Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T23:17:32.044Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Thick Concepts and the Moral Brain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2011

Gabriel Abend
Gabriel Abend*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, New York University, New York [abend@nyu.edu].
Get access

Abstract

Drawing on Williams’ distinction between thin and thick ethical concepts, I argue that current moral neuroscience and psychology unwarrantedly restrict their researches to thin morality only. Experiments typically investigate subjects’ judgments about rightness, appropriateness, or permissibility, that is, thin concepts. The nature and workings of thick concepts – e.g., dignity, integrity, humanness, cruelty, pettiness, exploitation, or fanaticism – have not been empirically investigated; hence, they are absent from recent theories about morality. This may seem like a minor oversight, which some additional research can redress. I argue that the fix is not that simple: thick concepts challenge one of the theoretical backbones of much moral psychology and neuroscience; they challenge the conception of a hardwired and universal moral capacity in a way that thin concepts do not. In the conclusion I argue that the burgeoning science of morality should include both thin and thick, and that it should include the contributions of psychologists and neuroscientists as well as those of anthropologists, historians, and sociologists.

Résumé

Reprenant la distinction de Williams entre concepts éthiques profonds et superficiels, l'auteur affirme que les neurosciences et la psychologie actuelle n'atteignent que la moralité superficielle. De fait les expériences traitent de jugements des sujets sur le juste, l'opportun et le permis, tous concepts superficiels. La nature et le façonnage des concepts profonds : dignité, intégrité, humanité, cruauté, mesquinerie, exploitation, fanatisme sont complètements absents des théories récentes de la moralité. Ce n'est pas un oubli mineur aisément réparable car les concepts profonds mettent à mal, bien plus que ne peuvent le faire les concepts superficiels, un pilier de la recherche expérimentale actuelle à savoir la croyance en une capacité morale câblée de façon universelle. Il est temps de faire appel aux psychologues et auxneuroscientifiques, autant qu'aux anthropologues, historiens et sociologues.

Zusammenfassung

Ausgehend von Williams Unterscheidung zwischen tiefgründigen und oberflächlichen ethischen Konzepten, behauptet der Autor, dass die Neurowissenschaften und die heutige Psychologie nur eine oberflächliche Moralität erreichen. In der Tat, die Erfahrungen handeln von Urteilen über das Richtige, das Opportune und das Erlaubte, alles oberflächliche Konzepte. Eigenart und Ausformung von tiefgründigen Konzepten (Würde, Unbestechlichkeit, Menschlichkeit, Gewalt, Neid, Ausnutzung, Fanatismus) fehlen gänzlich in aktuellen Moraltheorien. Wer dies übersieht, vergisst, dass die tiefgründigen Konzepte, weitaus mehr als die oberflächlichen, einen Grundpfeiler der heutigen experimentellen Forschung, nämlich den Glauben an eine universelle Moralfähigkeit, erschüttern. Beide Konzepte, profunde wie oberflächliche, müssen berücksichtigt und Beiträge von Psychologen, Neurowissenschaftlern sowie Anthropologen, Historikern und Soziologen hinzugezogen werden.

Keywords

Thick ethical conceptsMoral psychologyNeuroscienceSociology of moralityConcepts éthiques profondsPsychologie moraleNeuroscienceSociologie de la morale.Tiefgründige ethische KonzeptePsychologie moralischeNeuroscienceSoziologie der Moral.
Type
Research Articles
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , April 2011 , pp. 143 - 172
Copyright
Copyright © A.E.S. 2011

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

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abarbanell, Linda and Hauser, Marc, 2010. “Mayan Morality: An Exploration of Permissible Harms”, Cognition, 115, pp. 207-224.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Abbott, Andrew, 2007. “Mechanisms and Relations” Sociologica, 2/2007.Google Scholar
Abend, Gabriel, 2008. “Two Main Problems in the Sociology of Morality”, Theory and Society, 37 (2), pp. 87-125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abend, Gabriel, 2010. “What’s New and What’s Old about the New Sociology of Morality” in Hitlin, Steven and Vaisey, Stephen, eds., Handbook of the Sociology of Morality (New York, Springer, pp. 561-584).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambady, Nalini and Bharucha, Jamshed, 2009. “Culture and the Brain.” Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18 (6), pp. 342-345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anscombe, G.E.M. 1958. “Modern Moral Philosophy”, Philosophy, 33 (124), pp. 1-19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Antsey, Michael L., et al. 2009. “Serotonin Mediates Behavioral Gregarization Underlying Swarm Formation in Desert Locusts”, Science 323, pp. 627-630.Google Scholar
Arnett, Jeffrey, 2008. “The Neglected 95%: Why American Psychology Needs to Become Less American” American Psychologist, 63 (7), pp. 602-614.Google Scholar
Ayer, Alfred J., [1936] 1952. Language, Truth, and Logic (New York, Dover).Google Scholar
Barrett, Lisa F., 2006. “Are Emotions Natural Kinds?”, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, pp. 28-58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barrett, Lisa F., Lindquist, Kristen A. and Gendron, Maria, 2007. “Language as a Context for Emotion Perception”, Trends in Cognitive Science, 11, pp. 327-332.Google Scholar
Bartels, Daniel M., 2008. “Principled Moral Sentiment and the Flexibility of Moral Judgment and Decision Making”, Cognition, 108, pp. 381-417.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bateman-Novaes, Simone, Ogien, Ruwen and Pharo, Patrick, eds., 2000. Raison pratique et sociologie de l’éthique. Autour des travaux de Paul Ladrière (Paris, CNRS Éditions).Google Scholar
Bayet, Albert, 1905. La Morale scientifique (Paris, Félix Alcan).Google Scholar
Bayet, Albert, 1925. La Science des faits moraux (Paris, Félix Alcan).Google Scholar
Beckert, Jens, 2005. The Moral Embeddedness of Markets, MPIfG Discussion Paper 05/6. (Köln, Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beckert, Jens, 2006. “.The Ambivalent Role of Morality on Markets”, in Stehr, Nico, Henning, Christoph and Weiler, Bernd, eds., The Moralization of the Markets (New Brunswick, Transaction Books, pp. 109-128).Google Scholar
Belot, Gustave. [1907] 1921. Études de morale positive. Two volumes (Paris, Félix Alcan).Google Scholar
Bennett, Max R., and Hacker, Peter M.S., 2003. Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience (Malden, Blackwell).Google Scholar
Blackburn, Simon, 1984. Spreading the Word: Groundings in the Philosophy of Language (Oxford/New York, Oxford University Press/Clarendon Press).Google Scholar
Blackburn, Simon, 1992. “Through Thick and Thin”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary 66, pp. 285-299.Google Scholar
Blumer, Herbert, 1969. Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method (Berkeley, University of California Press).Google Scholar
Borg, Jana Schaich, et al. , 2006. “Consequences, Action, and Intention as Factors in Moral Judgments: An fMRI Investigation”, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 18 (5), pp. 803-817.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouglé, Célestin Charles Alfred, 1922. Leçons de sociologie sur l’évolution des valeurs (Paris, Armand Colin).Google Scholar
Burge, Tyler, 1979. “Individualism and the Mental”, Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 4, pp. 73-121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burge, Tyler, 1986. “Individualism and Psychology”, Philosophical Review, 45, pp. 3-45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cacioppo, John T. et al. , 2003. “Just Because You’re Imaging the Brain Doesn’t Mean You Can Stop Using Your Head: A Primer and Set of First Principles”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85 (4), pp. 650-661.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carnap, Rudolf, 1935. Philosophy and Logical Syntax (London, K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co).Google Scholar
Chapman, H.A. et al. , 2009. “In Bad Taste: Evidence for the Oral Origins of Moral Disgust”, Science, 323 (5918), pp. 1222-1226.Google Scholar
Chisholm, Roderick, 1994. “Ontologically Dependent Entities”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 54 (3), pp. 499-450.Google Scholar
Choudhury, Suparna, Nagel, Saskia Kathi and Slaby, Jan, 2009. “Critical Neuroscience: Linking Neuroscience and Society through Critical Practice”, BioSocieties, 4, pp. 61-77.Google Scholar
Ciaramelli, Elisa et al. , 2007. “Selective Deficit in Personal Moral Judgment Following Damage to Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex”, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2, pp. 84-92.Google Scholar
Cobbe, Frances, 1872. Darwinism in Morals, and Other Essays (London/Edinburgh, Williams and Norgate).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Jonathan D. 2005. “The Vulcanization of the Human Brain: A Neural Perspective on Interactions Between Cognition and Emotion”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19 (4), pp. 3-24.Google Scholar
Coulter, Jeff, 2008. “Twenty-Five Theses against Cognitivism”, Theory, Culture & Society, 25, pp. 19-32.Google Scholar
Crockett, Molly J. et al. , 2010. “Serotonin Selectively Influences Moral Judgment and Behavior through Effects on Harm Aversion”, PNAS, 107, pp. 17433-17438.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cushman, Fiery, Young, Liane and Hauser, Marc, 2006. “The Role of Reasoning and Intuition in Moral Judgments: Testing Three Principles of Harm”, Psychological Science, 17 (12), pp. 1082-1089.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Ridder, Dirk et al. , 2009. “Moral Dysfunction: Theoretical Model and Potential Neurosurgical Treatments” in Verplaetse, Jan, et al. , eds., The Moral Brain: Essays on the Evolutionary and Neuroscientific Aspects of Morality (Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 155-183).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewey, John, 1898. “Evolution and Ethics”, The Monist, 8 (3), pp. 321-341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doris, John and Stich, Stephen, 2005. “As a Matter of Fact Empirical Perspectives on Ethics”, in Jackson, Frank and Smith, Michael, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy, pp. 114-152.Google Scholar
Dupoux, Emmanuel and Jacob, Pierre, 2007. “Universal Moral Grammar: A Critical Appraisal”, Trends in Cognitive Science, 11, pp. 373-378.Google Scholar
Durkheim, Émile, [1893] 1984. The Division of Labor in Society, translated by Halls, W. D., and with an introduction by Coser, Lewis A. (New York, Free Press).Google Scholar
Durkheim, Émile, [1895] 1968. Les Règles de la méthode sociologique, (Paris, PUF).Google Scholar
Durkheim, Émile, [1920] 1979. “Introduction to Ethics” in Pickering, W.S.F., ed., Durkheim: Essays on Morals and Education, translated by Sutcliffe, H. L. (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp. 79-96).Google Scholar
Durkheim, Émile, 1975. Textes 1. Éléments d’une théorie sociale (Paris, Minuit).Google Scholar
Dwyer, Susan, Huebner, Bryce and Hauser, Marc D., 2009. “The Linguistic Analogy: Motivations, Results, and Speculations”, Topics in Cognitive Science, 2009, pp. 1-25.Google Scholar
Eklund, Matti, 2011. “What are Thick Concepts?”, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 41 (1), pp. 25-50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ekman, Paul and Rosenberg, Erika L., eds., 2005. What the Face Reveals: Basic and Applied Studies of Spontaneous Expression Using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS). (New York, Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elstein, Daniel and Hurka, Thomas, 2009. “From Thick to Thin: Two Moral Reduction Plans”, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 39 (4), pp. 515-536.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fauconnet, Paul, 1920. La Responsabilité ; étude de sociologie (Paris, Félix Alcan).Google Scholar
Fine, Cordelia, 2010. “From Scanner to Sound Bite”, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19, pp. 280-283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fine, Kit, 1995. “Ontological Dependence”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 95, pp. 269-290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flanagan, Owen, 1991. Varieties of Moral Personality: Ethics and Psychological Realism (Cambridge, Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
Foot, Philippa, 1958. “Moral Arguments”, Mind, 67, pp. 502-513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foot, Philippa, 1958-1959. “Moral Beliefs”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 59, pp. 83-104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibbard, Allan, 1990. Wise Choices, Apt Feelings: A Theory of Normative Judgment (Cambridge, Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
Gibbard, Allan, 1992. “Thick Concepts and Warrant for Feelings”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, supplementary 66, pp. 267-283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, Margaret, 1992. On Social Facts (Princeton, Princeton University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glimcher, Paul W. and Rustichini, Aldo, 2004. “Neuroeconomics: The Consilience of Brain and Decision”, Science, 306, pp. 447-452.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodenough, Oliver R. and Tucker, Micaela, 2010. “Law and Cognitive Neuroscience”, Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 6, pp. 61-92.Google Scholar
Greene, Joshua D., 2008. “The Secret Joke of Kant’s Soul” in Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter, ed., Moral Psychology Vol. 3 (Cambridge, MIT, pp. 35-79).Google Scholar
Greene, Joshua D. et al. , 2001. “An fMRI Investigation of Emotional Engagement in Moral Judgment”, Science, 293, pp. 2105-2108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greene, Joshua D., 2008. “Cognitive Load Selectively Interferes with Utilitarian Moral Judgment”, Cognition, 107 (3), pp. 1144-1154.Google Scholar
Greene, Joshua D., 2009. “Pushing Moral Buttons: The Interaction between Personal Force and Intention in Moral Judgment”, Cognition, 111 (3), pp. 364-371.Google Scholar
Gurvitch, Georges, 1937. Morale théorique et science des mœurs (Paris, PUF).Google Scholar
Gurvitch, Georges, 1960. “Sociologie de la Vie Morale” in Gurvitch, Georges, ed., Traité de sociologie, tome second (Paris, PUF, pp. 137-172).Google Scholar
Haidt, Jonathan, 2001. “The Emotional Dog and its Rational Tail: A Social Intuitionist Approach to Moral Judgment”, Psychological Review, 108, pp. 814-834.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haidt, Jonathan, Koller, Silvia H. and Dias, Maria G., 1993. “Affect, Culture, and Morality, Or Is It Wrong to Eat Your Dog?”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, pp. 613-628.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare, Richard M., 1952. The Language of Morals (Oxford, Clarendon).Google Scholar
Hare, Richard M., 1997. Sorting out Ethics (Oxford/New York, Clarendon/Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Hauser, Marc, 2006. Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong (New York, Ecco/HarperCollins).Google Scholar
Hauser, Marc et al. , 2007. “A Dissociation between Moral Judgments and Justifications.” Mind and Language, 22 (1), pp. 1-21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hauser, Marc, Liane, Young and Chusman, Fiery, 2008. “Reviving Rawls’s Linguistic Analogy: Operative Principles and the Causal Structure of Moral Actions” in Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter, Moral Psychology, Vol. 2 (Cambridge, MIT, pp. 107-143).Google Scholar
Healy, Kieran, 2006. Last Best Gifts: Altruism and the Market for Human Blood and Organs (Chicago, University of Chicago Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heekeren, Hauke R., et al. , 2003. “An fMRI Study of Simple Ethical Decision-Making”, NeuroReport, 14 (9), pp. 1215-1219.Google Scholar
Heekeren, Hauke R. et al. , 2005. “Influence of Bodily Harm on Neural Correlates of Semantic and Moral Decision-Making”, Neuroimage, 24 (3), pp. 887-897.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heimer, Carol A. and Staffen, Lisa R., 1998. For the Sake of the Children: The Social Organization of Responsibility in the Hospital and the Home (Chicago, University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
Heine, Steven J. and Norenzayan, Ara, 2006. “Toward a Psychological Science for a Cultural Species”, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, pp. 251-269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henrich, Joseph et al. , eds., 2004. Foundations of Human Sociality: Economic Experiments and Ethnographic Evidence from Fifteen Small-Scale Societies (Oxford/New York, Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henrich, Joseph, Heine, Steven J. and Norenzayan, Ara, 2010. “The Weirdest People in the World?”, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, p. 61-135.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henry, P.J., 2008. “College Sophomores in the Laboratory Redux: Influences of a Narrow Data Base on Social Psychology’s View of the Nature of Prejudice”, Psychological Inquiry, 19 (2), pp. 49-71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hitlin, Steven and Vaisey, Stephen, eds., 2010. Handbook of the Sociology of Morality (New York, Springer).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobhouse, Leonard T., 1906. Morals in Evolution, 2 volumes (New York, Henry Holt & co).Google Scholar
Hursthouse, Rosalind, 1999. On Virtue Ethics (Oxford/New York, Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Hursthouse, Rosalind, 2009. “Virtue Ethics” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2009 Edition), Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2009/entries/ethics-virtue/>.Google Scholar
Huxley, Thomas H., 1893. Evolution and Ethics (London/New York, Macmillan & Co).Google Scholar
Isambert, François-André, Ladrière, Paul and Terrenoire, Jean-Paul, 1978. “Pour une sociologie de l’éthique”, Revue française de Sociologie, 19 (3), pp. 323-339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joyce, Kelly A., 2008. Magnetic Appeal: MRI and the Myth of Transparency (Ithaca, Cornell University Press).Google Scholar
Joyce, Richard, 2008. “What Neuroscience Can (and Cannot) Contribute to Metaethics” in Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter, ed., Moral Psychology Vol. 3, (Cambridge, MIT, pp. 371-394).Google Scholar
Kant, Emmanuel, [1785] 1998. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, translated and edited by Gregor, Mary, with an introduction by Korsgaard, Christine M. (Cambridge/ New York, Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, Emmanuel, [1797] 1991. The Metaphysics of Morals, introduction, translation and notes by Gregor, Mary (Cambridge/New York, Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, Emmanuel, [1798] 2006. Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, translated and edited by Louden, Robert B., with an introduction by Kuehn, Manfred (Cambridge/New York, Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Keltner, Dacher and Buswell, Brenda N.. 1996. “Evidence for the Distinctness of Embarrassment, Shame, and Guilt: A Study of Recalled Antecedents and Facial Expressions of Emotion.” Cognition and Emotion 10, pp. 155-171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keltner, Dacher, Ekman, Paul, Gonzaga, Gian C. and Beer, Jennifer. 2003. “Facial Expression of Emotion” in Davidson, Richard, Scherer, Klaus R. and Goldsmith, Hill H., eds., Handbook of Affective Science (London, Oxford University Press, pp. 415-432).Google Scholar
Kitcher, Philip, 2006. “Ethics and Evolution: How to Get Here from There”, in Ober, Josiah and Macedo, Stephen, eds., Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved (Princeton, Princeton University Press, pp. 120-139).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knobe, Joshua and Nichols, Shaun, eds., 2008. Experimental Philosophy (New York, Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Korsgaard, Christine, 1996. The Sources of Normativity (Cambridge/New York, Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ladrière, Paul, 2001. Pour une sociologie de l’éthique (Paris, PUF).Google Scholar
Lavazza, Andrea and De Caro, Mario, 2010. “Not So Fast: On Some Bold Neuroscientific Claims Concerning Human Agency”, Neuroethics, 3, pp. 23-41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leroux, Emmanuel, 1930. “Ethical Thought in France since the War”, International Journal of Ethics, 40 (2), pp. 145-178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Letourneau, Charles, 1887. L’Évolution de la morale (Paris, A. Delahaye et É. Lecrosnier).Google Scholar
Lévy-Bruhl, Lucien, 1903. La morale et la science des mœurs (Paris, Félix Alcan).Google Scholar
Lindquist, Kristen et al. 2006. “Language and the Perception of Emotion.” Emotion 6, pp. 125-138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lindquist, Kristen and Barrett, Lisa F., 2008. “Constructing Emotion: The Experience of Fear as a Conceptual Act”, Psychological Science, 19, pp. 898-903.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Logothetis, Nikos K., 2008. “What We Can Do and What We Cannot Do with fMRI”, Nature, 453, pp. 869-878.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair C., 1981. After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Press).Google Scholar
Martineau, Harriet, 1838. How to Observe: Morals and Manners (London, C. Knight and Co).Google Scholar
May, Larry, Friedman, Marilyn and Clark, Andy, eds., 1996. Mind and Morals: Essays on Cognitive Science and Ethics (Cambridge, MIT Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDowell, John, [1981] 1998. “Non-Cognitivism and Rule-Following” in McDowell, John, ed., Mind, Value, and Reality (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, pp. 198-218).Google Scholar
Mead, George H., 1934. Mind, Self and Society: From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist, edited with introduction by Morris, Charles W. (Chicago, University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
Mendez, Mario F., 2009. “The Neurobiology of Moral Behavior: Review and Neuropsychiatric Implications”, CNS Spectrums, 14, pp. 608-620.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mikhail, John, 2007. “Universal Moral Grammar: Theory, Evidence, and the Future”, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11 (4), pp. 143-152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, Greg, 2008. “Growing Pains for fMRI”, Science, 320, pp. 1412-1414.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moll, Jorge, Oliveira-Souza, Ricardo de and Eslinger, Paul J., 2003. “Morals and the Human Brain: A Working Model”, NeuroReport, 14 (3), pp. 299-305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murdoch, Iris, 1956. “Symposium: Vision and Choice in Morality”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, supplementary volume 30, pp. 32-58.Google Scholar
Murdoch, Iris, 1970. The Sovereignty of Good (London, Routledge & K. Paul).Google Scholar
Nado, Jennifer, Kelly, Daniel and Stich, Stephen, 2009. “Moral Judgment” in Symons, John and Calvo, Paco, eds., The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Psychology, (New York, Routledge, pp. 621-633).Google Scholar
Nesse, Randolph, 2009. “How Can Evolution and Neuroscience Help Us Understand Moral Capacities?” in Verplaetse, Jan, eds., The Moral Brain: Essays on the Evolutionary and Neuroscientific Aspects of Morality (Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 201-209).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Panksepp, Jaak, 2000. “Emotions as Natural Kinds within the Mammalian Brain” in Lewis, Michael and Haviland-Jones, Jeannette M., eds., Handbook of Emotions (New York, Guilford, pp. 87-107).Google Scholar
Pharo, Patrick, 2004. Morale et sociologie: le sens et les valeurs entre nature et culture (Paris, Gallimard).Google Scholar
Pincoffs, Edmund L., 1971. “Quandary Ethics”, Mind, 80, pp. 552-571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pincoffs, Edmund L., 1986. Quandaries and Virtues: Against Reductivism in Ethics (Lawrence, University Press of Kansas).Google Scholar
Prinz, Jesse, 2007. The Emotional Construction of Morals (Oxford/New York, Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Putnam, Hilary, 1990. “Objectivity and the Science/Ethics Distinction” in Putnam, Hilary, Realism with a Human Face (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, pp. 163-178).Google Scholar
Putnam, Hilary, 1992. “Bernard Williams and the Absolute Conception of the World” in Putnam, Hilary, Renewing Philosophy (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, pp. 80-107).Google Scholar
Putnam, Hilary, 2002. The Collapse of the Fact/Value Dichotomy and Other Essays (Cambridge, Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
Putnam, Hilary, 2004. Ethics without Ontology (Cambridge, Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
Quine, Willard Van Orman, 1969. Ontological Relativity and Other Essays (New York, Columbia University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Racine, Eric, Bar-Ilan, Ofek and Illes, Judy, 2005. “fMRI in the Public Eye”, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 6, pp. 159-164.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Railton, Peter, 2000. “Darwinian Building Blocks”, in Katz, Leonard D., ed., Evolutionary Origins of Morality: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives (Thorverton/BowlingGreen, Imprint Academic, pp. 55-60).Google Scholar
Rose, Steven, 2005. The Future of the Brain: The Promise and Perils of Tomorrow’s Neuroscience (Oxford/New York, Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Ross, Lee and Nisbett, Richard, 1991. The Person and the Situation: Perspectives of Social Psychology (New York, McGraw-Hill).Google Scholar
Salvador, Rommel, and Folger, Robert G.. 2009. “Business Ethics and the Brain.” Business Ethics Quarterly 19 (1):1-31.Google Scholar
Schnall, Simone, Haidt, Jonathan, Clore, Gerald L. and Jordan, Alexander H.. 2008. “Disgust as Embodied Moral Judgment”, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, pp. 1096-1109.Google Scholar
Schurman, Jacob Gould, 1887. The Ethical Import of Darwinism (New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scull, Andrew T., 1993. The Most Solitary of Afflictions: Madness and Society in Britain, 1700-1900 (New Haven, Yale University Press).Google Scholar
Scull, Andrew T., 2005. Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine (New Haven, Yale University Press).Google Scholar
Sears, David O., 1986. “College Sophomores in the Laboratory: Influences of a Narrow Database on Social Psychology’s View of Human Nature”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, pp. 515-530.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sidgwick, Henry, 1876. “The Theory of Evolution in its Application to Practice”, Mind, 1 (1), pp. 52-67.Google Scholar
Sidgwick, Henry, 1880. “Mr. Spencer’s Ethical System”, Mind, 5 (18), pp. 216-226.Google Scholar
Sidgwick, Henry, 1899. “The Relation of Ethics to Sociology”, International Journal of Ethics, 10 (1), pp. 1-21.Google Scholar
Simmel, Georg, [1892–1893] 1989-1991. Einleitung in die Moralwissenschaft: Eine Kritik der ethischen Grundbegriffe (Frankfurt/ Main, Suhrkamp).Google Scholar
Spencer, Herbert, 1879. The Data of Ethics (New York, D. Appleton and company).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stalnaker, Robert, 1999. Context and Content: Essays on Intentionality in Speech and Thought (Oxford/New York, Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephen, Leslie, 1882. The Science of Ethics (New York, G. P. Putnam’s sons).Google Scholar
Stevenson, Charles L., 1944. Ethics and Language (New Haven/ London, Yale University Press).Google Scholar
Strawson, Peter F., 1952. Introduction to Logical Theory (London/New York, Methuen/ Wiley).Google Scholar
Sutherland, Alexander, 1898. The Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct (London/New York, Longmans/Green).Google Scholar
Tancredi, Laurence, 2005. Hardwired Behavior: What Neuroscience Reveals about Morality (Cambridge/New York, Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles, 1959. “Ontology”, Philosophy, 34 (129), pp. 125-141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Charles, 1985. Philosophy and the Human Sciences (Cambridge/New York, Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Charles, 1989. Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (Cambridge, Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles, 2003. “Ethics and Ontology”, The Journal of Philosophy, 109 (6), pp. 305-320.Google Scholar
Thomson, Judith Jarvis, 1985. “The Trolley Problem”, The Yale Law Journal, 94 (6), pp. 1395-1415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tost, Heike and Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas, 2010. “I Fear for You: A Role for Serotonin in Moral Behavior”, PNAS, 107, pp. 17071-17072.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tufts, James Hayden, 1912. “Recent Discussions of Moral Evolution”, Harvard Theological Review, 5 (2), pp. 155-179.Google Scholar
Turner, Jonathan H. and Stets, Jan E., 2006. “Moral Emotions”, in Stets, Jan E. and Turner, Jonathan H., Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions (New York, Springer, pp. 544-566).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Väyrynen, Pekka, 2009. “Objectionable Thick Concepts in Denials”, Philosophical Perspectives, 23, pp. 439-469.Google Scholar
Verplaetse, Jan, Braeckman, Johan and De Schrijver, Jelle, 2009. “Introduction” in Verplaetse, Jan, De Schrijver, Jelle, Vanneste, Sven and Braeckman, Johan, eds., The Moral Brain: Essays on the Evolutionary and Neuroscientific Aspects of Morality (Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 1-43).Google Scholar
Waal, Frans de, 1996. Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals (Cambridge, Harvard University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waal, Frans de, 2006. “The Tower of Morality” in de Waal, Frans, ed., Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved (Princeton, Princeton University Press, pp. 161-181).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waldmann, Michael R. and Dieterich, Jörn, 2007. “Throwing a Bomb on a Person Versus Throwing a Person on a Bomb: Intervention Myopia in Moral Intuitions”, Psychological Science, 18 (3), pp. 247-253.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weisberg, Deena S. et al. , 2008. “The Seductive Allure of Neuroscience Explanations”, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20 (3), pp. 470-477.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Westermarck, Edward, 1906-1908. The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas. (London/New York, Macmillan).Google Scholar
Wheatley, Thalia and Haidt, Jonathan, 2005. “Hypnotically Induced Disgust Makes Moral Judgments More Severe”, Psychological Science, 16, pp. 780-784.Google Scholar
Williams, Bernard A.O. 1981. Moral Luck: Philosophical Papers, 1973-1980 (Cambridge/ New York, Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Williams, Bernard A.O., 1985. Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (Cambridge, Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
Wilson, Robert A., 1995. Cartesian Psychology and Physical Minds: Individualism and the Sciences of the Mind (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Robert A., 2004. Boundaries of the Mind: The Individual in the Fragile Sciences (Cambridge/New York, Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Young, Liane and Saxe, Rebecca, 2008. “The Neural Basis of Belief Encoding and Integration in Moral Judgment”, NeuroImage, 40, pp. 1912-1920.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zahn, Roland et al. , 2009. “The Neural Basis of Human Social Values: Evidence from Functional MRI”, Cerebral Cortex, 19 (2), pp. 276-283.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zak, Paul J., Kurzban, Robert and Matzner, William T., 2004. “The Neurobiology of Trust.”Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1032, pp. 224-227.Google Scholar
Zeki, Semir and Goodenough, Oliver, eds., 2006. Law and the Brain (Oxford/New York, Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar