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From: jeffrey E. [jeevacation@gmail.com]
Sent: 5/3/2016 6:37:06 PM
To: Moshe Hoffman [REDACTED]
Subject: Re: Greetings, Thanks, and Top Five Questions for the Social Sciences (which Martin thought may interest you)

i think you might want to consider the distribution of these things , not the binary report of the individual

On Tue, May 3, 2016 at 12:51 PM, Moshe Hoffman <[REDACTED]> wrote:
Hi Jeff,

Thanks again for making the time for me last time you were in town. And for your introductions to Brockman and Ehud. I have enjoyed all the conversations and been learning a lot. Hopefully, a book or two will come out of it eventually as well. Means a lot to me.

Martin mentioned that you are thinking about the top questions in various fields and suggested I might think of some of my own and pass them on to you.

In case you are interested, I list below the five biggest questions that keep me up at night, motivate my life's work, and which I think ought to keep up every social scientist. Happy to discuss with you, if and when you are interested.

-Moshe
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1) Where do our moral and political views come from?

The bull shit answers most people accept clearly don't fit the facts; we are not discovering moral truths through reason, and our political views are not motivated by a desire to achieve the best policy outcomes. So what does drive these beliefs? And what causes them to have the weird puzzling features they do (e.g., why is a lie of commission so much worse than a lie of omission)? And what causes them to change over time (e.g., slavery has been accepted as moral at many points in history)? And differ across cultures (e.g., ISIS versus the U.S.)? And across person and context (e.g., Trump vs. Bernie supporters)?

More generally, we believe and argue all sorts of crap (your vote can make a difference, Jesus loves you, all men are created equal). How do these beliefs and arguments work? Are they just random ideas propagated by an amorphous culture, viruses taking advantage of our own psychology for their benefit, ideas that get us to do the bidding of their cynical designers?

2) Similarly, where do our tastes come from? Like the art we like? Or the music?

Some tastes are kinda obvious. E.g., we evolved to like young curvy women because they are the most fertile. And maybe we like art that reminds us of this or of landscapes that are safe or what not. But there are many aspects of art and music (e.g. modern art, rap) that are not universally pleasing. So what makes people like these things? What properties do they need to succeed? What role does the artist or the history of the piece play in what we like? Of course, this question isn't just about art and music, but about all of our peculiar, culturally specific tastes. How does culture shape our tastes? Is it completely arbitrary or is there some logic to its influence?

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