Moral Sentimentalism

Course Description: This course examines one of the most influential positions in the history of ethics: “Moral Sentimentalism”. Moral sentimentalists deny that human motivation can always be reduced to calculations of self-interest; they also challenge those who maintain that morality can be derived from pure reason. Moral sentimentalists assert that morality is possible because human beings are passionate creatures who genuinely care about the welfare of others. We will carefully examine the writings of central figures in this movement, both classical and contemporary. We will also consider recent approaches - including work on altruism, empathy, psychopathy, and disgust- which promise to shed important new light on the foundations of morality.

Class Schedule:

1. Altruism-Egoism Debate

Altruism: Philosophical Approaches

Stich, Doris, and Roedder: “Altruism” §1-2
Butler: “Upon the Love of Our Neighbor”
Sober and Wilson: “Philosophical Arguments"

Altruism: Evolutionary Approaches

Wilson and Sober: “The Evolution of Psychological Altruism"
Stich, Doris, and Roedder: “Altruism" §3

Altruism: Philosophical Approaches II

Hutcheson: Selections from Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue
Hume: “Self-Love” (275-280)

Altruism: Psychological Approaches

Batson: “How Social an Animal: the Human Capacity for Caring”
Stich, Doris, and Roedder: "Altruism” §4

Interlude: Philosophy of Laughter

Hobbes: Human Nature 11.13
Hutcheson: “Reflections on Laughter”

2. Moral Rationalism

Moral Rationalism

Clarke: “Discourse Upon Natural Religion” §225-229
Hutcheson: “Concerning the Character of Virtue and Vice, the Fitness or Unfitness of Actions”
Hume: "Moral Distinctions Not Deriv'd From Reason” §1-4 (67-68) and §17-27 (72-77)

Moral Motivation

Clarke: “Discourse Upon Natural Religion” §231-238
Hume: “Of the Influencing Motives of the Will” (60-64) & "Moral Distinctions Not Deriv'd From Reason” §5-10 (68-69)

Psychopathy

Nichols: “How Psychopaths Threaten Moral Rationalism” (290-301)
Kennett: “Do Psychopaths Really Threaten Moral Rationalism?” (74-77)

Acquired Sociopathy

Roskies: "Are Ethical Judgments Intrinsically Motivational? Lessons from Acquired Sociopathy"

3. Moral Sentimentalism

Hutcheson's Sentimentalism

Hutcheson: Selections from Inquiry Concerning the Original of our Ideas of Virtue

Hume's Sentimentalism

Hume: "Moral distinctions deriv'd from a moral sense" §1-4, §5, and §11 (77-81); "Of the origin of the natural virtues and vices" §1-11, §14-30 (151-163); "Conclusion of this book" §6 (183-184)

Social Psychology

Haidt: “The Emotional Dog and Its Rational Tail: A Social Intuitionist Approach to Moral Judgment”

Neo-Sentimentalism

Prinz: “The Emotional Basis of Moral Judgments”

4. Empathy Debate

Empathy Debate I

Hume: "Of the Love of Fame" §2-7 (29-31) and "Why Utility Pleases" (218-231)

Empathy Debate II

Adam Smith: Theory of Moral Sentiments I.1-2 and III.1,4
Slote: "Moral Approval and Disapproval"
Noddings: "An Ethics of Caring"

Empathy Debate III

Prinz: “Against Empathy” (214-224)

Empathy Debate IV

Prinz: "Against Empathy" (227-230); Bloom: Against Empathy (15-39)

5. Moral Diversity

Moral Diversity: Historical Account I

Hutcheson: "All Mankind agree in this general Foundation of their Approbation of moral Actions. The Grounds of the different Opinions about Morals"

Moral Diversity: Historical Account II

Hume: “A Dialogue” (297-310)

Moral Diversity: Contemporary Approaches

Doris and Plakias: “How to Argue about Disagreement: Evaluative Diversity and Moral Realism”; Susan Wolf: “Relativism Without Subjectivism”

Aesthetic Diversity

Hume: “Of the Standard of Taste” (345-360)

6. Boundaries of Moral Domain

Moral Domain

Hume: "Qualities Immediately Agreeable to Ourselves" (244-256) and "Of Some Verbal Disputes" (288-296)

Moralization and Conventions

Nichols: “Norms with Feelings: Toward a Psychological Account of Moral Judgment” and Kelly, Stich, et al. "Harm, Affect, and the Conventional/Moral Distinction"

Disgust Skepticism

Kelly: “Disgust and Normative Ethics”

Disgust Advocacy [Class Debate]

Kahan: "The Progressive Appropriation of Disgust"
Kelly and Morar: "Against the Yuk Factor: On the Ideal Role of Disgust in Society" (8-25)

7. Evolution and Moral Intuition

Dual-Process Theory

Greene: “The Secret Joke of Kant's Soul”

Selective Debunking

Singer: "Ethics and Intuitions"

Error Theories

Ruse: "Darwinian Ethics" and Joyce: "Morality and Evolution"

Global Debunking

Street: "Does Anything Really Matter or Did We Just Evolve to Think So?" and Kahane: "Evolutionary Debunking Arguments"