I’m going to try not be too snarky about this one because it’s just waaaaaaay too easy. The Wall Street Journal reports that a Harvard professor may be guilty of “scientific misconduct” after fudging data about “monkey cognition.”
So as if it weren’t bad enough being busted for lying about monkeys, Professor Marc Hauser may also be facing federal charges because his studies were funded with taxpayer money. Not good.
Hauser could try claiming that the monkeys lied to him so it’s actually all a big misunderstanding but maybe that would’ve been too obvious.
But the reason this is interesting to many is because Hauser’s research was kind of a big deal in a hip new scientific field called evolutionary psychology. Hauser was the man of the moment because he was believed to be on the verge of proving that morality is an evolutionary construct that come from survival instincts.
Mr. Hauser has been at the forefront of a movement to show that our morals are survival instincts evolved over the millennia. When Mr. Hauser’s 2006 book “Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong” was published, evolutionary psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker proclaimed that his Harvard colleague was engaged in “one of the hottest new topics in intellectual life: The psychology and biology of morals.” […]
“Mr. Hauser had boldly declared that through his application of science, not only could morality be stripped of any religious hocus-pocus, but philosophy would have to step aside as well: “Inquiry into our moral nature will no longer be the proprietary province of the humanities and social sciences,” he wrote.”
So I’m wondering if his lack of morality disproves evolution. I guess he could have used a little more hocus pocus and less monkeys in his morality. Just sayin.’
I don’t know if Harvard or the feds will forgive him but God will if he asks. I’m not sure about the monkeys. They’re a temperamental bunch.
