How does it help us understand ourselves, our country, our place in the world?

Imagine that you are the anchor for a local news outlet and you are to provide a news story for the evening news on the state of the political landscape in America (in other words, answer this question: why is the United States politically divided between liberals and conservatives?). As the research basis for your story, you view the Haidt video to learn about the differences of the moral mind between liberals and conservatives. In other words, Haidt’s assessment of the moral mind forms the outline of your news story. In addition, you add what you learned from the I Am documentary that we watched at the beginning of the semester about how people respond to and interact with others. Finally, include in your news story what you now know about social contract theory as the basic idea for how we form a government. Remember to identify key elements like what does social contract theory say? Who first created the idea? How does it help us understand ourselves, our country, our place in the world?
Submit the text of your “news” story.

Remember, you are to role-play, so put yourself in the shoes of a reporter!

As we continue to think about social contract theory, Jonathan Haidt’s speech given to TED brings out some interesting ideas to consider. Please watch the video. How do his findings about brain analyses help you to think more critically and deeply about practical implications of social contract theory?