If you are standing outside a bakery with the smell of fresh bread in the air

Dear Liz:

While reading the NYT today I came upon this article and the study it refers to, and thought of your project and the discussion we had last Thursday.Check it out!

This story has implications for a topic that came up last semmester regarding the desire present in several of your booklets proposing the posibility of architectural experience as a means to improve human moral behavior. Do you all remember that discussion? Let's talk about it briefly on Monday.



from: New York Times Feb 3, 2008 The Book Review
"Morality Studies- As scientists take to explaining right or wrong, Kwame Anthony Appiah examines what this means for philosophy."

review of book: "Experiments in Ethics" by Kwame Anthony Appiah


"Many philosophers, for example , argue that doing good, and living the good life, consists of possesing virtues like honesty and kindness, and that a good society should aspire to cultivate these virtues in its citizens. But a large body of evidence suggests that these enduring character traits, to the extent that they even exist, may not play much of a role in moral action. Instead, our behavior is determined to a surprising extent by the situation.

Appiah points out that we are usually not conscious that this is happening. If you are standing outside a bakery with the smell of fresh bread in the air, one study showed, you are morer likely to help a stranger than if you are standing outside a "neutral-smelling dry good store". ......"This has implications for how we think of moral responsibility...."