Showing papers on "Morality published in 2008"

Moral disengagement in ethical decision making: A study of antecedents and outcomes.

Abstract: This article advances understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of moral disengagement by testing hypotheses with 3 waves of survey data from 307 business and education undergraduate students. The authors theorize that 6 individual differences will either increase or decrease moral disengagement, defined as a set of cognitive mechanisms that deactivate moral self-regulatory processes and thereby help to explain why individuals often make unethical decisions without apparent guilt or self-censure (Bandura, 1986). Results support 4 individual difference hypotheses, specifically, that empathy and moral identity are negatively related to moral disengagement, while trait cynicism and chance locus of control orientation are positively related to moral disengagement. Two additional locus of control orientations are not significantly related to moral disengagement. The authors also hypothesize and find that moral disengagement is positively related to unethical decision making. Finally, the authors hypothesize that moral disengagement plays a mediating role between the individual differences they studied and unethical decisions. Their results offer partial support for these mediating hypotheses. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for future research and for practice.

The age of responsibilization: on market-embedded morality

Abstract: This article explores emerging discursive formations concerning the relationship of business and morality. It suggests that contemporary tendencies to economize public domains and methods of government also dialectically produce tendencies to moralize markets in general and business enterprises in particular. The article invokes the concept of ‘responsibilization’ as means of accounting for the epistemological and practical consequences of such processes. Looking at the underlying ‘market rationality’ of governance, and critically examining the notion of ‘corporate social responsibility’, it concludes that the moralization of markets further sustains, rather than undermining, neo-liberal governmentalities and neo-liberal visions of civil society, citizenship and responsible social action.

Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong

Abstract: Computers are already approving financial transactions, controlling electrical supplies, and driving trains. Soon, service robots will be taking care of the elderly in their homes, and military robots will have their own targeting and firing protocols. Colin Allen and Wendell Wallach argue that as robots take on more and more responsibility, they must be programmed with moral decision-making abilities, for our own safety. Taking a fast paced tour through the latest thinking about philosophical ethics and artificial intelligence, the authors argue that even if full moral agency for machines is a long way off, it is already necessary to start building a kind of functional morality, in which artificial moral agents have some basic ethical sensitivity. But the standard ethical theories don't seem adequate, and more socially engaged and engaging robots will be needed. As the authors show, the quest to build machines that are capable of telling right from wrong has begun. Moral Machines is the first book to examine the challenge of building artificial moral agents, probing deeply into the nature of human decision making and ethics.

Presidential address institutions and culture

Abstract: How and why does distant political and economic history shape the functioning of current institutions? This paper argues that individual values and convictions about the scope of application of norms of good conduct provide the “missing link.” Evidence from a variety of sources points to two main findings. First, individual values consistent with generalized (as opposed to limited) morality are widespread in societies that were ruled by non-despotic political institutions in the distant past. Second, well-functioning institutions are often observed in countries or regions where individual values are consistent with generalized morality, and under different identifying assumptions this suggests a causal effect from values to institutional outcomes. The paper ends with a discussion of the implications for future research. (JEL: A10, D7, E00)

With a Clean Conscience: Cleanliness Reduces the Severity of Moral Judgments

Abstract: Theories of moral judgment have long emphasized reasoning and conscious thought while downplaying the role of intuitive and contextual influences. However, recent research has demonstrated that incidental feelings of disgust can influence moral judgments and make them more severe. This study involved two experiments demonstrating that the reverse effect can occur when the notion of physical purity is made salient, thus making moral judgments less severe. After having the cognitive concept of cleanliness activated (Experiment 1) or after physically cleansing themselves after experiencing disgust (Experiment 2), participants found certain moral actions to be less wrong than did participants who had not been exposed to a cleanliness manipulation. The findings support the idea that moral judgment can be driven by intuitive processes, rather than deliberate reasoning. One of those intuitions appears to be physical purity, because it has a strong connection to moral purity.

Experiments in Ethics

Abstract: In the past few decades, scientists of human nature - including experimental and cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, evolutionary theorists, and behavioural economists - have explored the way we arrive at moral judgments They have called into question commonplaces about character and offered troubling explanations for various moral intuitions Research like this may help explain what, in fact, we do and feel But can it tell us what we ought to do or feel? In "Experiments in Ethics", the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah explores how the new empirical moral psychology relates to the age-old project of philosophical ethicsSome moral theorists hold that the realm of morality must be autonomous of the sciences; others maintain that science undermines the authority of moral reasons Appiah elaborates a vision of naturalism that resists both temptations He traces an intellectual genealogy of the burgeoning discipline of "experimental philosophy," provides a balanced, lucid account of the work being done in this controversial and increasingly influential field, and offers a fresh way of thinking about ethics in the classical traditionAppiah urges that the relation between empirical research and morality, now so often antagonistic, should be seen in terms of dialogue, not contest And he shows how experimental philosophy, far from being something new, is actually as old as philosophy itself Beyond illuminating debates about the connection between psychology and ethics, intuition and theory, his book helps us to rethink the very nature of the philosophical enterprise

Moral attentiveness: who pays attention to the moral aspects of life?

Abstract: This research draws from social cognitive theory to develop a construct known as moral attentiveness, the extent to which an individual chronically perceives and considers morality and moral elements in his or her experiences, and proposes that moral attentiveness affects a variety of behaviors. A series of 5 studies with undergraduates, MBA students, and managers were conducted to create and validate a reliable multidimensional scale and to provide evidence that moral attentiveness is associated with (a) the recall and reporting of self- and others' morality-related behaviors, (b) moral awareness, and (c) moral behavior. Results of the studies suggest that moral attentiveness has a significant effect on how individuals understand and act in their moral worlds.

Family metaphors and moral intuitions: how conservatives and liberals narrate their lives.

Abstract: This research examines life-narrative interviews obtained from 128 highly religious and politically active adults to test differences between political conservatives and liberals on (a) implicit family metaphors (G. Lakoff, 2002) and (b) moral intuitions (J. Haidt & C. Joseph, 2004). Content analysis of 12 key scenes in life stories showed that conservatives, as predicted, tended to depict authority figures as strict enforcers of moral rules and to identify lessons in self-discipline. By contrast, liberals were more likely to identify lessons learned regarding empathy and openness, even though (contrary to prediction) they were no more likely than conservatives to describe nurturant authority figures. Analysis of extended discourse on the development of religious faith and personal morality showed that conservatives emphasized moral intuitions regarding respect for social hierarchy, allegiance to in-groups, and the purity or sanctity of the self, whereas liberals invested more significance in moral intuitions regarding harm and fairness. The results are discussed in terms of the recent upsurge of interest among psychologists in political ideology and the value of using life-narrative methods and concepts to explore how politically active adults attempt to construct meaningful lives.

Social intuitionists answer six questions about moral psychology.

Abstract: Here are two of the biggest questions in moral psychology: (1) Where do moral beliefs and motivations come from? (2) How does moral judgment work? All other questions are easy, or at least easier, once you have clear answers to these two questions. Here are our answers: (1) Moral beliefs and motivations come from a small set of intuitions that evolution has prepared the human mind to develop; these intuitions then enable and constrain the social construction of virtues and values, and (2) moral judgment is a product of quick and automatic intuitions that then give rise to slow, conscious moral reasoning. Our approach is therefore some kind of intuitionism. However, there is more: moral reasoning done by an individual is usually devoted to finding reasons to support the individual's intuitions, but moral reasons passed between people have a causal force. Moral discussion is a kind of distributed reasoning, and moral claims and justifications have important effects on individuals and societies. We believe that moral judgment is best understood as a social process, not as a private act of cognition. We therefore call our model the social intuitionist model (SIM). Please don't forget the social part of the model, or you will think that we think that morality is just blind instinct, no smarter than lust. You will accuse us of denying any causal role for moral reasoning or for culture, and you will feel that our theory is a threat to human dignity, to the possibility of moral change, or to the notion that philosophers have any useful role to play in our moral lives (see the debate between Saltzstein & Kasachkoff, 2004, vs. Haidt, 2004). Unfortunately, if our theory is correct, once you get angry at us, we will no longer be able to persuade you with the many good reasons we are planning on giving you below. So please, don't forget the social part. In the pages that follow we will try to answer six questions. We begin with the big two, for which our answer is the SIM. We follow up with Question 3: What is the evidence for the SIM? We then address three questions

Justice and the priority of politics to morality

Abstract: IT is uncontroversial that the limits imposed by existing institutions and practices are relevant in determining how best to implement a particular conception of justice. The set of precepts, rules, and policies that best realize the demands of justice (whatever one thinks they are) in Corsica will be different from those required in Poland. It is uncontroversial, that is, that information about institutional and political context is needed in coming to a concrete judgment regarding a particular course of action or policy. No one disagrees that constraints derived from particular institutional forms and practices should play a crucial role in the application of a theory to the ‘real world’. Less well understood, by contrast, is whether existing institutions and practices should play any role in the basic justification and formulation of first principles. A common view holds that, in setting out and justifying first principles of justice, one should seek a normative point of view unfettered by the form or structure of existing institutions and practices. To assign any greater role to institutions and practices—to allow them, as I have said, to influence the formulation and justification of first principles of justice—is a fundamental mistake: constraining the content of justice by whatever social and political arrangements we happen to share gives undue normative weight to what is, at best, merely the product of arbitrary historical contingency or, at worst, the result of past injustice itself. This article aims to bring to light, clarify, and defend the opposite view: existing institutions and practices, I shall argue, should play a crucial role in the justification of a conception of justice rather than merely its implementation. Our task is to explain both why and how. What I call the ‘practice-dependence thesis’ in its most general form is as follows:

The neural basis of moral cognition: sentiments, concepts, and values.

Abstract: The human moral nature has perplexed laymen and academics for millennia. Recent developments in cognitive neuroscience are opening new venues for unveiling the complex psychological and neurobiological mechanisms underling human morality and its impairments. Here we review these lines of evidence and key topics of debate and explain why investigating the mechanisms of cognition–emotion interaction and of the neural bases of moral sentiments and values will be critical for our understanding of the human moral mind.

East meets west: A meta-analytic investigation of cultural variations in idealism and relativism

Abstract: Ethics position theory (EPT) maintains that individuals' personal moral philosophies influence their judgments, actions, and emotions in ethically intense situations. The theory, when describing these moral viewpoints, stresses two dimensions: idealism (concern for benign outcomes) and relativism (skepticism with regards to inviolate moral principles). Variations in idealism and relativism across countries were examined via a meta-analysis of studies that assessed these two aspects of moral thought using the ethics position questionnaire (EPQ; Forsyth, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39, 175-184, 1980). This review iden- tified 139 samples drawn from 29 different countries, for a total sample of 30,230 respondents, and concluded that (a) levels of idealism and relativism vary across regions of the world in predictable ways; (b) an exceptionist ethic is more common in Western countries, subjectivism and situationism in Eastern countries, and absolutism and situationism in Middle Eastern countries; and (c) a nation's ethics position predicted that country's location on previously documented cultural dimensions, such as individualism and avoidance of uncertainty (Hofstede, Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work- Related Values, 1980). Limitations in these methods and concerns about the validity of these cross-cultural con- clusions are noted, as are suggestions for further research using the EPQ.

Morality: An Anthropological Perspective

Abstract: Introduction 1 Some Early Works in the Anthropology of Moralities Relativism Outline of Book Part I The Philosophical and Theoretical Foundations of the Anthropological Studies of Morality 1 The Philosophical and Theoretical Foundations of Social Scientific Studies of Morality - From Plato and Aristotle to Durkheim, Weber, and Foucault Philosophical Theories of Morality The Roots of a Social Scientific Theory of Morality Some Final Words Part II Religion and Law 2 Religion Witchcraft Moral Consciousness and the Ethics of Self Change, Religion, and Moralities Some Final Words 3 Law State and Law Moral Economies, Inequality, and Property Human Rights Some Final Words Case Study 1 Moral Torment in Papua New Guinea Part III Sexuality, Gender, and Health 4 Gender and Sexuality Gender and Moralities Sexuality Family, Children, and Morality Some Final Words 5 Illness, Health, and Medicine The Morality of Biomedicine HIV/AIDS and Morality Narrative and Medical Encounters Bioethics Some Final Words Case Study 2 Morality and Women's Health in Post-Soviet Russia Part IV Language, Narrative, and Discourse 6 Language, Discourse, and Narrative Discourse, Performativity, and Moral Communication Narrative Some Final Words Case Study 3 Narratives of moral experience in Moscow Part V Closing 7 Some Closing Words Morality and Ethics References

Against War: Views from the Underside of Modernity

Abstract: Nelson Maldonado-Torres argues that European modernity has become inextricable from the experience of the warrior and conqueror. In Against War , he develops a powerful critique of modernity, and he offers a critical response combining ethics, political theory, and ideas rooted in Christian and Jewish thought. Maldonado-Torres focuses on the perspectives of those who inhabit the underside of western modernity, particularly Jewish, black, and Latin American theorists. He analyzes the works of the Jewish Lithuanian-French philosopher and religious thinker Emmanuel Levinas, the Martiniquean psychiatrist and political thinker Frantz Fanon, and the Catholic Argentinean-Mexican philosopher, historian, and theologian Enrique Dussel. Considering Levinas’s critique of French liberalism and Nazi racial politics, and the links between them, Maldonado-Torres identifies a “master morality” of dominion and control at the heart of western modernity. This master morality constitutes the center of a warring paradigm that inspires and legitimizes racial policies, imperial projects, and wars of invasion. Maldonado-Torres refines the description of modernity’s war paradigm and the Levinasian critique through Fanon’s phenomenology of the colonized and racial self and the politics of decolonization, which he reinterprets in light of the Levinasian conception of ethics. Drawing on Dussel’s genealogy of the modern imperial and warring self, Maldonado-Torres theorizes race as the naturalization of war’s death ethic. He offers decolonial ethics and politics as an antidote to modernity’s master morality and the paradigm of war. Against War advances the de-colonial turn, showing how theory and ethics cannot be conceived without politics, and how they all need to be oriented by the imperative of decolonization in the modern/colonial and postmodern world.

Embodying the Faith: Religious Practice and the Making of a Muslim Moral Habitus

Abstract: Despite a number of contemporary theoretical works in sociology and moral philosophy arguing that the project of modern selfhood is necessarily a deeply moral endeavor, there are few empirical studies examining the specific ways in which social actors construct moral selves and lives. Utilizing ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews, this article examines how a group of adult Muslim converts in Missouri produced new moral selves in and through the use of embodied religious practices. Drawing on the theoretical insights of Bourdieu, I demonstrate how the embodied religious practices of ritual prayer, fasting and covering formed within converts the moral dispositions, or habitus, associated with becoming a "good Muslim".

Moral Conviction and Political Engagement

Abstract: The 2004 presidential election led to considerable discussion about whether moral values motivated people to vote, and if so, whether it led to a conservative electoral advantage. The results of two studies—one conducted in the context of the 2000 presidential election, the other in the context of the 2004 presidential election—indicated that stronger moral convictions associated with candidates themselves and attitudes on issues of the day uniquely predicted self-reported voting behavior and intentions to vote even when controlling for a host of alternative explanations (e.g., attitude strength, strength of party identification). In addition, we found strong support for the hypothesis that moral convictions equally motivated political engagement for those on the political right and left and little support for the notion that a combination of morality and politics is something more characteristic of the political right than it is of the political left.

On Being a `Good' Mother The Moral Presentation of Self in Written Life Stories

Abstract: This article examines how women present a moral self in relation to public norms that constitute`good' motherhood.Thefocus of this article is on two types of written life story: first, those written by mothers who express a past or current wish to divorce and, second, those written by lone mothers.The life stories offer insights into how individuals account for their actions in situations where they face the moral dilemma of clashing ethical norms — care for self and care for children — and how individuals with a `spoiled identity' manage a moral presentation of self. The article concludes by critically examining the consequences of using written life stories rather than face-to-face interviews as data in a study of the moral tales that individuals tell.

Strong Reciprocity and the Roots of Human Morality

Abstract: Human morality is a key evolutionary adaptation on which human social behavior has been based since the Pleistocene era. Ethical behavior is constitutive of human nature, we argue, and human morality is as important an adaptation as human cognition and speech. Ethical behavior, we assert, need not be a means toward personal gain. Because of our nature as moral beings, humans take pleasure in acting ethically and are pained when acting unethically. From an evolutionary viewpoint, we argue that ethical behavior was fitness-enhancing in the years marking the emergence of Homo sapiens because human groups with many altruists fared better than groups of selfish individuals, and the fitness losses sustained by altruists were more than compensated by the superior performance of the groups in which they congregated.

Re-imagining the Morality of Management: A Modern Virtue Ethics Approach

Abstract: In this chapter I explore the problematic nature of the morality of management, in particular of business organisations operating under Anglo-American capitalism. MacIntyre’s critique of managers in After Virtue (2007) serves as the starting point but I analyse this critique itself, leading to a more balanced and contemporary view of the morality of management than MacIntyre provided. Paradoxically perhaps, I show that MacIntyre’s own virtues-goods-practice-institution schema provides a way of re-imagining business organisations and management and thereby holds out the possibility of resolving the issue of the morality of management within such organisations. Finally, I draw out implications for management practice.

CROSS‐NATIONAL MORAL BELIEFS: The Influence of National Religious Context

Abstract: International surveys have documented wide variation in religious beliefs and practices across nations, but does this variation in the national religious context make a difference? Building on existing theory, we explain why religion should have both micro- and macro-level effects on morality not sanctioned by the state and why the effects of religion differ from other forms of culture. Using two international surveys and hierarchical linear modeling techniques we sort out the effects of national context and personal beliefs on morality with and without legal underpinnings. We find that national religious context, the respondent's age, and religious beliefs and practices are the most consistent predictors of the sexual morality index. For morality sanctioned by the state, however, the effects for personal beliefs and practices are attenuated, and the effects of the national religious context are no longer significant.

Morality, self‐control, and crime*

Abstract: This paper offers evidence to specify further Self-Control Theory by investigating its predictive strength relative to morality and its interconnections with morality in accounting for criminal probability. Using random sample household survey data from Lviv, Ukraine, we confirm that self-control is an important predictor of criminal probabilities in an unusual cultural context. However, morality is also shown to be a strong independent predictor with strength that seems to exceed substantially that of self-control. In addition, taking morality into account significantly reduces the coefficients for self-control, sometimes eliminating them entirely, and morality shows little interaction with self-control in its predictions of the measures of criminal probability. The results suggest that the recently formulated Situational Action Theory, which features (weak) morality as the prime cause of criminal behavior and questions the relative importance of self-control, should be taken seriously. Overall, the results confirm the importance of self-control as a factor in misbehavior; yet, they also provide a mandate for greater attention to morality as a potent variable in understanding misconduct.

Morality: An Evolutionary Account.

Abstract: Refinements in Darwin's theory of the origin of a moral sense create a framework equipped to organize and integrate contemporary theory and research on mo- rality.Moralityoriginatedindeferential,cooperative,and altruistic''social instincts,''ordecision-makingstrategies, that enabled early humans to maximize their gains from social living and resolve their conflicts of interest in adaptive ways. Moral judgments, moral norms, and con- science originated from strategic interactions among members of groups who experienced confluences and con- flicts of interest.Moral argumentation buttressed bymoral reasoning is equipped to generate universal and impartial moral standards. Moral beliefs and standards are prod- ucts of automatic and controlled information-processing and decision-making mechanisms. To understand how people make moral decisions, we must understand how early evolved mechanisms in the old brain and recently evolved mechanisms in the new brain are activated and howtheyinteract.Understandingwhatasense ofmorality is for helps us understand what it is.

Planet of the Durkheimians: Where Community, Authority, and Sacredness Are Foundations of Morality

Abstract: Most academic efforts to understand morality and ideology come from theorists who limit the domain of morality to issues related to harm and fairness. For such theorists, conservative beliefs are puzzles requiring non-moral explanations. In contrast, we present moral foundations theory, which broadens the moral domain to match the anthropological literature on morality. We extend the theory by integrating it with a review of the sociological constructs of community, authority, and sacredness, as formulated by Emile Durkheim and others. We present data supporting the theory, which also shows that liberals misunderstand the explicit moral concerns of conservatives more than conservatives misunderstand liberals. We suggest that what liberals see as a non-moral motivation for system justifi cation may be better described as a moral motivation to protect society, groups, and the structures and constraints that are often (although not always) benefi cial for individuals. Finally, we outline the possible benefi ts of a moral foundations perspective for system justifi cation theory (SJT), including better understandings of (a) why the system justifying motive is palliative despite some harmful effects, (b) possible evolutionary origins of the motive, and (c) the values and worldviews of conservatives in general. It has not yet been revealed to the public, but we have it on good authority that intelligent life was recently discovered on a planet several light years away. The planet has been given an unpronounceable technical name, but scientists refer to the planet informally as “Planet Durkheim.” Judging by the television signals received, Durkheimians look rather like human beings, although their behavior is quite different. Durkheimians crave, above all else, being tightly integrated into strong groups that cooperatively pursue common goals. They have little desire for self-expression or individual development, and when the requirements of certain jobs force individuals to spend much time alone, or when the needs of daily life force individuals to make their own decisions or express their own preferences, Durkheimians feel drained and unhappy. In extreme cases of enforced individualism, they

Moral Limit and Possibility in World Politics

Abstract: Preface 1. Moral limit and possibility in world politics Richard Price 2. Constructivism and the structure of ethical reasoning Christian Reus-Smit 3. The role of consequences, comparison and counterfactuals in constructivist ethical thought Kathryn Sikkink 4. Sovereignty, recognition and indigenous peoples Jonathan Havercroft 5. Policy hypocrisy or political compromise? Assessing the morality of US policy toward undocumented migrants Amy Gurowitz 6. Lie to me: sanctions on Iraq, moral argument and the international politics of hypocrisy Marc Lynch 7. Paradoxes in humanitarian intervention Martha Finnemore 8. Inevitable inequalities? Approaching gender equality and multiculturalism Ann Towns 9. Interstate community-building and the identity/difference predicament Bahar Rumelili 10. Progress with a price Richard Price.