Where Do Morals Come From? - A Plea for a Cultural Approach
Where Do Morals Come From? - A Plea for a Cultural Approach
复制标题
DOI：
10.1007/978-3-319-01369-5_6
复制
发表时间：
2014-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Prinz, Jesse J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Prinz, Jesse J.
近年来，伦理学出现了实证转向。利用心理学、神经科学、行为经济学和进化模型的方法，我们已经能够在有关道德本质的古老哲学问题上取得进展。例如，最近的许多研究都支持这样的观点：情感是道德判断不可或缺的一部分。毫不奇怪，伦理学的实证研究往往是还原论的：人类行为的最崇高的方面与可以在大脑中识别的简单机制有关。已知所涉及的机制，尤其是情感回路，在其他生物中也有同源物。这一事实与进化论和行为行为学一起，有助于推广存在天生道德感的观点。先天论在认知科学中一直很流行，因此这一结果不足为奇。但我们应该谨慎地将这种方法引入道德领域。人类道德多样性表明，至少，文化是塑造道德的一个重要变量，而且是一个我们不能忽视的变量。在我的贡献中，我将首先回顾我认为关于我们如何做出道德判断的主要经验教训。然后我会论证，这样理解的判断在内容上并不具有普遍性。这将引发关于道德判断起源于何处的讨论。简而言之，随着时间的推移，文化因素对于理解道德的内容至关重要。这对于如何思考生物学对道德的贡献以及道德价值观的获得过程具有影响
In recent years, there has been an empirical turn in ethics. Using the methods of psychology, neuroscience, behavioral economics, and evolutionary modeling, we have been able to make progress on old philosophical questions about the nature of morality. For example, much recent research has lent support to the view that emotions are integral to moral judgment. Unsurprisingly, empirical research in ethics has tended to be reductionist: the loftiest aspects of human behavior have been related to simple mechanisms that can be identified in the brain. The implicated mechanisms, most notably emotion circuits, are also known to have homologues in other creatures. This fact, together with evolutionary theory and behavioral ethology, has helped promote the idea that there is an innate moral sense. Nativist accounts have always been popular in cognitive science, so this outcome can hardly be surprising. But we should be cautious about importing that approach into the moral domain. Moral diversity within human populations suggests that, at the very least, culture is an important variable in shaping morality, and it is a variable that we cannot afford to overlook. In my contribution, I will begin by reviewing what I take to be the main empirical lessons about how we make moral judgments. Then I will argue that judgments, so understood, are not universal in content. This will lead to a discussion of where moral judgments originate. The brief answer is that cultural factors, unfolding across time, are crucial for understanding the content of morality. This has implications for how to think about the biological contributions to morality and the processes by which moral values are acquired