Moral Intuition Is Ineffable

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In order for social norms to evolve, we need to combine moral intuition with a process of codification that happens over a period of generations. We can't just go through life saying, 'You know, just throg it's in your gut' The transmission of tradition is noisy, right? It's very noisy. So sometimes you just need to put these rules and write them down so that people have some notion what they ought to do.

Traditions and norms can seem at best out-of-touch and at worst offensive to many a modern mind. But Israeli computer scientist and Talmud scholar Moshe Koppel argues that traditions and norms--if they evolve slowly--create trust, develop our capacity for deferred gratification, and even, in the case of how we prepare cassava, protect us from poisoning. Listen as the author of Judaism Straight Up: Why Real Religion Endures talks with EconTalk Russ Roberts about tradition, religion, tribalism, resilience, and emergent order.