The Biology and Psychology of Moral Agency

by William Andrew Rottschaefer

• ISBN13: 9780521592659
• ISBN10: 0521592658
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-11-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This important book brings recent findings and theories in biology and psychology to bear on the fundamental question in ethics of what it means to behave morally. By presenting a complete model of moral agency based on contemporary evolutionary theory, developmental biology and psychology, and social cognitive theory, the book offers a unique perspective. It will be read with profit by a broad range of philosophers, as well as psychologists and biologists.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction	1	(8)
PART I. MORAL AGENCY AND SCIENTIFIC NATURALISM	9	(20)
1 Understanding moral agency: What is a scientific naturalistic view of moral agency?	9	(20)
1.1 Moral agency	9	(2)
1.2 The sciences and the theoretical problems of moral agency	11	(5)
1.3 A biologically and psychologically based model of moral agency	16	(5)
1.4 A scientific naturalistic perspective concerning the connections between biology and psychology and moral agency	21	(8)
PART II. THE BIOLOGICAL BASES OF MORAL AGENCY	29	(72)
2 Evolution and morality: Can evolution endow us with moral capacities?	29	(23)
2.1 Evolutionary theory	30	(3)
2.2 Sociobiology	33	(4)
2.3 Biological and ordinary altruism	37	(3)
2.4 What makes something a part of the moral realm?	40	(5)
2.5 The possibility of evolutionarily based moral capacities: A plausible phylogenetic story	45	(7)
3 Evolution and moral agency: Does evolution endow us with moral capacities?	52	(22)
3.1 E. O. Wilson: Biology in the service of morality	52	(2)
3.2 Moral dilemmas	54	(2)
3.3 Evolutionarily based moral capacities and the solution of the second moral dilemma	56	(5)
3.4 Assessing Wilson's proposal for evolutionarily based moral capacities	61	(13)
4 Developmentally based moral capacities: How does the moral sense develop?	74	(27)
4.1 What does an evolutionarily based capacity look like?	74	(9)
4.2 Moral development and the moral sense	83	(3)
4.3 Martin Hoffman's account of moral development	86	(1)
4.4 An assessment of Hoffman's hypothesis on the development of empathy	87	(7)
4.5 Empathy as a manifestation of the moral sense	94	(3)
4.6 The moral sense and moral agency	97	(4)
PART III. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF MORAL AGENCY	101	(86)
5 Behaviorally based moral capacities: How do we learn to behave morally?	101	(24)
5.1 Moral agency and the behaviorist connection	101	(4)
5.2 B. F. Skinner's science of behavior and values	105	(7)
5.3 Assessing Skinner's behavioral account of moral agency	112	(10)
5.4 Behavioral capacities and moral agency	122	(3)
6 The social cognitive bases of morality: How do we learn to act morally?	125	(29)
6.1 The cognitive turn in psychology	125	(2)
6.2 Cognitive developmental accounts of moral agency	127	(3)
6.3 Cognitive social learning theories of moral agency	130	(5)
6.4 An investigative dilemma	135	(3)
6.5 Resolving the investigative dilemma	138	(9)
6.6 The self-system and moral agency	147	(7)
7 The neurophysiological bases of moral capacities: Does neurophysiology have room for moral agents?	154	(33)
7.1 The reductionist program: Identity theory and eliminative materialism	156	(5)
7.2 The neurophysiological bases of moral agency: Reductionism and the functionalist response to reductionism	161	(3)
7.3 The blessings and curse of supervenience	164	(2)
7.4 Resolving the supervenience dilemma	166	(7)
7.5 The eliminativist option and the status of folk psychology	173	(6)
7.6 Moral agency and the reductionist predicament	179	(8)
PART IV. A SCIENTIFIC NATURALISTIC ACCOUNT OF MORAL AGENCY	187	(68)
8 The adequacy of moral beliefs, motivations, and actions: How can biological and psychological explanations serve as justifications?	187	(29)
8.1 From acquisition, action, and relevance to adequacy	187	(1)
8.2 A traditional account of the justification of moral agency	188	(7)
8.3 A scientific naturalistic account of the justification of moral agency	195	(4)
8.4 Empathic distress and justification	199	(2)
8.5 Social cognitive learning mechanisms and justification	201	(1)
8.6 The self-system and justification	202	(2)
8.7 Some general features of scientific naturalistic justifications of moral agency	204	(7)
8.8 A scientific naturalistic account of the justification of moral agency and the naturalistic fallacy	211	(5)
9 Moral ontology: What is the ontological status of moral values?	216	(39)
9.1 From epistemology to metaphysics	216	(1)
9.2 Moral realism and antirealism	217	(1)
9.3 Integrationist moral realism	218	(13)
9.4 An integrationist case for moral realism	231	(16)
9.5 Moral realism and the integrationist's scientific naturalistic account of moral agency	247	(8)
PART V. INTEGRATING A PERSONALISTIC AND NATURALISTIC VIEW OF MORAL AGENCY	255	(20)
10 The manifest and scientific images of morality: How can we integrate our ordinary and scientifically based views of moral agency?	255	(20)
10.1 The manifest and scientific images of morality	256	(4)
10.2 The reductionist predicament revisited	260	(3)
10.3 Can an integrationist account of moral agency really be meaningful to anyone?	263	(7)
10.4 Looking back and looking forward	270	(5)
References	275	(14)
Index	289