The reliability of moral intuitions: A challenge from neuroscience
Australasian Journal of Philosophy 86 (3):389 – 405 (2008)
Abstract
A recent study of moral intuitions, performed by Joshua Greene and a group of researchers at Princeton University, has recently received a lot of attention. Greene and his collaborators designed a set of experiments in which subjects were undergoing brain scanning as they were asked to respond to various practical dilemmas. They found that contemplation of some of these cases (cases where the subjects had to imagine that they must use some direct form of violence) elicited greater activity in certain areas of the brain associated with emotions compared with the other cases. It has been argued (e.g., by Peter Singer) that these results undermine the reliability of our moral intuitions, and therefore provide an objection to methods of moral reasoning that presuppose that they carry an evidential weight (such as the idea of reflective equilibrium). I distinguish between two ways in which Greene's findings lend support for a sceptical attitude towards intuitions. I argue that, given the first version of the challenge, the method of reflective equilibrium can easily accommodate the findings. As for the second version of the challenge, I argue that it does not so much pose a threat specifically to the method of reflective equilibrium but to the idea that moral claims can be justified through rational argumentation in general.Author's Profile
DOI
10.1080/00048400802002010
My notes
Similar books and articles
The Rational Roles of Intuition.Elijah Chudnoff - 2014 - In Anthony Booth & Darrell Rowbottom (eds.), Intuitions. Oxford University Press.
Practical Equilibrium: A Way of Deciding What to Think about Morality.Ben Eggleston - 2010 - Mind 119 (475):549-584.
The armchair and the trolley: an argument for experimental ethics.Guy Kahane - 2013 - Philosophical Studies 162 (2):421-445.
Intuitions, heuristics, and utilitarianism.Peter Singer - 2005 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28 (4):560-561.
Theoretical and practical problems with wide reflective equilibrium in bioethics.Carson Strong - 2010 - Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 31 (2):123-140.
Invisible fences of the moral domain.Jonathan Haidt - 2005 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28 (4):552-553.
Intuitions, concepts, and imagination.Frank Hofmann - 2010 - Philosophical Psychology 23 (4):529-546.
Ethics and Intuitions: A Reply to Singer.Joakim Sandberg & Niklas Juth - 2011 - The Journal of Ethics 15 (3):209-226.
Analytics
Added to PP
2009-01-28
Downloads
335 (#35,065)
6 months
5 (#153,513)
2009-01-28
Downloads
335 (#35,065)
6 months
5 (#153,513)
Historical graph of downloads
Author's Profile
Citations of this work
The Normative Insignificance of Neuroscience.Selim Berker - 2009 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 37 (4):293-329.
The Objectivity of Ethics and the Unity of Practical Reason.Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek & Peter Singer - 2012 - Ethics 123 (1):9-31.
The reliable route from nonmoral evidence to moral conclusions.Neil Sinhababu - forthcoming - Erkenntnis:1-21.
References found in this work
The Problem of Abortion and the Doctrine of the Double Effect.Philippa Foot - 1967 - Oxford Review 5:5-15.
Reasons and Persons.Joseph Margolis - 1986 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 47 (2):311-327.