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Psychology and the Aims of Normative Ethics”
Regina A. Rini (forthcoming). “Psychology and the Aims of Normative Ethics”. To appear in Springer Handbook of Neuroethics (ed. J. Clausen and N. Levy). Psychology and the Aims of Normative Ethics Regina A. Rini University of Oxford [email protected] Abstract: This chapter discusses the philosophical relevance of empirical research on moral cognition. It distinguishes three central aims of normative ethical theory: understanding the nature of moral agency, identifying morally right actions, and determining the justification of moral beliefs. For each of these aims, the chapter considers and rejects arguments against employing cognitive scientific research in normative inquiry. It concludes by suggesting that, whichever of the central aims one begins from, normative ethics is improved by engaging with the science of moral cognition. Key words: is/ought gap, moral agency, moral intuition, moral philosophy, ought-implies- can I. Three Central Questions of Normative Ethics It is undeniable that the field of empirical moral psychology has grown dramatically in the last decade, with new experimental techniques allowing us unprecedented understanding of the causal and computational structures of the human moral faculty. Or, at least, it is undeniable that this research contributes to a descriptive project, one of better understanding the facts about who we are and how we think.1 But what might be denied is that these investigations have much to offer to normative ethics, a distinctively prescriptive sort of inquiry.2 The purpose of this chapter is to show why normative ethics - the study of 1 Although this chapter discusses quite a range of psychological findings, it is not intended to be a comprehensive overview of the empirical literature. -
Theorizing Moral Cognition: Culture in Action, Situations, and Relationships
UCLA UCLA Previously Published Works Title Theorizing Moral Cognition: Culture in Action, Situations, and Relationships Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3xm4m3mw Author Luft, Aliza Publication Date 2020 DOI 10.1177/2378023120916125 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California SRDXXX10.1177/2378023120916125SociusLuft 916125research-article2020 Original Article Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World Volume 6: 1 –15 © The Author(s) 2020 Theorizing Moral Cognition: Culture in Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions Action, Situations, and Relationships DOI:https://doi.org/10.1177/2378023120916125 10.1177/2378023120916125 srd.sagepub.com Aliza Luft1 Abstract Dual-process theories of morality are approaches to moral cognition that stress the varying significance of emotion and deliberation in shaping judgments of action. Sociological research that builds on these ideas considers how cross- cultural variation alters judgments, with important consequences for what is and is not considered moral behavior. Yet lacking from these approaches is the notion that, depending on the situation and relationship, the same behavior by the same person can be considered more or less moral. The author reviews recent trends in sociological theorizing about morality and calls attention to the neglect of situational variations and social perceptions as mediating influences on judgment. She then analyzes the moral machine experiment to demonstrate how situations and relationships inform moral cognition. Finally, the author suggests that we can extend contemporary trends in the sociology of morality by connecting culture in thinking about action to culture in thinking about people. Keywords cognition, culture, morality, perception, situations Preface As I write, there are places in the world where there aren’t enough hospital beds or respirators to allow all patients to This paper is about moral judgments in challenging and receive adequate medical care. -
Philosophy 316K Science and Philosophy: Moral Psychology MWF 1:00-2:00 GAR 3.116
Philosophy 316K Science and Philosophy: Moral Psychology MWF 1:00-2:00 GAR 3.116 “In present-day philosophy an explanation is required how an unjust man is a bad man, or an unjust action a bad one; to give such an explanation belongs to ethics; but it cannot even be begun until we are equipped with a sound philosophy of psychology.” G. E. M. Anscombe “Scientists and humanists should consider together the possibility that the time has come for ethics to be removed temporarily from the hands of the philosophers and biologicized." E. O. Wilson “I do not believe that a moral philosophy can ever be founded on a scientific basis. The valuation of life and all its nobler expressions can only come out of the soul’s yearning toward its own destiny. Every attempt to reduce ethics to scientific formulas must fail. Of that I am perfectly convinced.” Albert Einstein Instructor: Michael Dale Email: [email protected] Office: WAG 421 Office Hours: XXXXXXXX & by appointment 1 Course Description: This particular version of Science and Philosophy will focus on the burgeoning field of moral psychology. The last few decades have seen unprecedented advances in the empirical sciences, particularly neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology. What happens when these empirical findings—many of which undermine or at least come into conflict with our ordinary intuitions about ourselves and the world—run up against the traditionally theoretical discipline of ethics? Can they weigh in on such debates or should they be understood as mere descriptions of the world? For example, can the empirical finding that peoples’ behavior is not so much predicted by their character traits but instead by the situations that they find themselves in undermine virtue ethics, which presupposes the existence of character traits? Or what about morality itself? Can the idea that natural selection shaped our moral beliefs call the objectivity of morality into question? In this class, we attempt to answer these questions. -
Altruism, Morality & Social Solidarity Forum
Altruism, Morality & Social Solidarity Forum A Forum for Scholarship and Newsletter of the AMSS Section of ASA Volume 3, Issue 2 May 2012 What’s so Darned Special about Church Friends? Robert D. Putnam Harvard University One purpose of my recent research (with David E. Campbell) on religion in America1 was to con- firm and, if possible, extend previous research on the correlation of religiosity and altruistic behavior, such as giving, volunteering, and community involvement. It proved straight-forward to show that each of sev- eral dozen measures of good neighborliness was strongly correlated with religious involvement. Continued on page 19... Our Future is Just Beginning Vincent Jeffries, Acting Chairperson California State University, Northridge The beginning of our endeavors has ended. The study of altruism, morality, and social solidarity is now an established section in the American Sociological Association. We will have our first Section Sessions at the 2012 American Sociological Association Meetings in Denver, Colorado, this August. There is a full slate of candidates for the ASA elections this spring, and those chosen will take office at the Meetings. Continued on page 4... The Revival of Russian Sociology and Studies of This Issue: Social Solidarity From the Editor 2 Dmitry Efremenko and Yaroslava Evseeva AMSS Awards 3 Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences Scholarly Updates 12 The article was executed in the framework of the research project Social solidarity as a condition of society transformations: Theoretical foundations, Bezila 16 Russian specificity, socio-biological and socio-psychological aspects, supported Dissertation by the Russian foundation for basic research (Project 11-06-00347а). -
Methods, Models, and the Evolution of Moral Psychology
Methods, Models, and the Evolution of Moral Psychology Cailin O'Connor Abstract Why are we good? Why are we bad? Questions regarding the evolution of morality have spurred an astoundingly large interdisciplinary literature. Some significant subset of this body of work addresses questions regarding our moral psychology: how did humans evolve the psychological properties which underpin our systems of ethics and morality? Here I do three things. First, I discuss some methodological issues, and defend particularly effective methods for addressing many research questions in this area. Second, I give an in-depth example, describing how an explanation can be given for the evolution of guilt|one of the core moral emotions|using the methods advocated here. Last, I lay out which sorts of strategic scenarios generally are the ones that our moral psychology evolved to `solve', and thus which models are the most useful in further exploring this evolution. 1. Introduction Why are we good? Why are we bad? Questions regarding the evolution of morality have spurred an astoundingly large interdisciplinary literature with contributions from (at least) biology, sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, and computer science. Some sig- nificant subset of this body of work addresses questions regarding our moral psychology: how did humans evolve the psychological properties which underpin our systems of ethics and morality? Debates in this literature are ongoing, and often heated. One reason for this is that there are a number of methodological problems researchers must tackle in addressing the evolution of moral psychology. Human psychology evolved in the deep past, over the course of millions of years, and as a result of countless interactions between individuals. -
Moral Psychology Fall 2016
PSYC GU4672: Moral Psychology Fall 2016 PSYC GU4672: Moral Psychology (seminar, 4 points). Fall 2016. Tuesdays, 10:10 AM – 12:00 PM. 405 Schermerhorn Instructor: Larisa Heiphetz ([email protected]) Office hours: By appointment The best way to reach me is via e-mail, and I typically reply to e-mails within 48 hours. I am happy to meet with you throughout the semester to discuss anything related to the course; please e-mail me to set up an appointment. I. Bulletin description II. A full description of the content of the course III. The rationale for giving the course IV. The reading list and weekly syllabus V. Course requirements I. Bulletin description Prerequisites: Two courses in psychology, including at least one course with a focus on social and/or developmental psychology, and permission of the instructor. Review of theories and current research on moral cognition and behavior. Topics include definitions of morality, the development of moral cognition, the role that other aspects of human experience (e.g., emotion, intentions) play in moral judgments, and the relationship between moral psychology and other areas of study (e.g., religious cognition, prejudice and stereotyping, the criminal justice system). II. A full description of the content of the course. How do children learn to distinguish right from wrong? Why do some people act more morally than others, and how is it that the same person can make moral decisions in some circumstances but not others? What does it mean to be “moral”? Questions like these have fascinated scholars and laypeople for centuries. In this seminar, we will discuss a) theories of moral cognition and b) empirical findings on morality in children and adults. -
Psychedelic Unselfing and Moral Perception
Psychedelic Unselfing and Moral Perception A Philosophical Account of the Change of Values Induced by Psychedelic Experiences Juuso Viljami Kähönen University of Helsinki Faculty of Social Sciences Philosophy Master’s Thesis April 2020 Abstract Scientific and scholarly attention to psychedelics has recently faced a resurgence. Recent studies suggest that psychedelic experiences can change values and behavioral dispositions, for example increase appreciation of nature and increase prosocial behavior. For this reason psychedelics have been identified as a promising option for moral neuroenhancement. However, we still struggle to understand these changes in the valuations psychedelics induce, or why exactly they are morally enhancing. In this thesis I construct a philosophical framework to understand these changes. I combine Iris Murdoch and Abraham Maslow’s thinking with empirical studies on psychedelics and experiences of self-transcendence. Psychedelics induce experiences of self-transcendence which involve evaluative changes. I argue that these changes are not random but result from an intelligible process. I first claim that psychedelics in some cases induce unselfing, that is, perspectival and evaluative changes resulting from reduction of salience attributed to oneself. By reducing egoic centering, unselfing opens our attention to the world and can cause perspectival widening from egocentric into more allocentric (other- directed) or cosmocentric (universal) perspective. The second main claim is that the process of unselfing is often connected to sharpened perception of values. The increased attention to the world and reduced egocentric attributions of salience, resulting from unselfing, can widen our evaluative context and make it possible to perceive or grasp intrinsic values better, thus ‘tuning the moral compass’ away from instrumental egocentric mode of evaluation. -
What Makes an Emotion Moral?
What Makes an Emotion Moral? by Mara L. Bollard A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Philosophy) in the University of Michigan 2018 Doctoral Committee: Professor Daniel Jacobson, Chair Professor Sarah Buss Professor Peter A. Railton Associate Professor Chandra Sripada Mara L. Bollard [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2416-948X © Mara L. Bollard 2018 Acknowledgements I could not have completed this dissertation without the support of many people, and I regret that I cannot properly express my gratitude to everyone who helped shape this project, and my time in graduate school, in these few short pages. First of all, tremendous thanks are due to my committee members: Daniel Jacobson, Sarah Buss, Peter Railton, and Chandra Sripada, all of whom played no small role in my decision to come to Michigan in the first place, and have continued to intellectually enthrall, challenge, and encourage me ever since. I am especially grateful to my advisor, Dan Jacobson, whose guidance, humor, and unflagging support got me, and this project, across the finish line. Special thanks, too, to Chandra Sripada, who has been a cheerful and constant advocate of my work, my teaching, and the Mind and Moral Psychology Working Group. The research and writing of this dissertation was supported by a Mellon Recruitment Award, a Rackham One-Term Dissertation Fellowship, a Sweetland Dissertation Writing Institute Fellowship, and numerous Rackham Conference Travel Grants. I am grateful for incisive and helpful feedback on these chapters from members of the University of Michigan Mind and Moral Psychology Working Group, the University of Michigan Graduate Student Working Group, the 2016 University of Michigan Candidacy Seminar, and the 2017 Sweetland Dissertation Writing Institute. -
The Fragmentation of Moral Psychology: Reason, Emotion, Motivation and Moral Judgment in Ethics and Science Christopher Zarpentine
Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2011 The Fragmentation of Moral Psychology: Reason, Emotion, Motivation and Moral Judgment in Ethics and Science Christopher Zarpentine Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES THE FRAGMENTATION OF MORAL PSYCHOLOGY: REASON, EMOTION, MOTIVATION AND MORAL JUDGMENT IN ETHICS AND SCIENCE BY CHRISTOPHER ZARPENTINE A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Philosophy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Spring 2011 The members of the committee approve the dissertation of Christopher Zarpentine defended on March 29, 2011. ______________________________ Alfred R. Mele Professor Directing Dissertation ______________________________ John Kelsay University Representative ______________________________ David McNaughton Committee Member ______________________________ Michael Ruse Committee Member Approved: ______________________________ J. Piers Rawling, Chair, Department of Philosophy The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members. ii Writing this dissertation made me realize how much I have learned from my parents. I dedicate this work to them. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It would be true to say that this project started my very first semester of graduate school. Back in 2004, Eddy Nahmias and Zach Ernst taught the fMRI papers by Josh Greene and colleagues. I’m grateful to them for setting me on this path. But a project like this doesn’t get completed without a lot of help along the way. I should first thank my committee members: John Kelsay and David McNaughton—both of whom were pinch-hitters, stepping in to replace Frank Marlowe and Josh Gert, whose own career paths led a different way—and my advisor and committee chair, Al Mele, who has been absolutely irreplaceable. -
Moral Grammar Erica Roeder and Gilbert Harman
Moral Grammar Erica Roeder and Gilbert Harman The approach to generative grammar originating with Chomsky (1957) has been enormously successful within linguistics. Seeing such success, one wonders whether a similar approach might help us understand other human domains besides language. One such domain is morality. Could there be universal generative moral grammar? More specifically, might it be useful to moral theory to develop an explicit generative account of parts of particular moralities in the way it has proved useful to linguistics to produce generative grammars for parts of particular languages? Should moral theorists attempt to develop a theory of moral universals that is analogous to the theory of universal grammar in linguistics? Can moral theorists develop a “principles and parameters” account of possible moralities inspired by the principles and parameters approach to language in current linguistics? Could there be a “minimalist” program for moral theory inspired by the minimalist program in linguistics? There will be two main parts to our discussion of these questions. The first will focus on the analogy between generative grammar and moral theory. The second will focus on analogies between universal grammar and theories of moral universals. In the first part, we give some background and indicate how we are going to understand morality and moral theory. We describe certain aspects of generative grammar and how claims about generative grammars are tested, allowing for a distinction between “competence” and “performance”. We then try to say what a corresponding “generative moral grammar” would be and how it would be tested. We next discuss a number of objections to the analogy between moral theory and generative grammar and indicate possible responses. -
Michael Schultz
michael schultz Indiana University 755 Ballantine Hall [email protected] 1020 E. Kirkwood Avenue michaelschultz.org Bloomington, IN 47405 202.577.4353 Employment 2019 - Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Indiana University 2016 - 2019 Post-Doctoral Fellow, SONIC Research Group, Northwestern University Education Ph.D., Sociology, University of California Berkeley, 2016 Dissertation: The Structure of American Lifestyle: Statistical Models and Analyses. M.A., Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, 2012 Thesis: A Formal Model of the Structural Foundations of Social Connectivity. M.Ed., Secondary Education, Mathematics, George Washington University, 2006. M.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 2004. B.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 2003. Research Computational Social Science, Quantitative Methods, Economic Sociology, Interests Social Networks, Social Interaction and Social Structure Teaching Computational Sociology, Sociological Methods, Economic Sociology, Social Interests Networks Publications Journal articles Schultz, Michael. 2018.\The Problem of Underdetermination in Model Selec- tion." Sociological Methodology 48(1):52-87. Schultz, Michael. 2018.\On the Assumptions of Inferential Model Selection: Response to Vassend and Weakleim." Sociological Methodology 48(1):97- 102. Fligstein, Neil, Jonah Stuart Brundage, and Michael Schultz. 2017.\Seeing Like the Fed: Culture, Cognition, and Framing in the Failure to Antici- pate the Financial Crisis of 2008." American Sociological Review 82(5): 879-909. 1 Feinberg, Matthew, Robb Willer, and Michael Schultz. 2014. \Gossip and Os- tracism Promote Cooperation in Groups." Psychological Science 25(3): 656-664. Book chapters Willer, Robb, Matthew Feinberg, Kyle Irwin, Michael Schultz, and Brent Simpson. 2010. \The Trouble with Invisible Men." in Handbook of the Sociology of Morality. New York: Springer, 315-330. -
On the Historical Sociology of Morality Introduction
stefan bargheer and nicholas hoover wilson On the Historical Sociology of Morality Introduction T AKEN TO MEAN NORMS AND VALUES, morality was a central building block of American—and partly also European— sociology at the heights of its postwar boom in the 1950s and 1960s. Much of the temporary neglect of morality as an object of sociological inquiry is tied to the demise of structural-functionalism and the selective appropriation of Durkheim’s and Weber’s writings on this topic by scholars such as Talcott Parsons. In recent years, however, morality has resurfaced as an object of sociological inquiry. Sociologists have not only opened up new vistas for empirical research, but also re-evaluated the contributions of classical authors in innovative ways and added new authors to the theoretical agenda. Moreover, these interventions and debates have expanded from sociological theory to include several subfields of the discipline, including cultural sociology, economic sociology, and social psychology. In this special issue we push this recovery of morality further by investigating it from a historical perspective. Historical research on morality is especially important because it offers the opportunity to probe the way in which the intellectual and social architectonics of the concept shift over time—an insight voiced by many classical authors, but overshadowed by structural-functionalism’s essentializing assumptions. The sociology of morality: New, old, and historical To distinguish recent work on morality from structural-functionalism, Stephen Hitlin and Stephen Vaisey [2013b] have introduced the label 1 Stefan Bargheer, UCLA [[email protected]] Nicholas Hoover Wilson, Stony Brook University [[email protected]] European Journal of Sociology, 59, 1 (2018), pp.