Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T08:46:25.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Generalization and the experience of obligations as externally imposed: Distinct contributors to the evolution of human cooperation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2018

Elizabeth O'Neill*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy and Ethics, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands. erh.oneill@gmail.com www.erhoneill.com

Abstract

It is worth distinguishing two phenomena involved in moral externalization: the experience of moral obligations as externally imposed and the tendency to generalize moral obligations. I propose that each played a distinct role in creating the conditions under which characteristically human cooperation could evolve.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Nichols, S. & Folds-Bennett, T. (2003) Are children moral objectivists? Children's judgments about moral and response-dependent properties. Cognition 90(2):B2332. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0010-0277(03)00160-4.Google Scholar
Southwood, N. (2011) The moral/conventional distinction. Mind 120(479):761802.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. (2016) A natural history of human morality. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar