Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T12:46:51.120Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Moral Nativism: Some Controversies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2016

ROGER V.V. REX Open the ORCID record for ROGER V.V. REX [Opens in a new window]  and
PAULO C. ABRANTES
ROGER V.V. REX*
Affiliation:
University of Brasília
PAULO C. ABRANTES
Affiliation:
University of Brasília
*
*<[email protected]>
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper scrutinizes two research programs that advocate respectively for the existence of a universal moral grammar and a predisposition to moralize behaviours with certain contents. It focuses on how the arguments commonly used to ground each program fare at relevant contemporary research in cognitive science and how well they meet constructivist arguments proposed by Jesse Prinz and Kim Sterelny, among others. We argue that there is little evidence that our moral judgements follow the model of principles and parameters. At the same time, ‘ease of learning’ suggests that the human brain is somehow prepared to learn moral rules.

Cet article analyse deux programmes de recherche qui soutiennent, respectivement, l’existence d’une grammaire morale universelle et d’une prédisposition à assigner des valeurs morales à des comportements liés à certains contenus. Nous proposons d’évaluer les arguments utilisés par chaque programme en regard de la recherche contemporaine en sciences cognitives, et aussi de vérifier s’ils répondent aux objections constructivistes proposées entre autres par Jesse Prinz et Kim Sterelny. Nous montrons qu’il n’y a pas de preuves suffisantes comme quoi nos jugements moraux suivent le modèle des principes et des paramètres. La «facilité d’apprentissage» suggère, néanmoins, que le cerveau humain est en quelque sorte préparé à apprendre les règles morales.

Keywords

moral nativisminnatenessuniversal moral grammarmoral foundations theoryaffective resonanceDarwinism
Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , March 2017 , pp. 21 - 44
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ayala, Francisco J. 2010 “Colloquium Paper: The Difference of Being Human: Morality.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107 Suppl: 9015–9022.Google Scholar
Blair, Richard, James, Robert, Jones, Lawrence, Clark, Fiona, and Smith, Margaret 1997 “The Psychopathic Individual: A Lack of Responsiveness to Distress Cues?” Psychophysiology 34 (2): 192–198.Google Scholar
Blair, Richard, Peschardt, K.S., Budhani, S., Mitchell, D.G. V., and Pine, D.S. 2006 “The Development of Psychopathy.” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 47 (3–4): 262–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Donald E. 1991 Human Universals. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam 1965 Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Darwin, Charles 2009 The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. Vol. 1. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dupoux, Emmanuel, and Jacob, Pierre 2007 “Universal Moral Grammar: A Critical Appraisal.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 11 (9): 373–378.Google Scholar
Dwyer, Susan 2007 “How Good Is the Linguistic Analogy?” In The Innate Mind: Culture and Cognition. Vol. 2. Carruthers, Peter, Laurence, Stephen, and Stich, Stephen, eds. Pp. 238–255. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dwyer, Susan 2009 “Moral Dumbfounding and the Linguistic Analogy: Methodological Implications for the Study of Moral Judgment.” Mind & Language 24 (3): 274–296.Google Scholar
Dwyer, Susan, Huebner, Bryce, and Hauser, Marc D. 2010 “The Linguistic Analogy: Motivations, Results, and Speculations.” Topics in Cognitive Science 2 (3): 486–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fessler, Daniel, Arguello, Alexander, Mekdara, Jeannette, and Macias, Ramon 2003 “Disgust Sensitivity and Meat Consumption: A Test of an Emotivist Account of Moral Vegetarianism.” Appetite 41 (1): 31–41.Google Scholar
Fiske, Alan Page 1992 “The Four Elementary Forms of Sociality: Framework for a Unified Theory of Social Relations.” Psychological Review 99 (4): 689–723.Google Scholar
Fodor, Jerry A. 1983 The Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology. Cambridge: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giroux, Jessy 2011 “The Origin of Moral Norms: A Moderate Nativist Account.” Dialogue 50 (2): 281–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greene, Joshua, Brian Sommerville, R., Nystrom, Leigh E., Darley, John M., and Cohen, Jonathan D. 2001 “An fMRI Investigation of Emotional Engagement in Moral Judgment.” Science 293 (5537): 2105–2108.Google Scholar
Haidt, Jonathan 2001 “The Emotional Dog and Its Rational Tail: A Social Intuitionist Approach to Moral Judgment.” Psychological Review 108 (4): 814–834.Google Scholar
Haidt, Jonathan 2012 The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. 1st edition. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Haidt, Jonathan, and Bjorklund, Fredrik 2008 “Social Intuitionists Answer Six Questions About Morality.” In Moral Psychology: The Cognitive Science of Morality: Intuition and Diversity. Vol. 2. Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter, ed. Pp. 181–217. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Haidt, Jonathan, and Joseph, Craig 2004 “Intuitive Ethics: How Innately Prepared Intuitions Generate Culturally Variable Virtues.” Daedalus 133 (4): 55–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haidt, Jonathan, and Joseph, Craig 2007 “The Moral Mind: How Five Sets of Innate Intuitions Guide the Development of Many Culture-Specific Virtues, and Perhaps Even Modules.” In The Innate Mind: Foundation and the Future, Vol. 3. Carruthers, Peter, Laurence, Stephen, and Stich, Stephen., eds. Pp. 367–392. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Haidt, Jonathan, and Kesebir, Selin 2010 “Morality.” In Handbook of Social Psychology. 5th edition. Fiske, Susan T., Gilbert, Daniel T., and Lindzey, Gardner, eds. Pp. 797–832. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Hamlin, J. Kiley, Wynn, Karen, and Bloom, Paul 2007 “Social Evaluation by Preverbal Infants.” Nature 450 (7169): 557–559.Google Scholar
Harman, Gilbert 2000 Explaining Value and Other Essays in Moral Philosophy. New York: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Harman, Gilbert 2008 “Using a Linguistic Analogy to Study Morality.” In Moral Psychology: The Evolution of Morality: Adaptations and Innateness. Vol. 1. Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter, ed. Pp. 345–352. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hauser, Marc D. 2007 Moral Minds: The Nature of Right and Wrong. New York: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Hauser, Marc D., Young, Liane, and Cushman, Fiery 2008 “Reviving Rawls’ Linguistic Analogy: Operative Principles and the Causal Structure of Moral Actions. In Moral Psychology: The Cognitive Science of Morality: Intuition and Diversity. Vol. 2. Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter, ed. Pp. 107–143. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Martin L. 2001 Empathy and Moral Development: Implications for Caring and Justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Joyce, Richard 2006 The Evolution of Morality. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Joyce, Richard 2013 “The Many Moral Nativisms.” In Cooperation and Its Evolution. Sterelny, Kim, Joyce, Richard, Calcott, Brett, and Fraser, Ben, eds. Pp. 549–572. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Joyce, Richard 2014 “The Origins of Moral Judgment.” Behaviour 151 (2–3): 261–278.Google Scholar
Korsgaard, Christine 2006 “Morality and the Distinctiveness of Human Action.” In Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved. Macedo, Stephen, and Ober, Josiah, eds. Pp. 98–119. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Mallon, Ron 2008 “Reviving Rawls’s Linguistic Analogy Inside and Out.” In Moral Psychology: The Cognitive Science of Morality: Intuition and Diversity. Vol. 2. Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter, ed. Pp. 145–156. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
McKinnon, Margaret C., and Moscovitch, Morris 2007 “Domain-General Contributions to Social Reasoning: Theory of Mind and Deontic Reasoning Re-Explored.” Cognition 102 (2): 179–218.Google Scholar
Mikhail, John M. 2011 Elements of Moral Cognition: Rawls’ Linguistic Analogy and the Cognitive Science of Moral and Legal Judgment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nichols, Shaun 2002 “On the Genealogy of Norms: A Case for the Role of Emotion in Cultural Evolution.” Philosophy of Science 69 (2): 234–255.Google Scholar
Nichols, Shaun 2005 “Innateness and Moral Psychology.” In The Innate Mind: Structure and Contents. Vol. 1. Carruthers, Peter, Laurence, Stephen, and Stich, Stephen, eds. Pp. 353–370. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nichols, Shaun 2008 “Sentimentalism Naturalized.” In Moral Psychology: The Cognitive Science of Morality: Intuition and Diversity. Vol. 2. Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter, ed. Pp. 255–274. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Prinz, Jesse 2006 “Is the Mind Really Modular.” In Contemporary Debates in Cognitive Science. Stainton, Robert J., ed. Pp. 22–36. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Prinz, Jesse 2008 “Is Morality Innate.” In Moral Psychology: The Evolution of Morality: Adaptations and Innateness. Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter, ed. Pp. 367–406. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Prinz, Jesse 2012 Beyond Human Nature: How Culture and Experience Shape Our Lives. London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Prinz, Jesse 2013 “Where Do Morals Come From?—A Plea for a Cultural Approach.” In Empirically Informed Ethics: Morality between Facts and Norms. Christen, Markus, Schaik, Carel van, Fischer, Johannes, Huppenbauer, Markus, and Tanner, Carmen, eds. Pp. 99–118. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Roedder, Erica, and Harman, Gilbert 2010 “Linguistics and Moral Theory.” In The Moral Psychology Handbook. Michael Doris, John, ed. Pp. 273–296. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruse, Michael, and Wilson, Edward O. 1986 “Moral Philosophy as Applied Science.” Philosophy 61 (236): 173–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schnall, Simone, Haidt, Jonathan, Clore, Gerald L., and Jordan, Alexander H. 2008 “Disgust as Embodied Moral Judgment.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 34 (8): 1096–1109.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Shalom H., and Bilsky, Wolfgang 1990 “Toward a Theory of the Universal Content and Structure of Values: Extensions and Cross-Cultural Replications.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 58 (5): 878–891.Google Scholar
Shweder, Richard A., Much, Nancy C., Mahapatra, Manamohan, and Park, Lawrence 1997 “The ‘Big Three’ of Morality (Autonomy, Community, Divinity) and the ‘Big Three’ Explanations of Suffering.” In Morality and Health. Brandt, Allan M. and Rozin, Paul, eds. Pp. 119–169. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sperber, Dan 2005 “Modularity and Relevance: How Can a Massively Modular Mind Be Flexible and Context-Sensitive?” In The Innate Mind: Structure and Contents. Vol. 1. Carruthers, Peter, Laurence, Stephen, and Stich, Stephen, eds. Pp. 53–68. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sripada, Chandra 2008 “Nativism and Moral Psychology: Three Models of the Innate Structure That Shapes the Contents of Moral Norms.” In Moral Psychology: The Evolution of Morality: Adaptations and Innateness. Vol. 1. Sinnott-Armstrong, W., ed. Pp. 319–343. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Sterelny, Kim 2010 “Moral Nativism: A Sceptical Response.” Mind & Language 25 (3): 279–297.Google Scholar
Sterelny, Kim 2012 The Evolved Apprentice: How Evolution Made Humans Unique. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Suhler, Christopher L., and Churchland, Patricia 2011 “Can Innate, Modular ‘Foundations’ Explain Morality? Challenges for Haidt’s Moral Foundations Theory.” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 23 (9): 2103–2116.Google Scholar
de Waal, Frans 1996 Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wheatley, Thalia, and Haidt, Jonathan 2005 “Hypnotic Disgust Makes Moral Judgments More Severe.” Psychological Science 16 (10): 780–784.Google Scholar
Whewell, William 2012 The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences. Vol. 2. Seattle: Amazon Digital Services.Google Scholar