Synopses & Reviews
What is the difference between right and wrong? This is no easy question to answer, yet we constantly try to make it so, frequently appealing to some hidden cache of cut-and-dried absolutes, whether drawn from God, universal reason, or societal authority. Combining cognitive science with a pragmatist philosophical framework in
Morality for Humans: Ethical Understanding from the Perspective of Cognitive Science, Mark Johnson argues that appealing solely to absolute principles and values is not only scientifically unsound but even morally suspect. He shows that the standards for the kinds of people we should be and how we should treat one anotherwhich we often think of as universalare in fact frequently subject to change. And we should be okay with that. Taking context into consideration, he offers a remarkably nuanced, naturalistic view of ethics that sees us creatively adapt our standards according to given needs, emerging problems, and social interactions.
Ethical naturalism is not just a revamped form of relativism. Indeed, Johnson attempts to overcome the absolutist-versus-relativist impasse that has been one of the most intractable problems in the history of philosophy. He does so through a careful and inclusive look at the many ways we reason about right and wrong. Much of our moral thought, he shows, is automatic and intuitive, gut feelings that we follow up and attempt to justify with rational analysis and argument. However, good moral deliberation is not limited merely to intuitive judgments supported after the fact by reasoning. Johnson points out a crucial third element: we imagine how our decisions will play out, how we or the world would change with each action we might take. Plumbing this imaginative dimension of moral reasoning, he provides a psychologically sophisticated view of moral problem solving, one perfectly suited for the embodied, culturally embedded, and ever-developing human creatures that we are.
Review
“In Morality for Humans, Johnson has his hands on what counts in life: how moral appraisals are not separate from intelligence, aesthetic sensibility, flexibility, imagination, or creativity. In fact, that is how the book unfolds, by showing the interrelationship of these constructs. The end is human flourishing, respect for the unifying sensibilities of our experiences and their complexities, and a positive sense of well-being.”
Review
“Morality for Humans is a deep and important book on ethics and on the cognitive science of morality. Mark Johnson is a well-known founder of the movement for empirically responsible ethics that began in the early 1990s, and in Morality for Humans he manages to synthesize his seminal work on moral imagination, metaphor, analogical reasoning, and practical problem-solving with deep thinking about how morality connects with the larger project of living meaningfully, with purpose, in a way that matters and makes a difference. At a time when too much moral psychology is absorbed with brain scans of college students solving ecologically invalid dilemmas about runaway trolleys, Johnsons is a mature work that examines morality in the human ecologies in which it resides and provides wisdom about the contours of a good human life.”
Review
“Morality for Humans is an original work of philosophy, soundly researched and clearly argued. Johnson effectively critiques our traditional views of morality and moral reasoning as seriously flawed because they rely on faulty and outdated views of human nature, moral psychology, and reasoning. He provides instead a stimulating picture of morality as involving open inquiry that requires imagination rather than fixed, absolute rules. Johnson is a distinguished philosopher, and this book represents a worthy addition to his corpus and to philosophical reflection on the important relations between embodied mind and morality.”
Review
“A welcome renewal and defense of John Dewey's ethical naturalism, which Johnson claims is the only morality ‘fit for actual human beings.’ The book straddles the divide between questions in moral psychology—What values do we have? Where did they come from? What role does reason play in moral deliberation?—and questions of normative and metaethics—From where do values get genuine normative authority? How do we properly rank our values when they compete with each other? These questions weave together throughout the book. . . . . He has set the stage for a promising dialogue, and we can look forward to his future contributions to the conversation.”
Review
“Traditionally, moral reasoning has been seen as a matter of conscious analysis—to identify pre-existing moral principles and then apply them. Cognitive science reveals that this cannot be correct, since much moral thinking happens subconsciously. As a result of experiments in moral psychology, many scientists have concluded that intuitive judgements come first, followed later, if at all, by rational justification. That's fine as far as it goes, says Johnson. But he recognises a key third process, which he calls ‘imaginative moral deliberation’—and this is where his real insight comes.”
Synopsis
Where do our moral beliefs come from? Theologians and scientists provide often conflicting answers. Robert Hinde resolves these conflicts to offer a groundbreaking, multidisciplinary response, drawing on psychology, philosophy, evolutionary biology and social anthropology.
Hinde argues that understanding the origins of our morality can clarify the debates surrounding contemporary ethical dilemmas such as genetic modification, increasing consumerism and globalisation. Well-chosen examples and helpful summaries make this an accessible volume for students, professionals and others interested in contemporary and historical ethics.
Synopsis
Mark Johnsons book,
Morality for Humans, argues that our traditional views of morality and moral reasoning are seriously flawed because they rely on faulty and outdated views of human nature, moral psychology, and reasoning. He further argues that moral fundamentalism is not only logically and epistemologically flawed but that it is also morally wrong because it blocks the path of moral inquiry and stifles moral thinking and effective communication about morality. Johnson gives a picture of morality as essentially involved in open inquiry that requires imagination rather than fixed, absolute rules. In making his case, Johnson relies on two main resources: contemporary cognitive science and the moral theory of the philosopher John Dewey, whose major works in moral theory belong to the first part of the twentieth century but, as Johnson argues, are remarkably relevant to philosophical thought today and deeply congruent with current trends in contemporary cognitive science concerning mind and morality. Johnsons book will be of importance to specialists interested in contemporary moral theory and in particular in the relationship of cognitive science to moral theory. It will also appeal to some specialists in philosophy of mind.
About the Author
Mark Johnson is the Philip H. Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oregon. He is the author of several books, including
The Meaning of the Body,
The Body in the Mind, and
Moral Imagination, and coauthor, with George Lakoff, of
Metaphors We Live By and
Philosophy in the Flesh. Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction: The Need for Ethical Naturalism
1. Moral Problem-Solving as an Empirical Inquiry
2. Where Are Our Values Bred?Sources of Moral Norms
3. Intuitive Processes of Moral Cognition
4. Moral Deliberation as Cognition, Imagination, and Feeling
5. The Nature of Reasonable” Moral Deliberation
6. There Is No Moral Faculty
7. Moral Fundamentalism Is Immoral
8. The Making of a Moral Self
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index