Is there a universal moral sense?
Critical Review 9 (3):325-339 (1995)
| Abstract | There is now increasing evidence for significant ?moral universals??that is, patterns of ethical principles that are recognized by virtually every human society. James Q. Wilson has assembled an engaging collection of this evidence for the existence of a ?moral sense.? At least in regard to the universality of the key features of sympathy and a sense of fairness or reciprocity, Wilson is right. Indeed, these features are even more universal than Wilson realizes: they extend to our closest nonhuman relatives as well. Yet the claim that these facts are best accounted for by positing the existence of a ?moral sense? remains vague. Particularly when we consider what Wilson calls ?the universal aspiration,? the basis of this tendency in our moral thinking is as likely to lie in our capacity to reason as in our moral sentiments. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,865 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesNoriaki Iwasa (2013). On Three Defenses of Sentimentalism. Prolegomena 12 (1):61-82.
Bernadette Tobin (2000). The Virtues in John Wilson's Approach to Moral Education. Journal of Moral Education 29 (3):301-311.
Gilbert Harman (1999). Moral Philosophy and Linguistics. The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 1:107-115.
Liane Young & Rebecca Saxe (2011). Moral Universals and Individual Differences. Emotion Review 3 (3):323-324.
Rachel Tillman (2013). Ethical Embodiment and Moral Reasoning: A Challenge to Peter Singer. Hypatia 28 (1):18-31.
Christine Swanton (2010). A Challenge to Intellectual Virtue From Moral Virtue: The Case of Universal Love. Metaphilosophy 41 (1):152-171.
Helen Haste (2009). Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong. Journal of Moral Education 38 (3):380-382.
Susan Dwyer (2006). How Good is the Linguistic Analogy? In Peter Carruthers, Stephen Laurence & Stephen P. Stich (eds.), The Innate Mind, Vol. 2: Culture and Cognition. Oxford University Press.
Susan M. Purviance (2002). Ethical Externalism and the Moral Sense. Journal of Philosophical Research 27:585-600.
Arthur J. Dyck (1973). A Unified Theory of Virtue and Obligation. Journal of Religious Ethics 1:37 - 52.
Evan Radcliffe (1993). Revolutionary Writing, Moral Philosophy, and Universal Benevolence in the Eighteenth. Journal of the History of Ideas 54 (2):221-240.
Evan Radcliffe (1993). Revolutionary Writing, Moral Philosophy, and Universal Benevolence in the Eighteenth. Journal of the History of Ideas 54 (2):221-240.
Ingmar Persson & Julian Savulescu (2010). Moral Transhumanism. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 35 (6):656-669.
Mark Johnson (2011). There is No Moral Faculty. Philosophical Psychology 25 (3):409 - 432.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2011-10-18Total downloads13 ( #89,057 of 556,803 )Recent downloads (6 months)2 ( #39,010 of 556,803 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
