Post on 06-Jan-2016
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Moral Theory Meets Cognitive Science
How the Cognitive Sciences Can Transform Traditional Debates
Stephen StichDept. of Philosophy
& Center for Cognitive ScienceRutgers University
sstich@ruccs.rutgers.edu
Jean Nicod
Lectures
2007
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Lecture 4
Stephen StichDaniel Kelly
Joshua Knobe
Debunking Moral IntuitionA Hodgepodge of Multipurpose Kludges
Jean Nicod
Lectures
2007
3
Lecture 4
Stephen StichJoshua Knobe Daniel Kelly
Debunking Moral IntuitionA Hodgepodge of Multipurpose Kludges
Jean Nicod
Lectures
2007
4
Introduction
Philosophers – and more recently cognitive scientists – have offered many accounts of the psychological mechanisms & processespsychological mechanisms & processes underlying intuitive moral judgmentintuitive moral judgment
Moral philosophers have always insisted that sometimessometimes the outputs of those processes – people’s “moral intuitions”“moral intuitions” – are not to be not to be trusted trusted though they disagree about whenwhen skepticism is skepticism is
warrantedwarranted
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Introduction
Our goal in this talk is to sketch a newly newly emerging perspectiveemerging perspective on the mechanisms underlying moral intuition …
and to explore its implicationsimplications for the hotly debated issue of whether and when intuitions whether and when intuitions should be relied onshould be relied on
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Introduction
Philosophers have typically assumed that those Philosophers have typically assumed that those mechanisms were mechanisms were well designedwell designed for … for … somethingsomething
But we now have reasons to think that But we now have reasons to think that many of many of theses mechanismstheses mechanisms are are not well designed not well designed for for ANYTHINGANYTHING
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Introduction
Moral Psychology is a Moral Psychology is a KludgeKludge
A hodgepodge of multipurpose A hodgepodge of multipurpose kludges!kludges!
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Introduction
Before explaining and defending this claim it Before explaining and defending this claim it will be useful to consider some of the will be useful to consider some of the reasonsreasons that philosophers – both classic & that philosophers – both classic & contemporary – have offered contemporary – have offered for discounting for discounting moral intuitionsmoral intuitions
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Philosophical Background
When should we be skeptical about When should we be skeptical about moral intuitions?moral intuitions?
The “Moral SenseMoral Sense” & “Ideal ObserverIdeal Observer” traditions
Reflective EquilibriumReflective Equilibrium
Evolutionary argumentsEvolutionary arguments debunking intuition
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Philosophical Background
The “Moral SenseMoral Sense” & “Ideal ObserverIdeal Observer” traditions
Ideal observer theorists maintain that our moral intuitions are correctintuitions are correct (or justified) when made under when made under ideal conditionsideal conditions
When conditions are not idealnot ideal – e.g. when we have false beliefs about relevant non-moral matters, or we are irrational – our intuitions are not to be trustedintuitions are not to be trusted
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Philosophical Background
The “Moral SenseMoral Sense” & “Ideal ObserverIdeal Observer” traditions
For HutchesonHutcheson – an important precursor of this tradition – moral judgments are the product of a “moral “moral sense”sense” implanted in us by “the Author of Nature”“the Author of Nature”
Thus it can be relied uponcan be relied upon when doing its job properly
But, like other senses, it can misleadmislead when conditions are unfavorableunfavorable
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Philosophical Background
Reflective Equilibrium Reflective Equilibrium
Rawls’ “Decision Procedure for Ethics” (1951)
Narrow Reflective EquilibriumNarrow Reflective Equilibrium
Bring intuitions about
particular cases
moral principles
into accord
To do this, sometimes an intuition about a particular case must be rejectedrejected
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Philosophical Background
Wide Reflective EquilibriumWide Reflective Equilibrium
Bring intuitions about
particular cases
moral principles
into accord with the rest of our beliefsthe rest of our beliefs
including beliefs about scientific matters, history, politics – even metaphysics & semantics
Even more of our intuitionsEven more of our intuitions about particular cases will have to be rejectedrejected
Philosophical Background
Evolutionary argumentsEvolutionary arguments debunking intuition
Perhaps the most influential writer in this tradition is Peter Singer
Updated in “Ethics & Intuition (2005)
The
ExpandingCircle
Ethics and Sociobiology
Peter Singer
FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUXNew York
1981
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Philosophical Background
In The Expanding Circle, Singer focuses on nepotistic intuitionsnepotistic intuitions which maintain that, in various domains, we ought to value the welfare of our kinkin and tribesmentribesmen more than the welfare of people outside these circles
The psychological processes leading to judgments of this sort were adaptive in ancestral environmentsadaptive in ancestral environments (and perhaps they still are)
But once we see why we have these nepotistic & why we have these nepotistic & tribal intuitionstribal intuitions, Singer suggests, we can also see that there is no good reason to use themthere is no good reason to use them in a “decision procedure for ethics”
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Philosophical Background
In “Ethics and Intuition” (2005) Singer develops the argument by focusing on the sort of “trolley problems” “trolley problems” that have loomed large in recent philosophical and empirical studies
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Philosophical Background
Singer (following Greene) maintains that the neuroscientific evidenceneuroscientific evidence suggests that intuitions about the “footbridge” case are the result of our emotional reactionemotional reaction to cases in which harm is caused by the sort of harm is caused by the sort of interaction that would have occurred in interaction that would have occurred in ancestral environmentsancestral environments
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Philosophical Background
“The salient feature that explains our different intuitive judgments concerning the two cases is that the footbridge case is the kind of situation that was likely to arise during the eons of time over which we were evolving; whereas the standard trolley case describes a way of bringing about someone’s death that has only been possible in the past century or two…. But what is But what is the moral salience of the fact that I have killed someone in the moral salience of the fact that I have killed someone in a way that was possible a million years ago, rather than in a way that was possible a million years ago, rather than in a way that became possible only two hundred years ago? a way that became possible only two hundred years ago? I would answer: none….I would answer: none….
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Philosophical Background
““At [a] more general level …this … At [a] more general level …this … casts serious doubt on the casts serious doubt on the method of reflective equilibriummethod of reflective equilibrium. There is little point in . There is little point in constructing a moral theory designed to match considered constructing a moral theory designed to match considered moral judgments that themselves stem from our evolved moral judgments that themselves stem from our evolved responses to the situations in which we and our ancestors responses to the situations in which we and our ancestors lived during the period of our evolution as social mammals, lived during the period of our evolution as social mammals, primates, and finally, human beings. We should, with our primates, and finally, human beings. We should, with our current powers of reasoning and our rapidly changing current powers of reasoning and our rapidly changing circumstances, be able to do better than that.” (348)”circumstances, be able to do better than that.” (348)”
What I am saying, in brief, is this. Advances in our understanding of ethics … undermine some conceptions of doing ethicsundermine some conceptions of doing ethics …. Those conceptions of ethics tend to be too respectful Those conceptions of ethics tend to be too respectful of our intuitions. Our better understanding of ethics gives of our intuitions. Our better understanding of ethics gives us grounds for being less respectful of them.us grounds for being less respectful of them.” (349)
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Philosophical Background
We agree with Singer’s skepticism about intuition
But we also think his skepticism skepticism is
not radical enough!not radical enough!
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Philosophical Background
AssumptionsAssumptions that SingerSinger and the friends of the friends of intuition intuition shareshare:
The psychological system underlying our moral intuitions is well designedwell designed
Thus there is some point point to – or reason forreason for – the intuitive moral judgments people make when the system is working properly
Though Singer (unlike the friends of intuition) insists that the function the system is designed for is of dubious dubious moral importancemoral importance, and thus that the intuitions are not to not to be taken seriouslybe taken seriously
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Philosophical Background
We believe that the engine of moral intuition is not is not well designedwell designed at all
Far from being the sort of “elegant machine”“elegant machine” celebrated in the writings of some evolutionary psychologists, we think that it is a kludgekludge
a cluster of mechanisms cobbled together rather cobbled together rather awkwardlyawkwardly from bits of mental machinery most of which were designed for functions that have designed for functions that have noting to do with moralitynoting to do with morality
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Philosophical Background
To use a term that may be more common in Paris, we maintain that the engine of moral intuition is the result of bricolagebricolage
François Jacob Claude Lévi-Strauss
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Philosophical Background
This explains many of the quirksquirks of moral intuition …
And provides yet another reason to be skepticalskeptical of their use in moral deliberationuse in moral deliberation
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Overview of the Rest of the Talk
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Overview of the Rest of the Talk
Two examples of the “kludginess” of the mechanisms underlying moral intuition Dan Kelly’sDan Kelly’s work on Moral DisgustMoral Disgust Joshua Knobe’sJoshua Knobe’s work on intentionality intentionality
judgments & unconscious moral unconscious moral judgmentsjudgments
From kludginess to skepticismFrom kludginess to skepticism
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Kelly on Disgust
KellyKelly has constructed a rich, nuanced, empirically supported account of the psychological psychological mechanisms underlying the mechanisms underlying the uniquely human disgust uniquely human disgust systemsystem and how that system how that system evolvedevolved
In this talk I’ll only have time to for a brief sketch of two central themes
Daniel Kelly
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Kelly on Disgust
The Entanglement ThesisThe Entanglement Thesis Disgust is itself a kludgeDisgust is itself a kludge – a uniquely
human emotion produced by the merger of two distinct systems
The Co-Optation ThesisThe Co-Optation Thesis After the merger, disgust was co-optedco-opted by
the norm systemthe norm system the ethnic boundary systemthe ethnic boundary system
which were central elements in the emergence of human ultra-socialityhuman ultra-sociality
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Kelly on Disgust
Kelly assembles a vast array of evidencevast array of evidence for these theses, drawn from neuroscience social psychology cognitive psychology developmental psychology evolutionary psychology gene-culture co-evolution theory
As usual, the devil is in the detailsthe devil is in the details So I join Paul Rozin in urging that you read the
work as it appears in print
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Kelly on Disgust The Entanglement Thesis
Disgust exhibits a puzzling array of
elicitorselicitors
which evoke an equally puzzling cluster of
responsesresponses
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Kelly on Disgust The Entanglement Thesis
Elicitors include FoodsFoods: dog meat, grubs, insects
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Kelly on Disgust The Entanglement Thesis
Elicitors include FoodsFoods: dog meat, grubs, insects Substances associated with the bodybody: feces, vomit,
spit Organic decayOrganic decay People and objects associated with illnessillness: a shirt
once worn by a person with leprosy Sexual practicesSexual practices: necrophilia, incest Some moral transgressionsmoral transgressions & transgressorsors: rape,
torture, child molestation Members of low status outgroupsoutgroups: untouchables,
Jews
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Kelly on Disgust The Entanglement Thesis
Elicitors include FoodsFoods: dog meat, grubs, insects Substances associated with the bodybody: feces, vomit,
spit Organic decayOrganic decay People and objects associated with illnessillness: a shirt
once worn by a person with leprosy Sexual practicesSexual practices: necrophilia, incest Some moral transgressionsmoral transgressions & transgressors: rape,
torture, child molestation Members of low status outgroupsoutgroups: untouchables,
Jews
Some elicitors are pan-cultural
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Kelly on Disgust The Entanglement Thesis
Elicitors include FoodsFoods: dog meat, grubs, insects Substances associated with the bodybody: feces, vomit,
spit Organic decayOrganic decay People and objects associated with illnessillness: a shirt
once worn by a person with leprosy Sexual practicesSexual practices: necrophilia, incest Some moral transgressionsmoral transgressions & transgressors: rape,
torture, child molestation Members of low status outgroupsoutgroups: untouchables,
Jews
Others are culturally local(or idiosyncratic)
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Kelly on Disgust The Entanglement Thesis
The disgust response includes Gape face (occasionally accompanied by retching) Feeling of nausea Sense oral incorporation
Quick withdrawal A more sustained & cognitive sense of
offensiveness A more sustained & cognitive sense of
contamination
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Kelly on Disgust The Entanglement Thesis
How are all of these connectedconnected?
The Entanglement ThesisThe Entanglement Thesis maintains that the human emotion of disgust is the result of the fusionfusion of two distinct mechanisms each of which has homologous counterparts in
other species though they have combined only in humansonly in humans
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Kelly on Disgust The Entanglement Thesis
One mechanism (“the poison avoidance the poison avoidance mechanismmechanism”) is directly linked to digestiondigestion It evolved to regulate food intakeregulate food intake and protect the gut
against ingested substances that are poisonous or poisonous or otherwise harmfulotherwise harmful
It was designed to expel substancesdesigned to expel substances entering the gastro-intestinal system via the mouth
And to acquire new elicitorsnew elicitors very quickly As John Garcia famously demonstrated, ingested
substances that induce gut-based distress often generate acquired aversions
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Kelly on Disgust The Entanglement Thesis
The other mechanism (“the parasite avoidance the parasite avoidance mechanismmechanism”) Evolved to protect against infection from pathogens pathogens
and parasitesand parasites, by avoiding them Not specific to ingestion, but serves to guard against
coming into close physical proximityclose physical proximity with infectious infectious agentsagents
This involves avoiding not only visible pathogens and visible pathogens and parasitesparasites, but also places, substances and other places, substances and other organismsorganisms that might be harboring them
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Kelly on Disgust The Entanglement Thesis
The disgust response includes Gape face (occasionally accompanied by retching) Feeling of nausea Sense oral incorporation
Quick withdrawal A more sustained & cognitive sense of
offensiveness A more sustained & cognitive sense of
contamination
These elements of the disgust responseresponse aretraceable to the poison avoidance system
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Kelly on Disgust The Entanglement Thesis
The disgust response includes Gape face (occasionally accompanied by retching) Feeling of nausea Sense oral incorporation
Quick withdrawal A more sustained & cognitive sense of
offensiveness A more sustained & cognitive sense of
contamination
and these are traceable to the parasite avoidance poison system
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Kelly on Disgust The Entanglement Thesis
Elicitors include FoodsFoods: dog meat, grubs, insects Substances associated with the bodybody: feces, vomit,
spit Organic decayOrganic decay People and objects associated with illnessillness: a shirt
once worn by a person with leprosy Sexual practicesSexual practices: necrophilia, incest Some moral transgressionsmoral transgressions & transgressors: rape,
torture, child molestation Members of low status outgroupsoutgroups: untouchables,
Jews
These elicitorselicitors are traceable to the poison avoidance system
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Kelly on Disgust The Entanglement Thesis
Elicitors include FoodsFoods: dog meat, grubs, insects Substances associated with the bodybody: feces, vomit,
spit Organic decayOrganic decay People and objects associated with illnessillness: a shirt
once worn by a person with leprosy Sexual practicesSexual practices: necrophilia, incest Some moral transgressionsmoral transgressions & transgressors: rape,
torture, child molestation Members of low status outgroupsoutgroups: untouchables,
Jews
and these are traceable to the parasite avoidance system
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Kelly on Disgust The Entanglement Thesis
One bit of evidence supporting the Entanglement Thesis is that different components of that response are on different developmental schedulesdifferent developmental schedules Distaste & gape are present within the first year of life Contamination sensitivity emerges significantly later
Once the full system in in place, the components of the response are produced together – they form a nomological clusternomological cluster Any elicitor of disgust will reliably produce all or most of
those clustered components
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Kelly on Disgust The Entanglement Thesis
A puzzleA puzzle: Why should the sight of a festering sore or a person
with leprosy evoke a gape face and a feeling of nausea?
The solutionThe solution: Disgust is a kludgekludge!
But it is kludge with features that could be readily co-opted and put to other uses as humans began living in larger groups and human ultrasocialityultrasociality emerged
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Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
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Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
The Gape Face as a SignalThe Gape Face as a Signal As group size increased, there was an increasing need
for a perspicuous signalperspicuous signal warning of dangerous dangerous foods and risk of infectious diseasefoods and risk of infectious disease
In humans, the face and facial expressions provide a rich source of such social information
The gape facegape face, which clearly has roots in the facial motions that accompany retching, was co-opted as a co-opted as a signalsignal, warning others not just against toxic foodstoxic foods, but also against the presence of parasites and parasites and contagious pathogenscontagious pathogens
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Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
Co-Optation by the Norm SystemCo-Optation by the Norm System As group size increased, there was increased need for
complex social social coordinationcoordination
The norm systemnorm system – whose structure we considered briefly in the 2nd Lecture – played an important role in facilitating this co-ordination
And the disgust system had features that made it an obvious candidate to be co-opted by the norm system as it evolved
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Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
The S&S model suggests that compliance motivation & punitive motivation are linked to “the emotion system”
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Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
Acquisition Mechanism
Execution Mechanism
identi
fy n
orm
im
plic
ati
ng
behavio
r
infe
r co
nte
nts
of
norm
ati
ve r
ule
s
compliance
motivation
punitive motivati
on
emotion
systemRule-related
reasoning capacity
norm data base
r1---------- r2---------- r3---------- …… rn----------
ProximalCues in
Environment
judgment
other emotion triggers
beliefs
explicit reasonin
g
post-hoc justificatio
n
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Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
But psychological & neurological evidence indicates that there are several separate emotion systemsseveral separate emotion systems – the disgust system being one of them
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Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
Acquisition Mechanism
Execution Mechanism
identi
fy n
orm
im
plic
ati
ng
behavio
r
infe
r co
nte
nts
of
norm
ati
ve r
ule
s
compliance
motivation
punitive motivati
on
DISGUST
Rule-related
reasoning capacity
norm data base
r1---------- r2---------- r3---------- …… rn----------
ProximalCues in
Environment
judgment
other emotion triggers
beliefs
explicit reasonin
g
post-hoc justificatio
n
other emotion
s
52
Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
Disgust is a natural candidate to provide both compliance & punitive motivationcompliance & punitive motivation for norms that involve intrinsically disgusting matters, like the disposal of corpses & bodily wastes, and other activities that are antecedently salient to the disgust system, like eating practices
ComplianceCompliance is motivated by making norm violating norm violating behavior disgustingbehavior disgusting & thus aversive
Punitive motivationPunitive motivation is provided because the violator violator is considered dirty and contaminatedis considered dirty and contaminated and is avoided or shunned
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Acquisition Mechanism
Execution Mechanism
identi
fy n
orm
im
plic
ati
ng
behavio
r
infe
r co
nte
nts
of
norm
ati
ve r
ule
s
compliance
motivation
punitive motivati
on
DISGUST
Rule-related
reasoning capacity
norm data base
r1---------- r2---------- r3---------- …… rn----------
ProximalCues in
Environment
judgment
other emotion triggers
beliefs
explicit reasonin
g
post-hoc justificatio
n
other emotion
s
Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
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Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
The norm system is thus a kludge built with kludgy kludge built with kludgy partsparts Not surprisingly, this can lead to some very quirky and quirky and
disturbing behaviordisturbing behavior
Several recent studies have focused on the fact that the disgust systemdisgust system can be triggeredtriggered by many things that have nothing to do with normsnothing to do with norms
but even when triggered by these non-moral itemstriggered by these non-moral items, the disgust system can have dramatic and persistent dramatic and persistent influence on a person’s judgments about moral influence on a person’s judgments about moral issuesissues
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Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
Acquisition Mechanism
Execution Mechanism
identi
fy n
orm
im
plic
ati
ng
behavio
r
infe
r co
nte
nts
of
norm
ati
ve r
ule
s
compliance
motivation
punitive motivati
on
DISGUST
Rule-related
reasoning capacity
norm data base
r1---------- r2---------- r3---------- …… rn----------
ProximalCues in
Environment
judgment
other emotion triggers
beliefs
explicit reasonin
g
post-hoc justificatio
n
other emotion
s
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Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
Wheatley & HaidtWheatley & Haidt have shown that when participants are hypnotically inducedhypnotically induced to feel a brief pang of disgustdisgust when they encounter the work “often”“often” and then presented with the following scenario
“Dan is a student council representative at his school. This semester he is in charge of scheduling discussions about academic issues. He oftenoften picks topics that appeal to both professors and students in order to stimulate discussion.”
many judge that Dan is doing something wrongsomething wrong!
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Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
SchnallSchnall et al. have shown participants make more severe moral judgments when the judgments are made in a disgusting office:
greasy pizza boxes sticky chair a dried up smoothie a chewed up pen
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Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
Other studies have focused on prima facie irrational downstream consequencesdownstream consequences of the disgust system being triggered in moral deliberation
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Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
Acquisition Mechanism
Execution Mechanism
identi
fy n
orm
im
plic
ati
ng
behavio
r
infe
r co
nte
nts
of
norm
ati
ve r
ule
s
compliance
motivation
punitive motivati
on
DISGUST
Rule-related
reasoning capacity
norm data base
r1---------- r2---------- r3---------- …… rn----------
ProximalCues in
Environment
judgment
other emotion triggers
beliefs
explicit reasonin
g
post-hoc justificatio
n
other emotion
s
Downstream consequenc
es
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Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
The Lady Macbeth EffectThe Lady Macbeth Effect
Zhong & LiljenquistZhong & Liljenquist have shown that recalling an unethical deedunethical deed increased the desire for products related to cleansing, like antiseptic wipes
And that cleaning one’s handscleaning one’s hands after describing a past unethical deed reduced moral emotionsreduced moral emotions like guilt & shame
and also reduced the likelihood that participants reduced the likelihood that participants would volunteer to helpwould volunteer to help a desperate graduate student!
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Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
The Lady Macbeth EffectThe Lady Macbeth Effect
Schnall et al. Schnall et al. (unpublished) compared judgments about moral severity in two groups of participants
One group had just used an alcohol-based cleansingcleansing gel on their hands
The other group had just used an ordinary, non-non-cleansingcleansing hand cream
The moral judgments of those using the cleansing gelcleansing gel were significantly less severe!significantly less severe!
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Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
Ethnic Boundary MarkersEthnic Boundary Markers Boyd & RichersonBoyd & Richerson & their students have argued that
another crucial step in the development of human ultra-sociality was the emergence of mechanisms which allow people to recognize members of their own tribe or “ethnie”
This is important because in-group members share beliefs & norms norms that facilitate coordinationfacilitate coordination
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Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
Since different cuisinescuisines & eating practiceseating practices are one of the more visible correlates of ethnie membership, and since disgust is heavily involved in regulating food intake, disgust was a natural candidate to be co-opted by the emerging system of ethnic identification
Eating practices of out-groups and other readily detectable signs of out-groupsigns of out-group membership came to came to evoke disgustevoke disgust
And disgust came to provided a significant part of the motivation motivation to avoid out-group members
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Kelly on Disgust The Co-Optation Thesis
Though the evolutionary function of the ethnic boundary marker system was to facilitate cooperation by keeping groups apart, the kludgy solutionkludgy solution to this problem has some unfortunate consequences
Out-group members are not simply avoided, they are also considered offensive & contaminatingoffensive & contaminating
People who embrace different norms are often felt to be disgusting and sub-human! disgusting and sub-human!
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Kludge Meets Kass
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Kludge Meets Kass
Leon Kass, M.D., Ph.D.
Conservative bio-ethicist
Chairman of the U. S. A. President's Council on Bioethics from 2002 to 2005
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Kludge Meets Kass In his book, Life, Liberty & the Defense of Dignity (2002),
there is a chapter called “The Wisdom of Repugnance”“The Wisdom of Repugnance”
Kass maintains that
"in crucial cases...repugnance is the emotional expression of deep wisdomdeep wisdom, beyond reason's power fully to articulate it.”
“In this age in which everything is held to be permissible so long as it is freely done, and in which our bodies are regarded as mere instruments of our autonomous rational will, repugnance may be the only voice left that speaks up to defend the core of our humanity. Shallow Shallow are the souls that have forgotten how to shudderare the souls that have forgotten how to shudder."
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Kludge Meets Kass
The claims play a central role in Kass’ critique of human human cloningcloning
Others have adopted the idea to argue against abortionabortion, pornographypornography & same-sex marriagesame-sex marriage
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Kludge Meets Kass
Some philosophers, most notably Martha Nussbaum, have challenged Kass, arguing that disgust should be discounted in moral & legal deliberation because (roughly) it reminds us of our animal origins
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Kludge Meets Kass
I think Kelly’s work offers a far more
plausibleplausible &
powerfulpowerful
critiquecritique
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Kludge Meets Kass
There is no reason to think there is
wisdom in repugnancewisdom in repugnance
because
Disgust is a KludgeDisgust is a Kludge
and the psychological system that bases moral judgments on disgust is a
Kludge twice over!Kludge twice over!
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Kludge Meets Kass
Anti-Jewish Nazi propaganda often invoked the imagery and language of disgust, purity, contamination & dehumanization very flagrantly
A poster advertising the film The Eternal Jew
Hitler described “the Jew” as “a maggot in a festering abscess, hidden away inside the clean and healthy body of the nation”
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Knobe on Norms and Intentional Action
My second example draws some elegant and exciting work by Joshua Knobe which demonstrates the way in which unconscious moral judgments – judgments which an agent may explicitly reject – can nonetheless have significant impact on a range of morally relevant intuitions
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Knobe on Norms and Intentional Action
In his new book, Kluge, Gary Gary MarcusMarcus argues that more recently evolved, computationally slow and consciously accessible mental processes – “System 2 Processes”“System 2 Processes” in the currently fashionable jargon – were grafted onto older (System 1) psychological systems designed for quite different purposes
The resulting kludgy architecturekludgy architecture accounts for many of the quirks and quirks and shortcomingsshortcomings that contemporary cognitive science has discovered
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Knobe on Norms and Intentional Action
I think that Knobe’s workKnobe’s work provides an important & disquieting illustration of this phenomenon in the moral domainin the moral domain
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Knobe on Norms and Intentional Action
The story begins with “the side effect effect”“the side effect effect” (aka the Knobe effect) – one of best known and most surprising finding in the emerging field of experimental philosophy
Knobe (2003) reports an experiment in which participants were presented with a pair of almost identical vignettes
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Knobe on Norms and Intentional Action
The vice-president of a company went to the chairman of the board and said, ‘We are thinking of starting a new program. It will help us increase profits, but it will also harmharm [helphelp] the environment.’
The chairman of the board answered, ‘I don’t care at all about harmingharming [helpinghelping] the environment. I just want to make as much profit as I can. Let’s start the new program.’
They started the new program. Sure enough, the environment was harmed harmed [helpedhelped].
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Knobe on Norms and Intentional Action
In the harmharm case, participants were asked how much blameblame the chairman deserved (on a scale from 0 – 6) and whether he intentionallyintentionally harmed the environment
In the helphelp case, participants were asked how much praisepraise the chairman deserved (on a scale from 0 – 6) and whether he intentionallyintentionally helped the environment
In the harmharm case, 82% said the chairman brought about the side-effect intentionally
In the helphelp case, 77% said the chairman did notdid not bring about the side-effect intentionally
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Knobe on Norms and Intentional Action
Knobe’s initial hypothesisinitial hypothesis was that people’s moral people’s moral assessment of the side-effectassessment of the side-effect plays a substantial role in determining whether they are willing to say that the side-effect was brought about intentionallyintentionally A judgment that the side-effect is morally badthe side-effect is morally bad makes
it more likely that it will be judged to be intentionalintentional
Though this seems incompatible incompatible with the widespread idea that judgments of intentionality are judgments about a purely factual mattera purely factual matter, it does have an an obvious rationaleobvious rationale since judgments about whether an action is intentional play a central role in determining whether an agent deserves praise or blame
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Knobe on Norms and Intentional Action
Subsequent research showed that, if the hypothesis is understood as a claim about the effect of moral the effect of moral judgments that people consciously makejudgments that people consciously make, this hypothesis is mistaken mistaken
The problem emerges clearly in study Knobe ran in collaboration with David Pizarro & Paul Bloom
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Knobe on Norms and Intentional Action
Liberal university studentsLiberal university students were given Knobe-style Knobe-style vignettesvignettes in which an advertising executive approves an ad campaign which has the side-effectside-effect of
encouraging interracial sex encouraging interracial sex or placing gardenias in one’s office
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Knobe on Norms and Intentional Action
NoneNone of the participants judged that inter-inter-racial sexracial sex (or placing gardenias) is morally morally wrongwrong
But participants were much more inclined to say that the executive intentionally intentionally encouraged interracial sexencouraged interracial sex
Explicit moral judgmentsExplicit moral judgments cannot explain the difference in judgments about the intention-intention-ality ality of the side-effects
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Knobe on Norms and Intentional Action
However, (following Pizarro & Bloom) Knobe has recently proposed that perhaps participants were making non-conscious normative judgmentsnon-conscious normative judgments that the behavior in question violates a normthe behavior in question violates a norm that is made salient by the question or situation, even if it is a norm that they explicitly rejectexplicitly reject
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Knobe on Norms and Intentional Action
The picture Knobe now proposes looks like this:
“In reaching a conscious moral judgmentconscious moral judgment, we can consider a variety of different moral norms, weigh these norms against each other, perhaps even determine that some of the norms are themselves unjustified.”
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Knobe on Norms and Intentional Action
Non-conscious moral judgmentsNon-conscious moral judgments are formed through a much simpler (system-1 style) process
They are formed extremely quicklyextremely quickly and therefore involve very shallow processinginvolve very shallow processing
In generating a non-conscious moral judgment, the the only norms we consider are the ones that first come only norms we consider are the ones that first come to mindto mind. We do not searchsearch for additional norms; we do not weighweigh norms against each other; we do not ask whether any of the norms might themselves be unjustifiedunjustified.
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Knobe on Norms and Intentional Action
Instead, we simply determine whether the behavior in the behavior in question violates any of the norms question violates any of the norms in the very limited set we are considering
If it does, we classify it as a transgressiontransgression. It is this this judgment judgment as to whether or not the behavior is a transgression that then influences our intuitions influences our intuitions about intentionalabout intentional action.
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Knobe on Norms and Intentional Action
The theory predicts that the most salient norms the most salient norms evoked by a given caseevoked by a given case will be the ones used to in making intentionality judgments, even if subsequent reflection leads the agent to think that there is nothing wrong with violating the norm – or that doing so would be a very good thing.
Here is a vignette that Knobe has recently used to test this idea
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Knobe on Norms and Intentional Action
In Nazi Germany, there was a law called the ‘racial identification law.’ The purpose of the law was to help identify people of certain races so that they could be rounded up and sent to concentration camps. Shortly after this law was passed, the CEO of a small corporation decided to make certain organizational changes. The Vice-President of the corporation said: “By making those changes, you’ll definitely be increasing our profits. But you’ll also be violatingviolating [fulfillingfulfilling] the requirements of the racial identification law.” The CEO said: “Look, I know that I’ll be violatingviolating [fulfillingfulfilling] the requirements of the law, but I don’t care one bit about that. All I care about is making as much profit as I can. Let’s make those organizational changes!” As soon as the CEO gave this order, the corporation began making the organizational changes. 81%81% of subjects in the violateviolate condition said that he violated
the requirements intentionally; 30%30% of subjects in the fulfillfulfill condition said that he fulfilled the requirements intentionally.
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Knobe on Norms and Intentional Action
Knobe’s theory is certainly not the last wordnot the last word on how how intentionality judgments are generatedintentionality judgments are generated His work has inspired dozens of other researchers
there are many studies I have not mentioned and many others are underway
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Knobe on Norms and Intentional Action
However, IFIF Knobe’s theory is on the right track, then intentionality judgmentsintentionality judgments are a product of a kludgy kludgy architecturearchitecture which can be influenced by norms and judgments which the agent is not aware ofis not aware of, and does not endorsedoes not endorse
This raises serious questionsraises serious questions about the useuse of those judgments in further moral deliberationmoral deliberation, or in the lawlaw
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From Kludginess to SkepticismFrom Kludginess to Skepticism
Both Kelly’s & Knobe’s work support the hypothesis that motivates this talk
The psychological mechanism underlying moral intuition is
A Hodgepodge of Multipurpose KludgesA Hodgepodge of Multipurpose Kludges
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From Kludginess to SkepticismFrom Kludginess to Skepticism
Suppose that’s right. What should we conclude about What should we conclude about moral intuition?moral intuition?
The answer is NOTNOT that all moral intuition should be all moral intuition should be rejectedrejected
nor even that intuitions that are closely tied to kludgy features of the mind should be rejected
For, as Shaun Nichols has argued, some of the most admirable featuresadmirable features of the cultural evolution of normscultural evolution of norms – including the increased scope and acceptance of increased scope and acceptance of norms prohibiting physical harmnorms prohibiting physical harm – are the products of kludgy design
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From Kludginess to SkepticismFrom Kludginess to Skepticism
Rather, I suggest, the right conclusion to draw is that ALL moral intuitionsALL moral intuitions should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticismskepticism
The mechanisms that give rise to them may not have may not have been well designed to do anythingbeen well designed to do anything
So we should be skeptical about moral intuitionsskeptical about moral intuitions for roughly the same reason that we should be skeptical skeptical of the output of a kludgy piece of computer of the output of a kludgy piece of computer softwaresoftware
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From Kludginess to SkepticismFrom Kludginess to Skepticism
Compare and ContrastCompare and Contrast
The friends of intuitionThe friends of intuition (e.g. moral sense theorists) think the system producing them is well designed for morally well designed for morally admirable goalsadmirable goals
though it can sometimes misfireit can sometimes misfire when conditions are unfavorable
Previous enemies of intuitionPrevious enemies of intuition (e.g. Singer) think the system producing them has been well designedwell designed for morally morally problematic goalsproblematic goals
We believe that the system producing them is a kludgekludge – much of it has not been well designed at all!has not been well designed at all!
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From Kludginess to SkepticismFrom Kludginess to Skepticism
But if we should be skeptical about all intuition, how can we go about making how can we go about making moral decisions?moral decisions?
That’s a BIG questionBIG question & a HARD oneHARD one. Perhaps I’ll be able to suggest an answer …
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From Kludginess to SkepticismFrom Kludginess to Skepticism
…the next time I come to Paris