Sublime

A model of this thought pattern, one which ends inevitably in the normalization of extremely problematic views, is author Sam Harris’s 2017 reanimation of the IQ race wars that began with the publication of The Bell Curve in 1994. That book’s authors, psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and political scientist Charles Murray, argue that intelligence

But from a deeper perspective (speaking both objectively and subjectively), thoughts simply arise unauthored and yet author our actions.

According to Harris, Islamists, liberals and nationalists have no ethical dispute; they have a factual disagreement about how best to realise their common goal. Yet even if Harris is right, and even if all humans cherish happiness, in practice it would be extremely difficult to use this insight to decide ethical disputes, particularly because we

As we will see, this distinction can be preserved—and with it, our most important moral and legal concerns—while banishing the idea of free will once and for all.

People feel (or presume) an authorship of their thoughts and actions that is illusory.