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Psychological Plausibility and Ethical Theories
- 1. What Makes Ethical Theories Psychologically Plausible? T.J. Kasperbauer, 11/26/13 Texas A&M University
- 2. “Make sure when constructing a moral theory or projecting a moral ideal that the character, decision processing, and behavior prescribed are possible, or are perceived to be possible, for creatures like us.” –Owen Flanagan (1991) Principle of Minimal Psychological Realism
- 3. 1) Cohesion: supported by scientific psychology 2) Achievability: achievable by human beings 3) Impact: impacts current human beings 4) Transition: transition plan for achievability 5) Congruence: theory’s goals are congruent with theory’s psychology Criteria of Psychological Plausibility
- 6. (Greene, Sommerville, Nystrom, Darley, & Cohen, 2001)
- 7. Character Traits Milgram’s (1974) obedience study Darley and Batson’s (1973) Princeton Seminary study Isen and Levin’s (1974) phone booth study Frail and Inefficacious Fragmentary and Narrow
- 11. Mentalizing Animals Pure phenomenal views Use animals’ capacity for phenomenal experiences to grant them great moral significance. Pure agential views Use animals’ agential abilities to grant them great moral significance. •Gary Steiner •Gary Francione •R. G. Frey •Donald Davidson
- 12. Mentalizing Animals Mixed views Gary Varner (2012) • Cognitive (agential) capacities matter because they enhance an animal’s phenomenal states. • Some animals possess greater moral significance because of the way cognitive capacities affect their phenomenal states (e.g., great apes, elephants, corvids, cetaceans).
- 14. (Gray, Gray, & Wegner, 2007)
- 15. (Jack and Robbins, 2012) Agency • Intelligent • Memory • Foraging ability Experience • Emotion • Pain and pleasure • Limb sensitivity
- 16. (Jack and Robbins, 2012) • Concern for lobster welfare • Guilt if lobsters died in your traps • Punishment for those who kill lobsters
- 17. (Sytsma and Machery, 2012) Scientists selecting a species of monkey to use in an experiment. • Inflict wounds without anesthesia • Observe the effects of different healing agents • Euthanize any survivors
- 18. (Sytsma and Machery, 2012) One monkey is different • Agency: more/less intelligent and inquisitive • Experience: feel more/less pleasure and pain Do you think it is morally wrong for them to use wooly monkeys for their experiment instead of monkeys from one of the other species?
- 23. Disgusted by Animals • Core disgust • Animal reminder (or mortality salience)
- 25. (Prokop, Fančovičová, & Fedor, 2010)
- 26. Core Disgust • Parasite transmission – “I allow my dog/cat to lick me.” – “I allow my dog/cat to sleep in my bed.” • Parasite avoidance – “I worm my dog/cat regularly.” – “I frequently get rid of my dog/cats feces.” Prokop and Fančovičová (2011)
- 28. Mortality Salience Death prompt + Human-animal similarity Increased dislike of animals (Beatson and Halloran, 2007)
- 30. Disgust Skeptics • Dan Kelly (2011): “widespread feelings of disgust are…simply irrelevant to the question of whether or not the norm itself is morally problematic or acceptable.” • Martha Nussbaum (2004) – Don’t enshrine disgust in laws and policies
- 31. Moral Ideals
- 32. Ought Implies Can “It cannot be the case that a person ought to perform an action if this person cannot perform this action.” -Bart Streumer (2007)
- 33. “Real Try” “‘trying to Φ’…requires that a person takes steps which are appropriate in the sense that they get her closer to Φ-ing: They must be steps in the right direction.” -Ulrike Heuer (2010)
- 34. Moral Ideals
- 35. Summary • Criteria of Psychological Plausibility 1. Cohesion 2. Achievability 3. Impact 4. Transition 5. Congruence • Implausibility in Animal Ethics 1. Pure agential views 2. Disgust-opposing views • Strategy for Improvement 1. Identify efficient steps for transition
Editor's Notes
- “every moral conception owes us at least a partial specification of the personality and motivational structure it expects of morally mature individuals” “PMPR requires only that the recommended ideals be possible under some conceivable social arrangement or other.” Inconsistent virtues Computational limitations on utilitarianism NO further implications
- Planned comparisons on these areas revealed that medial portions of Brodmann's Areas (BA) 9 and 10 (medial frontal gyrus), BA 31 (posterior cingulate gyrus), and BA 39 (angular gyrus, bilateral) were significantly more active in the moral-personal condition than in the moral-impersonal and the non-moral conditions.
- 2011. More than 130,000 participants.
- common agential capacities include the ability to use language, form intentions, plan, and make decisions. Exclude the importance of agential abilities, while pure agential views exclude the importance of phenomenal abilities.
- common agential capacities include the ability to use language, form intentions, plan, and make decisions. Exclude the importance of agential abilities, while pure agential views exclude the importance of phenomenal abilities.
- these monkeys either feel pain and pleasure more or less strongly than the others; second, they are either more or less intelligent and inquisitive than the others. Participants in all conditions were asked to rate on a 7-point scale whether it was morally wrong for the scientists to use the particular species presented to them.
- these monkeys either feel pain and pleasure more or less strongly than the others; second, they are either more or less intelligent and inquisitive than the others. Participants in all conditions were asked to rate on a 7-point scale whether it was morally wrong for the scientists to use the particular species presented to them.
- As Kelly points out, animals are important here because of their relevance to both categories. Animals are frequently ingested and frequently carry parasites and other pathogens. Simply the presence of animals might be a health risk, even if we are not in direct contact with them.
- “Do you pet wandering/home cats/dogs?” People who were more disgusted by disease-relevant insects as well as those who were more fearful of disease-irrelevant insects also reported more antiparasite behaviors
- Pet owners who made themselves more available to parasite transmission through close contact with their pets also made greater efforts to ensure that their pets were free of parasites. This suggests that pet owners perceive themselves to be less sensitive to disgust elicitors, except when they are knowingly putting themselves in direct contact with potential pathogens, as the core disgust account would predict.
- Still have a reason to phi if you can take the next step towards phi
- Still have a reason to phi if you can take the next step towards phi