Is the science of moral cognition usefully modelled on aspects of Universal Grammar? Are human beings born with an innate 'moral grammar' that causes them to analyse human action in terms of its moral structure, with just as little awareness as they...
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Universitätsbibliothek der Eberhard Karls Universität
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Is the science of moral cognition usefully modelled on aspects of Universal Grammar? Are human beings born with an innate 'moral grammar' that causes them to analyse human action in terms of its moral structure, with just as little awareness as they analyse human speech in terms of its grammatical structure? Questions like these have been at the forefront of moral psychology ever since John Mikhail revived them in his influential work on the linguistic analogy and its implications for jurisprudence and moral theory. In this seminal book, Mikhail offers a careful and sustained analysis of the moral grammar hypothesis, showing how some of John Rawls' original ideas about the linguistic analogy, together with famous thought experiments like the trolley problem, can be used to improve our understanding of moral and legal judgement.
Cover; Elements of Moral Cognition: Rawls' Linguistic Analogy and the Cognitive Science of Moral and Legal Judgment; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Tables and Figures; Preface; PART ONE: THEORY; 1: The Question Presented; 2: A New Framework for the Theory of Moral Cognition; 2.1 NINE COMPARISONS BETWEEN LINGUISTICS AND MORAL THEORY; 2.1.1 The Main Questions; 2.1.2 The General Answers; 2.1.3 The Fundamental Arguments; 2.1.4 The Competence-Performance Distinction; 2.1.5 The Distinction between Operative and Express Principles; 2.1.6 Levels of Empirical Adequacy
2.1.7 Two Additional Questions2.1.8 Commonsense and Technical Concepts of Language and Morality; 2.1.9 Theoretical Goals; 2.2 PRELIMINARY CLARIFICATIONS ABOUT RAWLS' LINGUISTIC ANALOGY; 2.3 OUTLINE OF REMAINING CHAPTERS; 3: The Basic Elements of Rawls' Linguistic Analogy; 3.1 EIGHT FEATURES OF RAWLS' CONCEPTION OF MORAL THEORY; 3.1.1 The Argument for Moral Grammar; 3.1.2 The Problem of Descriptive Adequacy; 3.1.3 The Distinction between Descriptive and Observational Adequacy; 3.1.4 The Distinction between Operative and Express Principles
3.1.5 The Distinction between Descriptive and Explanatory Adequacy3.1.6 The Competence-Performance Distinction; 3.1.7 The Theory-Dependence of the Competence-Performance Distinction; 3.1.8 The Importance of Idealization; 3.2 FURTHER CLARIFICATIONS ABOUT TERMINOLOGY; 3.3 MORAL THEORY AS A THEORY OF I-MORALITY; 3.4 SOME FURTHER REMARKS ABOUT THE LINGUISTIC ANALOGY; 3.5 THE CONTRAST WITH PARTICULARISM; PART TWO: EMPIRICAL ADEQUACY; 4: The Problem of Descriptive Adequacy; 4.1 THE TROLLEY PROBLEMS; (4) (a) Scarce Resources: Alice; (b) Transplant: Bob; (c) Trolley: Charlie; (d) Passenger: Denise
(e) Bystander: Edward(f) Footbridge: Frank; 4.2 THE PROPERTIES OF MORAL JUDGMENT; 4.3 FRAMING THE PROBLEM OF DESCRIPTIVE ADEQUACY; 4.4 LOCATING THE PROBLEM WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF COGNITIVE SCIENCE; 4.4.1 Perceptual and Acquisition Models; 4.4.2 The Hypothetico-Deductive Method; 4.5 OBJECTIONS AND REPLIES; 5: The Moral Grammar Hypothesis; 5.1 SOME INITIAL EVIDENCE; 5.2 SIMPLIFYING THE PROBLEM OF DESCRIPTIVE ADEQUACY; 5.2.1 Twelve New Trolley Problems; 5.2.2 Twelve Considered Judgments; 5.3 THE POVERTY OF THE PERCEPTUAL STIMULUS; 5.3.1 Labeling the Stimulus; 5.3.2 Expanded Perceptual Model
5.4 OUTLINE OF A SOLUTION5.4.1 Deontic Rules; 5.4.2 Structural Descriptions; 5.4.3 Conversion Rules; 5.5 INTUITIVE LEGAL APPRAISAL; 6: Moral Grammar and Intuitive Jurisprudence: A Formal Model; 6.1 THREE SIMPLIFYING ASSUMPTIONS; 6.2 STRUCTURAL DESCRIPTIONS I: ACTS, CIRCUMSTANCES, AND INTENTIONS; 6.2.1 Acts and Circumstances; 6.2.2 K-Generation and I-Generation; Definition of K-Generation; Definition of I-Generation; 6.3 DEONTIC RULES; 6.3.1 The Principle of Natural Liberty; Principle of Natural Liberty; 6.3.2 The Prohibition of Battery and Homicide; Definition of Homicide
