Description
Book SynopsisMoral Psychology: Historical and Contemporary Readingsis the first book to bring together the most significant contemporary and historical works on the topic from both philosophy and psychology.
- Provides a comprehensive introduction to moral psychology, which is the study of psychological mechanisms and processes underlying ethics and morality
- Unique in bringing together contemporary textsby philosophers, psychologists and other cognitive scientists with foundational works from both philosophy and psychology
- Approaches moral psychology from an empirically informed perspective
- Explores a wide range of topics from passion and altruism to virtue and responsibility
- Editorial introductions to each section explain the background of and connections between the selections
Trade Review"Moral Psychology: Historical and Contemporary Readings is a much-needed collection of essays on issues of moral psychology ... This collection successfully illustrates the need for scientists and philosophers to work together on such projects in effort to reach the truth via a thorough inquiry. In that regard, I would recommend this text very strongly." (Metapsychology Online Reviews, 22 November 2011)
"Finally, this book serves as a good compilation of key texts in its field, covering philosphers from almost all times and traditions." (Times Higher Education Supplement, 26 May 2011)
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
Thomas Nadelhoffer, Eddy Nahmias, and Shaun Nichols
Part I: Reason & Passion 5
Introduction 7
Shaun Nichols
1 Selections from A Discourse of Natural Religion 11
Samuel Clarke
2 Selections from An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue 21
Francis Hutcheson
3 Selections from An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections, with Illustrations on the Moral Sense 24
Francis Hutcheson
4 Selections from Enquiries Concerning the Principles of Morals 32
David Hume
5 Introduction to Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals 37
Immanuel Kant
6 The Claim to Moral Adequacy of a Highest Stage of Moral Judgment 40
Lawrence Kohlberg
7 A Cognitive Developmental Approach to Morality: Investigating the Psychopath 48
Robert James Blair
8 Selections from The Moral Problem 64
Michael Smith
9 How Psychopaths Threaten Moral Rationalism: Is it Irrational to be Amoral? 73
Shaun Nichols
Part II: Altruism & Egoism 85
Introduction 87
Thomas Nadelhoffer and Shaun Nichols
10 Selections from Republic 93
Plato
11 Selections from Leviathan and The Elements of Law Natural and Politic 97
Thomas Hobbes
12 Selections from Human Nature and Other Sermons 103
Joseph Butler
13 Selections from An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue 111
Francis Hutcheson
14 How Social an Animal: the Human Capacity for Caring 117
C. Daniel Batson
15 The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism 124
Robert L. Trivers
16 Summary of Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior 135
Elliott Sober and David Sloan Wilson
17 Why Altruism Is Impossible … and Ubiquitous 148
Barry Schwartz
Part III: Virtue & Character 161
Introduction 163
Eddy Nahmias
18 Selections from Protagoras 167
Plato
19 Selections from Nicomachean Ethics 172
Aristotle
20 Behavioral Study of Obedience 179
Stanley Milgram
21 Selections from The Person and the Situation Lee Ross and Richard 187
Nisbett
22 Persons, Situations, and Virtue Ethics 197
John M. Doris
23 Situationism and Virtue Ethics on the Content of Our Character 210
Rachana Kamtekar
24 Virtue Ethics and Situationist Personality Psychology 224
Maria Merritt
Part IV: Agency & Responsibility 231
Introduction 233
Eddy Nahmias
25 Selections from Nicomachean Ethics 239
Aristotle
26 Selections from Essays on the Active Powers of Man 246
Thomas Reid
27 Selections from Beyond Good and Evil and Twilight of the Idols 251
Friedrich Nietzsche
28 Selections from Beyond Freedom and Dignity 256
B.F. Skinner
29 Apparent Mental Causation: Sources of the Experience of Will 264
Daniel M. Wegner and Thalia Wheatley
30 Agency, Authorship, and Illusion 276
Eddy Nahmias
31 Free Will in Scientific Psychology 288
Roy F. Baumeister
32 Scientific Skepticism About Free Will 295
Alfred R. Mele
Part V: Moral Intuitions 307
Introduction 309
Thomas Nadelhoffer
33 Selections from The Methods of Ethics 315
Henry Sidgwick
34 Selections from The Right and the Good 321
W.D. Ross
35 The Trolley Problem 327
Judith Jarvis Thomson
36 Selections from Living High and Letting Die: Our Illusion of Innocence 335
Peter Unger
37 The Emotional Dog and Its Rational Tail: A Social Intuitionist Approach to Moral Judgment 343
Jonathan Haidt
38 The Secret Joke of Kant’s Soul 359
Joshua Greene
39 Moral Intuitionism Meets Empirical Psychology 373
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
Sources 388
