different periods of time. Positive psychology is the major area where the evidence has been obtained. Keltner draws extensively from this research conducted by other researches. The book did give the final remarks on the contents of research and how it was related to the title (Kitzinger 26), as there is a strong emphasis on humans born to be good in the whole book. Altruism according to Keltner in his book is the driving force behind the moral behaviors being expressed by the humans in the society. Moral behaviors such as caring of the family members, generosity, kindness and sharing have prompted the psychologist to describe human beings as animals that are pro-social. Any behavior displayed by the human beings is always an instinct of the general human behavior and instinct norms and values. Celia Kitzinger undertook an examination on the moral behavior and Keltner relates these research results with other research done by other psychological scholars, concluding with the belief that humans are ideally born to be good (Kitzinger 56). This suggests that humans will always have a heart to assist their fellow friends in the difficult moments. Celia Kitzinger argues further claims that although the effects of empathy are common in the human life, it cannot be the foundation of the human moral behavior; this implies that sympathy cannot be relied upon because the feeling is usually partial and irrational. As displayed by the nature of young children, sympathy is basically an indication of the start of moral development and behavior. She goes further in providing evidence of moral and social development in a number of her human psychological studies (Cooney 102). The argument in the book gives the accounts of both bad and good aspects of human nature throughout thus the author does not give a direct justification of his claim that humans are born to be good. Additionally, the relationship between morals and the psychological science of human is not close as claimed by the author of the book, it has proved to be difficult to predict human life by using virtues and emotions. Behavioral changes can be measured, but when human’s behavior is associated with evil then it becomes difficult to measure and quantify (Cooney 120). The good and the bad aspects that arise from a situation usually have no explanation on how the measurement or quantification can be conducted. If the quantification and measurement of emotions could be a strong basis, on the justification of being, born to be good, then a bad person can be easily identified shortly after birth. This case is different because the scientists depend on emotional display thus most of the human behaviors are historically associated (Cooney 120). In his book, Keltner also suggests that genetics plays a minimal role in the lives of the human beings, for instance the genes in the brain of a newborn baby can be identified and studied but the future morals of the same baby cannot be identified nor predicted. The prediction of the future behaviors of children and all humans usually strongly depends on the social environment, parents, community and the cultural background. Therefore, this shows that the prediction of human future lifestyle, culture, beliefs and social and moral behaviors cannot be necessarily measured or determined scientifically. The destiny and the cultural and moral behavior of humans can be determined by the individual choices and the way of life that one takes. Keltner put this forward in his last analysis of the book justifying the ambiguity of what he tries to explain throughout his book. In conclusion, Keltner’s research on human emotional evolution in relation to their social and cultural moral behavior is no doubt a piece of sophisticated modern research. The methodology he applies is more relevant in comparison with other previous research, hence his provisions to some extent hold true in determination of human behavior. The Jen ratio is an important component is calculating individual status thus individuals gain more moral status when knowledge is widely spread, thus articulating for the significance of the Jen factor in human life. Despite of the significant breakthrough in his research and his arguments in his book Born to be Good the linking relationship between human moral behavior and science has not been optimally proven. There is strong dependence on historical affiliations and the overall surrounding environment of human beings in determining the human social and moral behaviors. Works Cited Cooney, Nick. Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change. Pennsylvania: Lantern Books, 2010. Print. Keltner, Datcher. Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life. Chicago: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. Print. Kitzinger, Celia. "Born to be good?" New Internationalist Publications (2007): 1-3. Read More