Emotions, Experiments and the Moral Brain. The Failure of Moral Cognition Arguments Against Moral Sentimentalism

Moral cognition research has in part been taken to be a problem for moral sentimentalists, who claim that emotions are sensitive to moral information. In particular, Joshua Greene can be understood to provide an argument against moral sentimentalism on the basis of neuropsychological evidence. In hi...

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Main Author: Lasse T. Bergmann
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Mimesis Edizioni, Milano 2019-04-01
Series:Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.rifp.it/ojs/index.php/rifp/article/view/rifp.2019.0002/903
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author Lasse T. Bergmann
author_facet Lasse T. Bergmann
author_sort Lasse T. Bergmann
collection DOAJ
description Moral cognition research has in part been taken to be a problem for moral sentimentalists, who claim that emotions are sensitive to moral information. In particular, Joshua Greene can be understood to provide an argument against moral sentimentalism on the basis of neuropsychological evidence. In his argument he claims that emotions are an unreliable source of moral insight. However, the argument boils down to circular claims: (1) Rationalistic factors are assumed to be the only morally relevant factors; (2) Emotions are not sensitive to these factors; (3) Thus, Moral Sentimentalism is false, because only rationalistic factors are justified. While this circularity makes so-called sourcing-arguments fallacious if applied against moral sentimentalism, moral cognition research has much to contribute. Indeed, moral cognition research will be instrumental for clarifying the sentimentalist position, shedding light on the mental mechanics underlying emotional moral processing. After all, evidence from moral cognition points to substantial involvement of affective processes in human moral cognizing and their embodied nature; thus, challenging long held beliefs about morality.
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spelling doaj.art-606efa4247174a69bb812c0496f090e72022-12-22T03:08:49ZdeuMimesis Edizioni, MilanoRivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia2039-46672239-26292019-04-01101163210.4453/rifp.2019.0002Emotions, Experiments and the Moral Brain. The Failure of Moral Cognition Arguments Against Moral SentimentalismLasse T. BergmannMoral cognition research has in part been taken to be a problem for moral sentimentalists, who claim that emotions are sensitive to moral information. In particular, Joshua Greene can be understood to provide an argument against moral sentimentalism on the basis of neuropsychological evidence. In his argument he claims that emotions are an unreliable source of moral insight. However, the argument boils down to circular claims: (1) Rationalistic factors are assumed to be the only morally relevant factors; (2) Emotions are not sensitive to these factors; (3) Thus, Moral Sentimentalism is false, because only rationalistic factors are justified. While this circularity makes so-called sourcing-arguments fallacious if applied against moral sentimentalism, moral cognition research has much to contribute. Indeed, moral cognition research will be instrumental for clarifying the sentimentalist position, shedding light on the mental mechanics underlying emotional moral processing. After all, evidence from moral cognition points to substantial involvement of affective processes in human moral cognizing and their embodied nature; thus, challenging long held beliefs about morality.https://www.rifp.it/ojs/index.php/rifp/article/view/rifp.2019.0002/903Moral CognitionMoral SentimentalismEmotionsEmbodied CognitionMoral Brain
spellingShingle Lasse T. Bergmann
Emotions, Experiments and the Moral Brain. The Failure of Moral Cognition Arguments Against Moral Sentimentalism
Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia
Moral Cognition
Moral Sentimentalism
Emotions
Embodied Cognition
Moral Brain
title Emotions, Experiments and the Moral Brain. The Failure of Moral Cognition Arguments Against Moral Sentimentalism
title_full Emotions, Experiments and the Moral Brain. The Failure of Moral Cognition Arguments Against Moral Sentimentalism
title_fullStr Emotions, Experiments and the Moral Brain. The Failure of Moral Cognition Arguments Against Moral Sentimentalism
title_full_unstemmed Emotions, Experiments and the Moral Brain. The Failure of Moral Cognition Arguments Against Moral Sentimentalism
title_short Emotions, Experiments and the Moral Brain. The Failure of Moral Cognition Arguments Against Moral Sentimentalism
title_sort emotions experiments and the moral brain the failure of moral cognition arguments against moral sentimentalism
topic Moral Cognition
Moral Sentimentalism
Emotions
Embodied Cognition
Moral Brain
url https://www.rifp.it/ojs/index.php/rifp/article/view/rifp.2019.0002/903
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