Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T15:01:20.089Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Externalization of moral demands does not motivate exclusion of non-cooperators: A defense of a subjectivist moral psychology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2018

Armin W. Schulz*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045. [email protected]://people.ku.edu/~a382s825/

Abstract

It is not clear how a moral demand alone can motivate an agent to exclude those who fail to act as the demand states. A more plausible hypothesis for the evolution of human moral cognition is based on seeing moral demands as subjective, but inherently conjunctive. This subjectivist-conjunctive proposal can still account for the apparent externalization of moral demands.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Goodwin, G. P. & Darley, J. M. (2008) The psychology of meta-ethics: Exploring objectivism. Cognition 106:1339–66. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2007.06.007.Google Scholar
Millikan, R. (2002) Varieties of meaning. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Schulz, A. (2011) The adaptive importance of cognitive efficiency: An alternative theory of why we have beliefs and desires. Biology and Philosophy 26(1):3150.Google Scholar
Schulz, A. (2013) The benefits of rule following: A new account of the evolution of desires. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 44(4, Part A):595603.Google Scholar
Schulz, A. (2018) Efficient cognition: The evolution of representational decision making. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Skyrms, B. (1996) Evolution of the social contract. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Skyrms, B. (2004) The Stag Hunt and the evolution of social structure. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sober, E. & Wilson, D. S. (1998) Unto others: The evolution and psychology of unselfish behavior. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sterelny, K. (2003) Thought in a hostile world: The evolution of human cognition. Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar