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Ego function of morality and developing tensions that are “within”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2013

Philippe Rochat
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322. [email protected]://www.psychology.emory.edu/cognition/rochat/lab/[email protected]
Erin Robbins
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322. [email protected]://www.psychology.emory.edu/cognition/rochat/lab/[email protected]

Abstract

We applaud Baumard et al.'s mutualistic account of morality but detect circularity in their articulation of how morality emerged. Contra the authors, we propose that mutualism might account for a sensitivity to convention (the ways things are done within a group) rather than for a sense of fairness. An ontogenetic perspective better captures the complexity of what it means to be moral.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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