Abstract
Can moral norms be unified under one superordinate content, such as harm? Following the discovery that children at an early age distinguish between moral and conventional norms, this question has been the focus of a recent interdisciplinary debate. Influential critics of the moral-conventional distinction have argued that the moral domain is pluri-dimensional and perhaps not even formally unified. Taking the five foundations theory proposed by Haidt and collaborators as guiding thread, I criticize two influential experiments against the unifying role of harm and point to new evidence from psychopathology and cognitive psychology supporting the hypothesis that harming innocent people is a core concern of norms identified as moral independently of cultural settings.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Glenn, A. L., Iyer, R., Graham, J., Koleva, S., & Haidt, J. (2009). Are all types of morality compromised in psychopathy? Journal of Personality Disorders, 23, 384–398.
Graham, J., Haidt, J., & Nosek, B. A. (2009). Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 1029–1046.
Gray, K., Young, L., & Waytz, A. (2012). Mind perception is the essence of morality. Psychological Inquiry, 23, 101–124.
Haidt, J., Koller, S., & Dias, M. (1993). Affect, culture, and morality, or is it wrong to eat your dog? Journal of Personality Social Psychology, 65, 613–628.
Haidt, J., & Joseph, C. (2008). The moral mind: How five sets of innate intuitions guide the development of many culture-specific virtues, and perhaps even modules. In P. Carruthers et al. (Eds.), The innate mind (pp. 367–444). New York: Oxford University Press.
Kelly, D., Stich, S., Haley, K., Eng, S., & Fessler, D. (2007). Harm, affect, and the moral/ conventional distinction. Mind & Language, 22(2), 117–131.
Knobe, J., & Nichols, S. (2008). Experimental philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to authority. New York: Harper & Row.
Nichols S (2004) Sentimental rules: On the natural foundations of moral judgment. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Nucci, L. (2001). Education in the moral domain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Royzman, E. B., Leeman, R. F., & Baron, J. (2009). Unsentimental ethics: Towards a content-specific account of the moral-conventional distinction. Cognition, 112(1), 159–174.
Shweder, R. A., Mahapatra, M., & Miller, J. (1987). Culture and moral development. In J. Kagan & S. Lamb (Eds.), The emergence of morality in young children (pp. 1–83). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Sinnott-Armstrong, W., & Wheatley, T. (2011). Moral judgments are not unified: Why moral psychology needs a taxonomic approach. Manuscript under review.
Sperber, D. (2005). Modularity and relevance: How can a massively modular mind be flexible and context-sensitive? In P. Carruthers et al. (Eds.), The innate mind: Structure and contents (pp.53–68). New York: Oxford University Press.
Sripada, C. H., & Stich, S. (2006). A Framework for the psychology of norms. In P. Carruthers et al. (Eds.), The innate mind: Culture and cognition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Stich, S., Fessler, D., & Kelly, D. (2009). On the morality of harm: A response to Sousa, Holbrook and Piazza. Cognition, 113, 93–97.
Turiel, E. (1983). The development of social knowledge: Morality and convention. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Turiel, E., Killen, M., & Helwig, C. (1987). Morality: Its structure, functions, and vagaries. In J. Kagan & S. Lamb (Eds.), The emergence of morality in young children (pp. 155–244). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Waytz, A., Gray, K., Epley, N., & Wegner, D. (2010). Causes and consequences of mind perception. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14, 383–388.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Rosas, A. (2013). Harm, Reciprocity and the Moral Domain. In: Karakostas, V., Dieks, D. (eds) EPSA11 Perspectives and Foundational Problems in Philosophy of Science. The European Philosophy of Science Association Proceedings, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01306-0_40
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01306-0_40
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-01305-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-01306-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)