Chapter 14 - Cognitive Science & Morality

Front 1

Morality

Back 1

Code of conduct put forward by a society/group, or accepted by an individual for their own behaviour

Front 2

Morality as a form of Cognition

Back 2

1) Input - Situation

2) Information Processing - Moral Reasoning

3) Output - Moral Judgement

Front 3

Moral Psychology

Back 3

Situation > Moral Reasoning > Moral Judgement

Front 4

Arrival of Moral Judgements: Empiricist View

Back 4

Moral Judgements are the results of learning and experience

Front 5

Arrival of Moral Judgements: Rationalist View

Back 5

Judgements are the results of abstract reasoning and reflection

morality comes in stages - not innate moral rules, but with an innate capacity to develop

children figure out through themselves rather than exp.

Front 6

Piaget & Naive Physics

Back 6

Children not born with innate understanding of conservation

Front 7

Kohlberg: Morality is developmental

Back 7

morality is developed in stages proceeds to more advanced stages

Front 8

Moral Dilemma

Back 8

Situations where different moral considerations must be weighted in order to determine the right thing to do

Front 9

Kohlberg Experience

Back 9

participants and moral dilemmas

- record and code their responses particularly their reasons for answering the way they did

Front 10

Famous Heinz Dilemma

Front 11

Kohlberg: Level 1 Pre-conventional Morality

Back 11

< 9 years old

Stage 1: Obedience & Punishment

eg. shouldn't lie because you will get in trouble

Stage 2: Individualism and exchange

eg. shouldn't lie unless an adult tells you it's ok

Front 12

Kohlberg: Level 2 Conventional Morality

Back 12

Adolescents & Adults

Stage 3: Interpersonal Relationships

eg. shouldn't lie because t makes you look bad

Stage 4: Maintaining social order

eg. emphasis on honesty, respecting societal rules, and laws

Front 13

Kohlberg: Level 3 Post-Conventional Morality

Back 13

Stage 5: Social Contract & Individual Rights

eg. Sometimes societal rules go against the interests of an individual

Stage 6: Universal Principles

eg. justice and fairness must be upheld for everyone, regardless of what the law says

Front 14

Gilligan: Gender-Biased Sampling

Back 14

studied moral reasoning in children and college students and found that women appeared to be deficient compared to men

not advance past third stage

tendency to not emphaise justice and often emphasized interpersonal relationships

Front 15

Turiel

Back 15

Children do not treat all rules the same way, thought they can't always articulate this

Front 16

Conventional vs. Moral Domains

Back 16

understand how we distinguish between what is morally right or wrong vs. what is conventionally right/wrong

Front 17

Turiel

Back 17

Gave children scenarios - asked for judgements

3 year old identify hitting each other is wrong

flexible when comes to conventions

harm is a universal principal

Front 18

Distinction between conventional rules and moral rules

Front 19

Moral Dumbfounding Experiment

Back 19

People presented with scenarios that seem to call for moral condemnation, but without a clear reason

Front 20

Haidt's Social Intuitionist Model

Back 20

rational model ignores the role of intuition and emotion in moral judgement

- shaped by natural selection and cultural forces

Front 21

Deontological Judgements (2)

Back 21

1) Emphasize fairness, justice, & Universality

Action is right = rule on which it is based could be universally adopted

2) Consequentialist / Utilitarian Judgements:

action is right = will lead to an overal greater amount of happiness

Front 22

Trolley Problem - Switch Scenario

Back 22

Train heading down the track, you can save 5 people, or kill a child & grandfather

- Morally acceptable to kill 2 instead of 5?

Front 23

Trolly Problem: Footbridge Scenario

Back 23

Train heading down the track, you can push the large man over to save the 5 people on the tracks

Front 24

Greene

Back 24

the switch scenario likely to engage in brain regions linked with controlled cognition

footbridge scenario likely to engage brain regions associated with emotion

Front 25

Moral Foundation Theory: 6 Core Themes

Back 25

1) Care / Harm

2) Liberty / Oppression

3) Authority / Subversion

4) Fairness / Cheating

5) Loyalty / Betrayal

6) Sanctity / Degradation

Front 26

Political Preferences & Ideologies: Right-wing vs. Left-wing

Back 26

Right-wing: tend to have 6 moral foundations fairly equal

Left-wing: tend to have C/H, L/O, more strongly

Front 27

Frans de Waal & Animal Morality

Back 27

Non-human exhibits the following behaviour:

Prosocial

Empathy

Fairness & Reciprocity