Cart
Free Shipping in the UK
Proud to be B-Corp

Cultivating Conscience Lynn Stout

Cultivating Conscience By Lynn Stout

Cultivating Conscience by Lynn Stout


£19.49
Condition - New
Only 2 left

Summary

Contemporary law and public policy often treat human beings as selfish creatures who respond only to punishments and rewards. Drawing from social psychology, behavioral economics, and evolutionary biology, this title demonstrates how social cues have a powerful role in triggering unselfish behavior.

Cultivating Conscience Summary

Cultivating Conscience: How Good Laws Make Good People by Lynn Stout

Contemporary law and public policy often treat human beings as selfish creatures who respond only to punishments and rewards. Yet every day we behave unselfishly--few of us mug the elderly or steal the paper from our neighbor's yard, and many of us go out of our way to help strangers. We nevertheless overlook our own good behavior and fixate on the bad things people do and how we can stop them. In this pathbreaking book, acclaimed law and economics scholar Lynn Stout argues that this focus neglects the crucial role our better impulses could play in society. Rather than lean on the power of greed to shape laws and human behavior, Stout contends that we should rely on the force of conscience. Stout makes the compelling case that conscience is neither a rare nor quirky phenomenon, but a vital force woven into our daily lives. Drawing from social psychology, behavioral economics, and evolutionary biology, Stout demonstrates how social cues--instructions from authorities, ideas about others' selfishness and unselfishness, and beliefs about benefits to others--have a powerful role in triggering unselfish behavior. Stout illustrates how our legal system can use these social cues to craft better laws that encourage more unselfish, ethical behavior in many realms, including politics and business. Stout also shows how our current emphasis on self-interest and incentives may have contributed to the catastrophic political missteps and financial scandals of recent memory by encouraging corrupt and selfish actions, and undermining society's collective moral compass. This book proves that if we care about effective laws and civilized society, the powers of conscience are simply too important for us to ignore.

Cultivating Conscience Reviews

Cultivating Conscience is a blistering attack on the 'law and economics' school, which has had an enormous impact in the US legal academy... But despite that focus, Cultivating Conscience is not only for a US readership: its clear and highly readable style, enlivened by real-life examples, also makes it accessible and of great interest on this side of the Atlantic... Cultivating Conscience is lucid and stimulating.--Bill Bowring, Times Higher Education [D]uality in human nature, and the connection between conscience and public policy, is masterfully examined in this book by Lynn A. Stout... Cultivating Conscience is a forceful and rational proposition for reasonable change.--John Michael Senger, ForeWord Reviews Stout makes the compelling case that conscience is neither a rare nor quirky phenomenon, but a vital force woven into our daily lives... This book proves that if we care about effective laws and civilized society, the powers of conscience are simply too important for us to ignore.--Marshal Zeringue, Campaign for the American Reader blog Cultivating Conscience is one of those rare books--essentially a single-theme book, an apologia for the author's subject matter--that eruditely comingles several fields of knowledge, is clearly and succinctly written, holds the reader's full attention throughout, and whose contents affect the reader's thoughts at unsuspecting times and on various topics long after reading is complete. In short, it is well worth reading by both laypersons and professionals.--Cynthia C. Siebel, PsycCRITIQUES

About Lynn Stout

Lynn Stout is the Paul Hastings Professor of Corporate and Securities Law at the UCLA School of Law. She is the coauthor of several books and a frequent commentator for NPR, PBS, and the Wall Street Journal.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii PART ONE Chapter 1: Franco's Choice 3 Chapter 2: Holmes' Folly 23 Chapter 3: Blind to Goodness: Why We Don't See Conscience 45 PART TWO Chapter 4: Games People Play: Unselfish Prosocial Behavior in Experimental Gaming 75 Chapter 5: The Jekyll/Hyde Syndrome: A Three-Factor Social Model of Unselfish Prosocial Behavior 94 Chapter 6: Origins 122 PART THREE Chapter 7: My Brother's Keeper: The Role of Unselfishness in Tort Law 151 Chapter 8: Picking Prosocial Partners: The Story of Relational Contract 175 Chapter 9: Crime, Punishment, and Community 200 PART FOUR Conclusion Chariots of the Sun 233 Notes 255 Works Cited 281 Index 299

Additional information

NGR9780691139951
9780691139951
0691139954
Cultivating Conscience: How Good Laws Make Good People by Lynn Stout
New
Hardback
Princeton University Press
2010-10-24
320
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a new book - be the first to read this copy. With untouched pages and a perfect binding, your brand new copy is ready to be opened for the first time

Customer Reviews - Cultivating Conscience