Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology pp 495–517Cite as

Morality According to a Cognitive Interpretation: A Semantic Model for Moral Behavior

  • Chapter

Part of the book series: Studies in Computational Intelligence ((SCI,volume 314))

Abstract

In recent years researches in the field of cognitive psychology have favored an interpretation of moral behavior primarily as the product of basic, automatic and unconscious cognitive mechanisms for the processing of information, rather than of some form of principled reasoning. This paper aims at undermining this view and to sustain the old-fashioned thesis according to which moral judgments are produced by specific forms of reasoning. As critical reference our research specifically addresses the so called Rawlsian model which hinges on the idea that human beings produce their moral judgments on the basis of a moral modular faculty “that enables each individual to unconsciously and automatically evaluate a limitless variety of actions in terms of principles that dictate what is permissible, obligatory, or forbidden”.[25, p. 36] In this regard we try to show that this model is not able to account for the moral behavior of different social groups and different individuals in critical situations, when their own moral judgment disagrees with the moral position of their community. Furthermore, the critical consideration of the Rawlsian model constitutes the theoretical basis for the constructive part of our argument, which consists of a proposal about how to develop a semantic, quasi-rationalistic model to describe moral reasoning. This model aims to account for both moral reasoning and the corresponding emotions on the basis of the information which morally relevant concepts consist of.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Carey, S.: Conceptual Change in Childhood. MIT Press, Cambridge (1985)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Carey, S.: Knowledge acquisition: Enrichment or conceptual change? In: Carley, S., Gelman, R. (eds.) The Epigenesis of Mind: Essays on Biology and Cognition, Hillsdale, pp. 257–291. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah (1991)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Carruthers, P.: Moderately massive modularity. In: O’Hear, A. (ed.) Mind and Person, pp. 67–90. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  4. Chomsky, N.: Recent Contributions to the theory of innate ideas. Synthese 17, 2–11 (1967)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Chomsky, N.: Reflections on Language. Pantheon Books, New York (1975)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Chomsky, N.: Knowledge of Language. Its Nature, Origin and Use. Praeger, New York (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Chomsky, N.: Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures. MIT Press, Cambridge (1988)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Dellantonio, S.: Die interne Dimension der Bedeutung. Externalismus, Internalismus und semantische Kompetenz. Peter Lang Verlag, Hamburg, New York (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Dellantonio, S., Pastore, L.: What do concepts consist of? The role of geometric and proprioceptive information in categorization. In: Hanna, P., McEvoy, A., Voutsina, P. (eds.) An Anthology of Philosophical Studies, pp. 91–102. ATINER, Athens (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Dellantonio, S., Pastore, L.: Teorie morali e contenuto cognitivo. Cognitivismo, postmoderno e relativismo culturale. In: Meattini, V., Pastore, L. (eds.) Identità, individuo, soggetto, pp. 139–178. Mimesis, Milano (2009a)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Dellantonio, S., Pastore, L.: Struttura categoriale e categorizzazione. Un’ipotesi sull’origine della rappresentazione semantica. In: Dellantonio, S., Pastore, L. (eds.) Percezione, rappresentazione e coscienza, pp. 195–230. ETS, Pisa (2009b)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Dwyer, S.: Moral competence. In: Murasugi, K., Stainton, R. (eds.) Philosophy and Linguistics, pp. 169–190. Westview Press, Boulder (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Dwyer, S.: How good is the linguistic analogy? In: Carruthers, P., Laurence, S., Stich, S. (eds.) The Innate Mind. Culture and Cognition, vol. 2, pp. 237–256. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Dwyer, S.: How not to argue that morality isn’t innate: comments on Prinz. In: Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (ed.) Moral Psychology. The Evaluation of Morality: Adaptations and Innateness, vol. 1, pp. 407–418. MIT Press, Cambridge (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Frank, R.: Passions within Reason: The Strategic Role of Emotions. Norton, New York (1988)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Goldman, A.I.: Simulating Minds. The Philosophy and Psychology, and Neuroscience of Mindreading. Oxford University Press, New York (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Gordon, R.: Sympathy, simulation, and the impartial spectator. Ethics 105, 729–742 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Haidt, J.: The emotional dog and its rational trail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review 108, 814–834 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Haidt, J., Bjorklund, F.: Social intuitionists answer six questions about moral psychology. In: Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (ed.) Moral Psychology. The Cognitive Science Of Morality: Intuition and Diversity, vol. 2, pp. 181–217. MIT Press, Cambridge (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Heidt, J., Joseph, C.: Intuitive ethics: How innately prepared intuitions generate culturally variable virtues. Daedalus 133(44), 55–66 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Haidt, J., Graham, J.: When morality opposes justice: Conservatives have moral intuitions that liberals not recognize. Social Justice Research 20, 98–116 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Haidt, J., Joseph, C.: The moral mind. In: Carruthers, P., Laurence, S., Stich, S. (eds.) The Innate Mind. Foundations and the Future, vol. 3, pp. 367–391. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Haidt, J., Koller, S., Dias, M.: Affect, culture, and morality, or is it wrong to eat your dog? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 65, 613–628 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Harman, G.: Explaining Value. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Hauser, M.D.: Moral Minds. How Nature Designed our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong. HarperCollins Publisher, New York (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Hauser, M.D., Young, L., Cushman, F.: Reviving Rawls’s Linguistic Analogy: Operative Principles and the Causal Structure of Moral Actions. In: Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (ed.) Moral Psychology. The Cognitive Science Of Morality: Intuition and Diversity, vol. 2, pp. 107–143. MIT Press, Cambridge (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Hoffman, M.L.: Development of prosocial motivation: Empathy and guilt. In: Eisenberg-Berg, N. (ed.) Development of Prosocial Behavior, pp. 281–313. Academic Press, New York (1982)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Hoffman, M.L.: Affective and cognitive processes in moral internalization: An information processing approach. In: Higgins, E.T., Ruble, D., Hartup, W. (eds.) Social Cognition and Social Development: A Socio-Cultural Perspective, pp. 236–274. Cambridge University Press, New York (1983)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Hoffman, M.L.: The contribution of empathy to justice and moral judgment. In: Eisenberg, N., Strayer, J. (eds.) Empathy and its development, pp. 47–80. Cambridge University Press, New York (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Jackendoff, R.: Languages of the Mind. Essays on Mental Representation. MIT Press, Cambridge (1992)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Kagan, J.: The Nature of the Child. Basic Books, New York (1984)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Kelly, D., Stich, S.: Two theories about the cognitive architecture underlying morality. In: Carruthers, P., Laurence, S., Stich, S. (eds.) The Innate Mind. Foundations and the Future, vol. 3, pp. 348–366. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Kohlberg, L.: Stage and sequence: The cognitive-developmental approach to socialization. In: Goslin, D.A. (ed.) Handbook of Socialization Theory and Research, pp. 347–380. Rand McNally, Chicago (1969)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Kohlberg, L.: From is to ought: How to commit the naturalistic fallacy and get away with it in the study of moral development. In: Mischel, T. (ed.) Cognitive Development and Epistemology, pp. 151–235. Academic Press, New York (1971)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Kohlberg, L.: The Psychology of Moral Development: The Nature and Validity of Moral Stages. Harper and Row, New York (1984)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Mahlmann, M.: Rationalismus in der praktischen Theorie: Normentheorie und praktische Kompetenz. Nomos Verlag, Baden-Baden (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Mikheil, J.: Rawls’ Linguistic Analogy. Ph.D. Thesis, Cornell University Press (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  38. Mikheil, J.: Comment on Sripada. In: Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (ed.) Moral Psychology. The Evaluation of Morality: Adaptations and Innateness, vol. 1, pp. 353–359. MIT Press, Cambridge (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Murphy, G., Medin, D.: The role of theories in conceptual coherence. Psychological Review 92(3), 289–316 (1985)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Nichols, S.: Norms with feeling: Toward a psychological account of moral judgment. Cognition 84, 221–236 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Nichols, S.: Sentimental Rules: On The Natural Foundations of Moral Judgment. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  42. Nichols, S.: Innateness and moral psychology. In: Carruthers, P., Laurence, S., Stich, S. (eds.) The Innate Mind. Structure and Contents, pp. 353–370. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  43. Nucci, L.: Children’s conceptions of morality, social conventions and religious prescription. In: Harding, C. (ed.) Moral Dilemmas: Philosophical and Psychological Reconsiderations of the Development of Moral Reasoning, pp. 137–174. Precedent Press, Chicago (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  44. Nucci, L.: Education in the Moral Domain. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2001)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  45. Prinz, J.J.: The Emotional Construction of Morals. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  46. Prinz, J.J.: Is morality innate? In: Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (ed.) Moral Psychology. The Evaluation of Morality: Adaptations and Innateness, vol. 1, pp. 367–406. MIT Press, Cambridge (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  47. Quine, W.V.O.: Two dogmas of empiricism. In: Quine, W.V.O. (ed.) From a logical point of view, pp. 20–46. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1961)

    Google Scholar 

  48. Rawls, J.: A Theory of Justice. Belknap Press, Cambridge (1971)

    Google Scholar 

  49. Remotti, F.: Contro natura. Laterza, Roma Bari (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  50. Samuels, R.: Massively modular minds: Evolutionary psychology and cognitive architecture. In: Carruthers, P., Chamberlain, A. (eds.) Evolution and the Human Mind: Modularity, Language and Meta-cognition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  51. Schweder, R.A., Heidt, J.: The future of moral psychology: Truth, intuition, and the pluralist way. Psychological Science 4, 360–365 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Smentana, J.: Understanding of social rules. In: Bennett, M. (ed.) The Development of Social Cognition: The Child as Psychologist, pp. 111–141. Guilford Press, New York (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  53. Smentana, J., Braeges, J.: The development of toddlers’ moral and conventional judgments. Merril-Parmer Quarterly 36, 329–346 (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  54. Sripada, C.S., Stich, S.: A framework for the psychology of norms. In: Carruthers, P., Laurence, S., Stich, S. (eds.) The Innate Mind. Culture and Cognition, vol. 2, pp. 280–301. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  55. Thomas, L.: Morality and psychological development. In: Singer, P. (ed.) A Companion to Ethics, pp. 464–475. Blackwell, Oxford (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  56. Tisak, M.: Domains of social reasoning and beyond. In: Vasta, R. (ed.) Annals of Child Development, vol. II, pp. 95–130. Jessica Kingsley, London (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  57. Turiel, E.: The Development of Social Knowledge. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1983)

    Google Scholar 

  58. Turiel, E.: The Culture of Morality: Social Development, Context, and Conflicts. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2002)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  59. Turiel, E., Killen, M., Helwig, C.: Morality: Its Structure, functions, and vagaries. In: Kagan, J., Lamb, S. (eds.) The Emergence of Morality on Young Children, pp. 155–244. University of Chicago, Chicago (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  60. Wilson, J.Q.: The Moral Sense. Free Press, New York (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  61. Zahn-Waxler, C., Radke-Yarrow, M., Wagner, E., Chapman, M.: Development of concerns for others. Developmental Psychology 28, 126–136 (1992)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cognitive and Education Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy

    Sara Dellantonio & Remo Job

Authors
  1. Sara Dellantonio
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Remo Job
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy

    Lorenzo Magnani

  2. CLE State University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil

    Walter Carnielli

  3. Università di Siena, Siena, Italy

    Claudio Pizzi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Dellantonio, S., Job, R. (2010). Morality According to a Cognitive Interpretation: A Semantic Model for Moral Behavior. In: Magnani, L., Carnielli, W., Pizzi, C. (eds) Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology. Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol 314. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15223-8_28

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15223-8_28

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-15222-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-15223-8

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation