☛ Thursday we'll look at Appiah chapter 2, discussing virtue ethics, character, and challenges from psychology / neuroscience. The Hursthouse entry should give you some background on virtue ethics.
☛ Thursday we'll look at Appiah chapter 2, discussing virtue ethics, character, and challenges from psychology / neuroscience. The Hursthouse entry should give you some background on virtue ethics.
Although the scientific study of empirical fact has traditionally been kept at some distance from the philosophical study of moral value, a new field of neuroethics has emerged. The program is interdisciplinary, borrowing from work that cuts across the disciplines of psychology, neurobiology, and philosophy. In this seminar we will explore the following questions: What can science, specifically neuroscience, tell us about our moral judgments, moral reasoning and moral behavior? What affect might a scientific explanation of our decision-making and actions have on our notions of free will and moral responsibility? How have our moral capacities evolved? Do empirical discoveries that explain how we do behave and reason support claims about how we ought to behave and reason? This new field of neuroethics promises to have important practical consequences for moral education and the future of the legal system, as well as interesting philosophical consequences for our understanding of human nature, free will and moral value.