# Is Sam Harris a Legitimate Neuroscientist?

**URL:** <https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/is-sam-harris-a-legitimate-neuroscientist/2458>\
**Category:** Conversation\
**Created:** [October 27, 2018, 7:46am UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/is-sam-harris-a-legitimate-neuroscientist/2458 "2018-10-27T07:46:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 33

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**Author:** ![PdotdQ](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.peacefulscience.org/pdotdq/32/1248_2.png) [@PdotdQ](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/PdotdQ)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2018, 9:55pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/is-sam-harris-a-legitimate-neuroscientist/2458/33 "2018-10-27T21:55:44Z")

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> [@NLENTS](#):
>
> Yes, y’all are reading way too much into why I called him a neuroscientist. It wasn’t anything about credentials and definitely not about authority.

Thank you for the clarification and my apologize for reading too much into your statements.

In any case, evaluating the claim of the moral landscape itself is more interesting than evaluating whether Harris is a scientist or not. I would love to hear your response to my post [Can Science Demonstrate Racism or Genocide is Morally Wrong? - #49 by PdotdQ](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/can-science-demonstrate-racism-or-genocide-is-morally-wrong/2442/49) and @jongarvey’s post [Can Science Demonstrate Racism or Genocide is Morally Wrong? - #58 by jongarvey](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/can-science-demonstrate-racism-or-genocide-is-morally-wrong/2442/58) in the original thread.

Note that

> [@NLENTS](#):
>
> but the moral landscape does claim a place for science in the discussion of morality

That science has a place in the discussion of morality is not new, and indeed is a trivial consequence once one adopts utilitarianism. This is also not the central claim of the moral landscape. The central claim of the moral landscape is that the is-ought gap can be bridged and that the entirety of the field of morality, including _the axioms of morality_ (e.g. why pick utilitarianism over deontological ethics, and why one choose a particular utility function) can be obtained through science.

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