Topic
Morality
About: Morality is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 22623 publications have been published within this topic receiving 545733 citations. The topic is also known as: moral & morals.
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TL;DR: This article found that individuals who scored higher on a measure of psychopathic traits were less likely to base their self-concepts on moral traits, and that the reduced sense of moral identity among more psychopathic individuals was independent of variation in moral judgment.
Abstract: Several scholars have recognized the limitations of theories of moral reasoning in explaining moral behavior. They have argued that moral behavior may also be influenced by moral identity, or how central morality is to one’s sense of self. This idea has been supported by findings that people who exemplify moral behavior tend to place more importance on moral traits when defining their self-concepts (Colby & Damon, 1995). This paper takes the next step of examining individual variation in a construct highly associated with immoral behavior — psychopathy. In Study 1, we test the hypothesis that individuals with a greater degree of psychopathic traits have a weaker moral identity. Within a large online sample, we found that individuals who scored higher on a measure of psychopathic traits were less likely to base their self-concepts on moral traits. In Study 2, we test whether this reduced sense of moral identity can be attributed to differences in moral judgment, which is another factor that could influence immoral behavior. Our results indicated that the reduced sense of moral identity among more psychopathic individuals was independent of variation in moral judgment. These results suggest that individuals with psychopathic traits may display immoral behavior partially because they do not construe their personal identities in moral terms.
117 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a longitudinal study of the development of moral motivation from childhood to early adulthood is described, where moral motivation is defined as willingness to do what one knows to be right even if that entails personal costs.
Abstract: Luhmann, a prominent exponent of social systems theory, maintains that in modern, functionally differentiated societies morality is neither possible nor necessary. Against this claim it is argued that democracies want citizens with moral motivation. In contrast to Kohlberg, moral motivation is conceptualised as independent of stage of moral development, i.e. of the complexity of sociocognitive reasoning capacity. It is defined as willingness to do what one knows to be right even if that entails personal costs. This definition agrees with children's understanding. Moral motivation is assessed using emotion attributions. As empirically demonstrated, emotions indicate value commitments and action dispositions and this allows a motivational interpretation of the ‘happy victimiser phenomenon’, i.e. younger children's tendency to expect wrongdoers to feel good. Drawing on a longitudinal study, the development of moral motivation from childhood to early adulthood is described. There is a steady increase in sampl...
117 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2008TL;DR: In The Autonomy of Morality as discussed by the authors, Larmore argues that the moral good has an authority that speaks for itself and that human freedom consists in being responsive to reasons for thought and action that arise from the world itself.
Abstract: In The Autonomy of Morality Charles Larmore challenges two ideas that have shaped the modern mind. The world, he argues, is not a realm of value-neutral fact, nor does human freedom consist in imposing principles of our own devising on an alien reality. Rather, reason consists in being responsive to reasons for thought and action that arise from the world itself. Larmore shows that the moral good has an authority that speaks for itself. Only in this light does the true basis of a liberal political order come into view, as well as the role of unexpected goods in the makeup of a life lived well.
117 citations
TL;DR: This work clarifies the conceptual and empirical links between moral philosophy and moral psychology and indicates that sacrificial utilitarian judgments reflect genuine moral concern, in both philosophers and ordinary people.
116 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the conventional view of technology is that technology represents technical means to achieve social ends and that the moral problem of technology, from this perspective, is the way in which the given technical means are applied to particular (good or bad) social ends.
Abstract: This paper will address the question of the morality of technology. I believe this is an important question for our contemporary society in which technology, especially information technology, is increasingly becoming the default mode of social ordering. I want to suggest that the conventional manner of conceptualising the morality of technology is inadequate --- even dangerous. The conventional view of technology is that technology represents technical means to achieve social ends. Thus, the moral problem of technology, from this perspective, is the way in which the given technical means are applied to particular (good or bad) social ends. In opposition to this I want to suggest that the assumed separation, of this approach, between technical means and social ends are inappropriate. It only serves to hide the most important political and ethical dimensions of technology. I want to suggest that the morality of technology is much more embedded and implicit than such a view would suggest. In order to critique this approach I will draw on phenomenology and the more recent work of Bruno Latour. With these intellectual resources in mind I will propose disclosive ethics as a way to make the morality of technology visible. I will give a brief account of this approach and show how it might guide our?understanding of the ethics and politics of technology by considering two examples of contemporary information technology: search engines and plagiarism detection systems.
116 citations