Moral Learning and Moral Realism

1998 ◽  
pp. 37-43
Author(s):  
William A. Rottschaefer
Keyword(s):  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Moral Realism ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Scientific Psychology ◽  
Moral Learning ◽  
Realist Position ◽  
Gilbert Harman ◽  
Moral Ontology

Although scientific naturalistic philosophers have been concerned with the role of scientific psychology in illuminating problems in moral psychology, they have paid less attention to the contributions that it might make to issues of moral ontology. In this paper, I illustrate how findings in moral developmental psychology illuminate and advance the discussion of a long-standing issue in moral ontology, that of moral realism. To do this, I examine Gilbert Harman and Nicholas Sturgeon's discussion of that issue. I contend that their explorations leave the issue unresolved. To break the stalemate, I appeal to empirical psychological findings about moral internalization-the process by which children acquire the capacity to act in terms of moral norms. I contend that these findings illuminate the issue, suggest a way to advance it, and tend to support a moral realist position.

The Role of Interpersonal Comparisons in Moral Learning and the Sources of Recognition Respect: Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s amour-propre and Adam Smith’s Sympathy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christel Fricke
Keyword(s):  
Moral Development ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Destructive Effect ◽  
Interpersonal Comparisons ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Recognition Respect ◽  
Moral Learning

I inquire into Rousseau’s and Smith’s views on moral psychology and on the role of interaction for people’s moral development. The question is whether Smith’s account of sympathy and the origin of people’s respect for others as their equals (recognition respect) was inspired by Rousseau’s pitié and amour-propre. I answer this question in the negative and argue that Smith proposed a more optimistic account of the possible effects of human interaction than Rousseau did. According to Rousseau, interpersonal comparisons feed our amour-propre, the wish to be admired by others; for our moral development, amour-propre has a destructive effect. And this effect is enforced in the framework of a society that imposes serious socio-economic differences on its members. While Smith was not blind to the moral challenges arising from socio-economic inequalities and the misery of the poor, he argued that sympathy-guided human interaction was crucial for a person’s moral development. Without entering into sympathetic processes with others, people cannot learn to judge moral matters from the point of view of impartial spectators.

Moral Psychology, Neuroscience, and Non-Combatant Immunity

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 203-226
Author(s):  
Richard Price
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Normative Ethics ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Moral Beliefs ◽  
Normative Practice ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract Some have argued for the relevance for normative ethics of empirical research in international relations on the origins and role of moral norms. Building on such arguments, the paper considers the relevance of contemporary research in moral psychology and neuroscience for the ethics of war. Research in those fields has implications for our understanding of the sources and nature of moral beliefs and judgement, and thus may shed light on efforts to morally bound violence. In this chapter I consider how such research helps us understand the norm of non-combatant immunity, and explore the implications for understanding the effectiveness of such norms and for normative practice.

Does Situationism Threaten Free Will and Moral Responsibility?

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 698-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael McKenna ◽  
Brandon Warmke
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Free Will ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Situational Influences ◽  
Reasons Responsiveness ◽  
The Face ◽  
Gilbert Harman

The situationist movement in social psychology has caused a considerable stir in philosophy. Much of this was prompted by the work of Gilbert Harman and John Doris. Both contended that familiar philosophical assumptions about the role of character in the explanation of action were not supported by experimental results. Most of the ensuing philosophical controversy has focused upon issues related to moral psychology and ethical theory. More recently, the influence of situationism has also given rise to questions regarding free will and moral responsibility. There is cause for concern that a range of situationist findings are in tension with the reasons-responsiveness putatively required for free will and moral responsibility. We develop and defend a response to the alleged situationist threat to free will and moral responsibility that we call pessimistic realism. We conclude on an optimistic note, exploring the possibility of strengthening our agency in the face of situational influences.

ІНТЕРПРЕТАЦІЯ КАТЕГОРІЇ РОЗВИТКУ В СУЧАСНІЙ ПСИХОЛОГІЇ

1970 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-30
Author(s):  
Анжеліка Шамне
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Structure And Dynamics ◽  
Modern Psychology ◽  
Development Site ◽  
Approaches To Study ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Self Motion

У статті розглянуто сучасні підходи до інтерпретації категорії розвитку, розкрито теоретичні  та методологічні підходи до вивчення категорії розвитку у сучасній психології, визначено її психологічний  зміст,   моделі,   структуру   та   динаміку.   Категорія   розвитку   розглядається   як   епіцентр   наукової  проблематики у психології та як поняття інтегративного типу. Розвиток проаналізовано як категорію,  явище і проблему психології розвитку в різних аспектах аналізу. Розглянуто місце розвитку в системі  споріднених психологічних понять. У статті також аналізуються психологічні аспекти теоретичних та  методологічних  постнекласичних  тенденцій  вивчення  природи,  характеру  та  визначення  психічного  розвитку. Постнекласична парадигма та плюралістична методологія пізнання визначають розмитість  дисциплінарної мови  та  врахування  ролі  соціокультурного  контексту  при  вивченні  психологічних явищ.  Важливими тенденціями сучасного теоретико-методологічного стану психологічних досліджень розвитку  також є визнання неефективності моністичного підходу до його вивчення, взаємозв'язок теоретичних ідей  та   спроби   створення   метатеоретичних   схем,   постнекласичне   розуміння   розвитку   як   принципово  незавершеного   процесу   саморуху,   актуалізація   антропологічного   діапазону   проблем   та   посилення  спрямованості на роль культурного контексту в дослідженні розвитку людини.  The article deals with the modern approaches to the interpretation of the category of development, reveals  the theoretical and methodological approaches to study of development in modern psychology, its psychological  content, patterns, structure and dynamics. Category of development is viewed as an epicenter of scientific issues in  modern  psychology  and  the  concept  of  the  integrative  type.  Category  of  development  is  considered  as  the  phenomenon  and  the  problem  of  developmental  psychology  in  various  aspects  of  the  analysis.  Analyzed  the  development site in the related psychological concepts. The article analyzes the psychological aspects of theoretical  and methodological postnonclassical contemporary trends in the study of nature, character, and determination of  mental  development.  Postnonclassical  paradigm  and  pluralistic  methodology  of  knowledge  determine  the  disciplinary blurring and increase of the role of the analysis of socio-cultural context in the study of psychological  phenomenon. The important tendencies of modern theoretical and methodological state of psychological researches  of development are facts of inefficiency of the monistic approach to its study, interconnection of theoretical ideas  and   attempts   of  creating   metatheoretical   schemes,   postnonclassical   understanding   of   development   as   a  fundamentally  uncompleted  process  of  self-motion,  actualization  of  anthropological  range  of  problems  and  strengthening of focus on the role of cultural context in research of human development.   

Normative Derivations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Garrett Cullity
Keyword(s):  
Moral Norms ◽  
Moral Importance

From the foundational norms of morality, other moral norms can be derived. In one kind of derivation, recognized by Ross, a derived norm is subsumed under a more fundamental one. This chapter describes and illustrates two further derivation relations, which it labels ‘enabling’ and ‘responsive’, to be added to the subsumptive ones. Each of these three types of derivation is divided into further subtypes, and it is shown how derivations of these different kinds can be combined. The chapter concludes with an account of the role of rights and justice in morality, according to which their moral importance derives in all of these ways from all of the foundations of morality.

scholarly journals Attribution of autonomy and its role in robotic language acquisition

AI & Society ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Förster ◽  
Kaspar Althoefer
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Baseline Scenario ◽  
Behavioral Repertoire ◽  
High Frequencies ◽  
Emotional Displays ◽  
And Robotics ◽  
Respective Characteristic

AbstractThe false attribution of autonomy and related concepts to artificial agents that lack the attributed levels of the respective characteristic is problematic in many ways. In this article, we contrast this view with a positive viewpoint that emphasizes the potential role of such false attributions in the context of robotic language acquisition. By adding emotional displays and congruent body behaviors to a child-like humanoid robot’s behavioral repertoire, we were able to bring naïve human tutors to engage in so called intent interpretations. In developmental psychology, intent interpretations can be hypothesized to play a central role in the acquisition of emotion, volition, and similar autonomy-related words. The aforementioned experiments originally targeted the acquisition of linguistic negation. However, participants produced other affect- and motivation-related words with high frequencies too and, as a consequence, these entered the robot’s active vocabulary. We will analyze participants’ non-negative emotional and volitional speech and contrast it with participants’ speech in a non-affective baseline scenario. Implications of these findings for robotic language acquisition in particular and artificial intelligence and robotics more generally will also be discussed.

scholarly journals Moral labels increase cooperation and costly punishment in a Prisoner’s Dilemma game with punishment option

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Mieth ◽  
Axel Buchner ◽  
Raoul Bell
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Prisoner's Dilemma ◽  
Prisoner’S Dilemma ◽  
Framing Effects ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Prisoner’S Dilemma Game ◽  
Costly Punishment ◽  
Moral Framing ◽  
Prisoner's Dilemma Game

AbstractTo determine the role of moral norms in cooperation and punishment, we examined the effects of a moral-framing manipulation in a Prisoner’s Dilemma game with a costly punishment option. In each round of the game, participants decided whether to cooperate or to defect. The Prisoner’s Dilemma game was identical for all participants with the exception that the behavioral options were paired with moral labels (“I cooperate” and “I cheat”) in the moral-framing condition and with neutral labels (“A” and “B”) in the neutral-framing condition. After each round of the Prisoner’s Dilemma game, participants had the opportunity to invest some of their money to punish their partners. In two experiments, moral framing increased moral and hypocritical punishment: participants were more likely to punish partners for defection when moral labels were used than when neutral labels were used. When the participants’ cooperation was enforced by their partners’ moral punishment, moral framing did not only increase moral and hypocritical punishment but also cooperation. The results suggest that moral framing activates a cooperative norm that specifically increases moral and hypocritical punishment. Furthermore, the experience of moral punishment by the partners may increase the importance of social norms for cooperation, which may explain why moral framing effects on cooperation were found only when participants were subject to moral punishment.

Learning Morality with Siblings: The Untold Tale of a Mid-Twentieth Century Taiwanese Family

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Jing Xu
Keyword(s):  
Training Model ◽  
Sibling Relationship ◽  
Text Analytics ◽  
Chinese Families ◽  
General Picture ◽  
Projective Tests ◽  
Moral Learning ◽  
Peer Community ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis

Abstract This article uses a new theoretical and methodological framework to reconstruct a story of two children from fieldnotes collected by anthropologists Arthur and Margery Wolf in rural Taiwan (1958 to 1960). Through the case of a brother–sister dyad, it examines the moral life of young children and provides a rare glimpse into sibling relationship in peer and family contexts. First, combining social network analysis and NLP text-analytics, this article introduces a general picture of these siblings’ life in the peer community. Moreover, drawing from naturalistic observations and projective tests, it offers an ethnographic analysis of how children support each other and assert themselves. It emphasizes the role of child-to-child ties in moral learning, in contrast to the predominant focus of parent–child ties in the study of Chinese families. It challenges assumptions of the Chinese “child training” model and invites us to take children's moral psychology seriously and re-discover their agency.

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