Mar 29, 2024  
Catalogue 2018-2019 
    
Catalogue 2018-2019 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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PHIL 286 - Moral Psychology: Empirical and Philosophical

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)


(Same as  PSYC 286  and STS 286 ) “Moral Psychology” is the name of a sub-discipline crossing the fields of psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience; it is also the name of a sub-discipline within philosophy. Both of these sub-disciplines investigate the psychology behind moral (and immoral) action. Both ask, for instance, why a moral agent acts as she does. What is the role of emotion in moral action?  What are the roles of reasoning and deliberation in moral action?  But these fields approach these questions with very different tools, and also, often, with different assumptions. 

In this course, we ask whether, and how, we can draw philosophical conclusions from experimental results. Has psychology, or evolutionary theory, or neuroscience, shown that all of our actions are fundamentally self-interested? Have experiments in neuroscience shown that free will is an illusion, or that utilitarianism is the only rational ethical view? And we ask whether and how conclusions from philosophy should inform empirical research. Randy Cornelius and Jeff Seidman.

 

Prerequisite(s): One 100-level course either in Philosophy or in Psychology or in Cognitive Science.

Two 75-minute periods.



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