Does Moral Psychology Have Anything to Teach Moral Philosophy?

PHIL 4010: Senior Seminar Paper Due December 3

Professor Ron Mallon

The following are merely suggested topics. If you wish to write on an alternative topic, please don’t hesitate to discuss it with me first.

1. Prinz’s moral realism agrees with Greene’s moral anti-realism in denying the existence of mind-independent moral properties. However, Prinz insists that moral properties, nonetheless, exist. Discuss his claim in light of Greene’s critique.

2. Does evidence from social psychology regarding failures of self-explanation undermine the possibility of free will (on a compatibilist rendering)? Why or why not?

3. Consider one or another objection to Prinz’s sensibility theory of the emotions that you think succeeds. Explain the objection, and consider what argument Prinz does or might make in response. Explain why you think the defense fails.

4. Nichols argues that according to Michael Smith’s approach to understanding the meanings of moral terms, moral concepts are not necessarily motivating. Explain Nichols’ argument, and consider Prinz’s alternative position that moral motivation is essentially linked to the emotions.

5. Cognitivism about the emotions has a variety of problems, but anti-cognitivist views seem to fail to account that we rationally evaluate emotional responses. Prinz thinks his theory of the emotions can escape the problems with cognitivism while allowing for rational evaluation. Is he correct?

6. Compare and contrast Greene’s and Prinz’s interpretation of the moral of Jonathan Haidt’s “social intuitionist model” of moral response.