Morality on the Mind

January 22, 2024 Morality on the Mind Prescriptive (Normative) vs Descriptive - What should be - Value judgment - Better or Worse - Ideal World - Evaluative - Cannot be proven or disproven by empirical evidence or observations of the world - What is Facts True or false Informational Verifiable May be proven or disproven by empirical evidence or observations in the world Moral Psychology Approaches - Moral development - Moral foundations - Ethical ideology - Character traits Moral Development Stages - Preconventional level - Stage 1: avoiding punishment - Stage 2: aiming at a reward - Conventional Level (Most people stay at this level) - Stage 3: Good boy & Good girl attitude - Stage 4: loyalty to law and order - Post Conventional level - Stage 5: justice and the spirit of the law - Stage 6: universal principles of ethics - Justice driven Main Predictor: Education;not Did the Heinz Dilemma work? Problems: - Dilemma is artificial (i.e, lacks ecological validity) - The sample is biased (all-male sample) - Dilemma is hypothetical (i.e, not real: validity issue) Gilligan’s Stages of the Ethic of care Stage Goal Preconventional Goal is individual survival Transition is from selfishness to responsibility of others Conventional Self sacrifice is goodness Transition is from goodness to truth that she is a person too Post Conventional Social Intuitionist Model - Intuition to judgment to reasoning Moral foundations theory Moral Foundations: - Care - Fairness - Loyalty - Authority - Sanctity - Liberty - Opposite: - Harm - Cheating - Betrayal - Subversion - Degradation - Oppression New Additions: - Honor - Ownership - Proportionality What does this mean? - It doesn't mean we like some types of morality and ignore others all together. You just don't pick fairness over loyalty. Moral virtues - - Individualizing - Care - Fairness - Liberty Binding - Loyalty - Authority - Sanctity What does all this mean - It's a way to help us understand intuitive differences in how we interpret the moral landscape - It's a way to see how political, ethical, and religious communities are divided by moral tastes/values: - Same sex marriage - Abortion - Gun control - Police brutality - Religious freedom - Healthcare - It's a way to move forward with productive dialogue Idealism: pursuit of humanitarian goals Relativism: no absolute moral rules QUIZ WED 1/24: covers NYTimes 1/24 Ethical Ideologies Moral foundations Moral development theories