Our brains were designed for tribal life for getting along with a select group of others (Us) & for fighting off everyone else (Them) But modern life has thrust the world's tribes into a shared space creating conflicts of interest & clashes of values along with unprecedented opportunities As the world shrinks the moral lines that divide us become more salient & more puzzling We fight over everything from tax codes to gay marriage to global warming & we wonder where if at all we can find our common ground A grand synthesis of neuroscience psychology & philosophy Moral Tribes reveals the underlying causes of modern conflict & lights a way forward Our emotions make us social animals turning Me into Us But they also make us tribal animals turning Us against Them Our tribal emotions make us fight sometimes with bombs sometimes with words & often with life-&-death stakes Drawing inspiration from moral philosophy & cutting-edge science Moral Tribes shows when we should trust our instincts when we should reason & how the right kind of reasoning can move us forward Joshua Greene is the director of Harvard University's Moral Cognition Lab a pioneering scientist a philosopher & an acclaimed teacher The great challenge of Moral Tribes is this How can we get along with Them when what they want feels so wrong? Finally Greene offers a surprisingly simple set of maxims for navigating the modern moral terrain a practical road map for solving problems & living better lives