Sam Harris facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sam Harris
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Harris in 2016
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| Born | Samuel Benjamin Harris April 9, 1967 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
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| Genre | Nonfiction |
| Subject | Neuroscience, philosophy, religion, spirituality, ethics, politics |
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| Spouse |
Annaka Gorton
(m. 2004) |
| Children | 2 |
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Philosophy career |
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| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
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| Thesis | The moral landscape: How science could determine human values (2009) |
| Doctoral advisor | Mark Cohen |
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Influences
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Samuel Benjamin Harris (born April 9, 1967) is an American philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and podcast host. He explores many topics, including how we think, religion, and what is right or wrong. He also studies the brain, meditation, and artificial intelligence. Harris became well-known for his ideas about religion. He is one of the ""Four Horsemen" of New Atheism". The others are Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett.
Harris's first book, The End of Faith (2004), won an award and stayed on The New York Times Best Seller list for 33 weeks. He has written six more books. These include Letter to a Christian Nation (2006) and The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values (2010). He also wrote Lying (2011) and Free Will (2012). His book Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion came out in 2014. In 2015, he wrote Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue with British writer Maajid Nawaz. Harris's books have been translated into over 20 languages.
Harris has debated many famous people about God and religion. These include William Lane Craig and Jordan Peterson. Since 2013, Harris has hosted the Making Sense podcast. It was first called Waking Up and has many listeners. In 2018, Harris launched a meditation app called Waking Up with Sam Harris. He is also a key person in the Mindfulness movement. He promotes meditation without needing religious beliefs.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Samuel Benjamin Harris was born in Los Angeles, California, on April 9, 1967. His father, Berkeley Harris, was an actor in Western films. His mother, Susan Harris, was a TV writer and producer. She created shows like The Golden Girls. His father came from a Quaker background. His mother is Jewish but not religious. His parents divorced when he was two, and his mother raised him. Harris says his childhood was not religious. His parents rarely talked about religion. He also stated he was not raised as an atheist.
While at Stanford University, Harris first studied English. But he became interested in big questions about life. He left Stanford in his second year. He traveled to India and Nepal. There, he studied meditation with teachers of Buddhist and Hindu faiths. One of his teachers was Dilgo Khyentse. Eleven years later, in 1997, he went back to Stanford. He finished his B.A. degree in philosophy in 2000. Harris started writing his first book, The End of Faith, right after the September 11 attacks.
He earned a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience in 2009. This was from the University of California, Los Angeles. He used brain scans (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to study how people believe, disbelieve, and feel uncertain. His main research was called The Moral Landscape: How Science Could Determine Human Values. His advisor was Mark S. Cohen.
Career and Work
Writing and Books
Harris's writing focuses on philosophy, neuroscience, and ideas about religion. He became well-known for his views on religion. He is seen as one of the "Four Horsemen of Atheism". The others are Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett. He has written for major newspapers and magazines. These include The New York Times and The Atlantic. Five of his books have been New York Times bestsellers. His work has been translated into over 20 languages. His book The End of Faith (2004) was on the New York Times Best Seller list for 33 weeks.
The Making Sense Podcast
In September 2013, Harris started his podcast, first called Waking Up. It is now called Making Sense. Episodes can be quite long, often over two hours. They are not released on a fixed schedule.
The podcast covers many topics. These include science, spirituality, philosophy, and artificial intelligence. Harris interviews many different guests. These guests include scientists, philosophers, and authors. Some guests have been Jordan Peterson and Peter Singer.
The Waking Up Meditation App
In September 2018, Harris launched a meditation app. It is called Waking Up with Sam Harris. The app offers daily meditations and longer guided sessions. It also has short "Moments" for quick practice. The app includes talks with experts in psychology and philosophy. It also has lessons on topics like Mind & Emotion and Free Will. Users can learn different types of meditation. These include mindfulness and loving-kindness meditation.
In 2020, Harris announced that at least 10% of the app's profits would go to highly effective charities. This made Waking Up the first company to sign the Giving What We Can pledge for companies.
Views on Society and Beliefs
Thinking About Religion
Harris often criticizes religion. He is a key figure in the New Atheist movement. He especially dislikes what he calls dogmatic belief. He says, "Pretending to know things one doesn't know is a betrayal of science – and yet it is the lifeblood of religion." While he questions religious belief systems, Harris believes that not all religions are the same. He often compares the peaceful nature of Jainism with Islam. He argues that the differences in religious teachings matter.
Harris has debated many people about religious belief. In 2007, he debated with evangelical pastor Rick Warren for Newsweek magazine. In 2011, he debated Christian philosopher William Lane Craig. They discussed if there can be objective morality without God. In 2018, he debated Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson. They talked about how religious values and science relate to truth.
Harris has said that Islam poses a "unique danger." He argues that the war on terror is against certain ideas within Islam. In 2015, Harris and activist Maajid Nawaz wrote Islam and the Future of Tolerance. In this book, Harris says the word Islamophobia stops important discussions about threats.
He also criticizes certain political groups in the United States. He blames them for focusing on "pseudo-problems like gay marriage." He also criticizes liberal Christianity. He says it uses the Bible but is actually influenced by modern ideas. He believes this gives cover to more extreme religious views.
Harris stresses that religions are different. He says if any religion is truly "of peace," it is Jainism. This religion started in India and has non-violence as its main idea. Jains are vegetarians and pacifists. Monks even wear masks to avoid harming tiny living things. But Harris notes that even Jainism has problems, as it holds some beliefs without enough proof.
Harris has noted good things about Buddhist thought. He likes its focus on meditation. He points out that Buddhism teaches how our actions affect our minds. To be happy, one needs to work on "overcoming fear and hatred" and "maximizing love and compassion." In 2019, he said the West could learn from Eastern meditation traditions. He believes meditation can be practiced without traditional religious beliefs.
Spirituality Without Religion
Harris believes that seeking deep mental states is not wrong. These states, like compassion and awe, are found in many religions. He says these are valuable experiences. He states that "Everything of value that people get from religion can be had more honestly, without presuming anything on insufficient evidence. The rest is self-deception, set to music."
Harris does not think spirituality and rationality are opposites. He wants a path that uses both spirituality and science, but without religion. He writes that science, like neuroscience, can help us understand spirituality. Science can show how to improve human well-being. But he says some questions about life's nature can be answered through our own experiences. His idea of spirituality does not include believing in any god.
In Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion (2014), Harris shares his experiences with Dzogchen. This is a Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice. He suggests it to his readers. He writes that spirituality helps us see that our sense of self is not always real. He says this understanding brings happiness and insight into consciousness. This is similar to core Buddhist ideas. He argues this understanding comes from experience, not faith. He states, "When you learn how to meditate, you recognize that there is another possibility, which is to be vividly aware of your experience in each moment in a way that frees you from routine misery."
Science and Morality
Harris believes that the well-being of living creatures is the basis of what is right and wrong. In The Moral Landscape, he argues that science can help answer moral questions. It can also help us maximize well-being.
Harris does not believe religion is the only source of moral rules.
He also criticizes cultural and moral relativism. This is the idea that all cultures' moral rules are equally valid. Harris argues that this stops people from judging practices that clearly harm human well-being. He says we can use science to show the negative effects of such practices. Not judging them means pretending we know nothing about what helps people thrive.
Free Will and Choices
Harris believes that the idea of free will "cannot be mapped on to any conceivable reality." He says it does not make sense. In his book Free Will, Harris writes that neuroscience "reveals you to be a biochemical puppet." This means our choices might be determined by our brain's chemistry.
Philosopher Daniel Dennett said Harris's book successfully showed problems with the common idea of free will. But Dennett felt Harris did not fully address other views of free will.
Artificial Intelligence and the Future
Harris is very concerned about the risks from advanced artificial general intelligence. This is a topic he talks about often on his podcast. In a 2016 TED talk, he said that very smart AI will be a big threat in the future. He noted that people are not paying enough attention to this. He explained that artificial superintelligence will likely be made if three things are true. First, intelligence comes from how physical systems process information. Second, humans will keep making smarter machines. Third, human intelligence is not the smartest possible. He called making artificial superintelligence safe "one of the greatest challenges our species will ever face." He thinks it needs immediate attention.
Political Views
Harris describes himself as a liberal. He is a registered Democrat. He has never voted Republican in presidential elections. He supports same-sex marriage. He has said that he agreed with most criticisms of the Bush administration's war in Iraq. He also agreed with criticisms of their money policies and how they treated science. However, Harris also said that liberalism has become "dangerously out of touch" with the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism.
Views on Israel
Harris does not support Israel's right to exist based on religious claims. Instead, he has said that because of hostility towards Jewish people, they need a state for protection. This is why he supports the State of Israel.
Regarding the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, he has criticized both sides for harmful actions. He believes Israel truly wants peace. He thinks its neighbors are more focused on destroying Israel. Harris has also said that Palestine is more responsible for certain actions. He points to Hamas using people as shields and making threats against Jewish people. He says these are reasons Israel has a right to defend itself.
Presidential Elections
In the 2008 United States presidential election, he supported Barack Obama. He was against Republican John McCain. During the 2016 United States presidential election, Harris supported Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries. Even though he called her "a terribly flawed candidate," he preferred her over Donald Trump in the general election. Harris has criticized Trump for lying. He said in 2018 that Trump "has assaulted truth more than anyone in human history."
In the 2020 United States presidential election, Harris supported Andrew Yang in the Democratic primaries. Harris also introduced Yang to podcaster Joe Rogan.
Economic Ideas
Harris supports raising taxes on very wealthy people. He also believes in reducing government spending. He has criticized billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett for paying relatively low taxes. He has suggested taxing large inheritances. For example, taxing 10% for estates over $10 million and 50% for estates over a billion dollars. He would use this money to fund projects like improving roads and bridges.
He says some conservatives see raising taxes as unfair. They believe that being rich means they create value for others. Harris thinks this view is not always true. He says that "markets aren't perfectly reflective of the value of goods and services." He adds that some wealthy people do not create much value. He points out that some people can get very rich by harming the economy.
Views on the COVID-19 Pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Harris criticized people who spread views he thought were "patently insane." He accused some commentators of believing that COVID-19 policies were a way to control people. He has disagreed with Bret Weinstein about his views on COVID-19.
In March 2023, he hosted Matt Ridley and Alina Chan on his podcast. They discussed the origins of COVID-19. They talked about the idea that the COVID-19 virus might have come from a lab.
Personal Life
In 2004, Harris married Annaka Harris (née Gorton). She is an author and editor of science books. They shared an interest in the nature of consciousness. They have two daughters and live in Los Angeles.
In September 2020, Harris joined Giving What We Can. This is an effective altruism group. Members promise to give at least 10% of their income to effective charities. Harris made this pledge for himself and for his company, Waking Up.
Harris practices Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Works
Documentary
- Amila, D. & Shapiro, J. (2018). Islam and the Future of Tolerance. United States: The Orchard.
See also
In Spanish: Sam Harris para niños
