2.07 Lab Questions - Completed

2.07 Lab Questions Colton Baker 2/26/25 What is self-transcendence? Self-transcendence is an idea that helps people expand their self-boundaries and cope with difficult life situations. Overcoming limits of yourself and your desires through spiritual contemplation and realization. What example of self-transcendence does Haidt describe? A young man, Stephen Bradley had an encounter with Jesus. He claimed to have seen Jesus with his arms open and Jesus told him: “Come.” Where is the surprising place Haidt discusses and why do many people report finding self-transcendence there? Surprisingly, Haidt discusses war as a place of self-transcendence. He believes this because war brings people together and that opens the possibility of self-transcendence. According to French sociologist Emile Durkheim, what is the function of religion? According to French sociologist Emile Durkheim, the function of religion was to unite people into a group, with a community standing for morals. Durkheim believes that anything that unites us takes on some sort of sacredness, and people will circle around said object and work as a team and fight to defend it. According to Haidt, why does the staircase feel good to us? According to Jonathan Haidt, the staircase metaphor represents the intuitive and emotional basis of morality. He suggests that moral reasoning often follows an intuitive moral response, rather than the other way around. He implies that the emotional response in moral decision-making is like ascending the staircase with a positive feeling, and later on we rationalize our emotions with moral reasoning. So essentially, the staircase feels good to us because our emotions tend to lead our moral judgements and subsequently are reinforced by our intellectual reasoning. What is group selection? What example does Haidt provide? Group selection is a term used in evolution to describe natural selection that happens to populations or groups rather than individual organisms. An example of group selection provided by Haidt is the evolution of human altruism. Haidt believed that groups of humans that had a strong sense of cooperation and altruism were more likely to survive and thrive compared to groups that adopt the “every man for himself” mindset. Describe the free rider problem. The free rider problem is when people who aren’t paying their fair share for a resource use or overuse the shared resource. What are two examples from nature of group selection? Some examples from nature of group selection include cooperative hunting, like a pack of wolves or hyenas. Another example could be the cooperative raising of young, like elephant groups. Relate what you learned in this video to your own life. Have you ever had an experience of selftranscendence or group selection? Explain. Coming from a man of faith, I believe everything is bigger than me and my mind could not possibly comprehend everything, so I take it one day at a time. And when situations appear, I believe it is easier to say, “This is God’s doing and will.” rather than anything else. It offers a sense of relief and release of stress knowing that my situation is in another’s hands.