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135 - Moral psychology

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Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2015

David A. Reidy
Affiliation:
University of Tennessee
Jon Mandle
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Albany
David A. Reidy
Affiliation:
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
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Summary

Moral psychology aims at understanding the moral experience of persons – moral feelings, attitudes, and sentiments – and the patterns of moral deliberation, judgment, and motivation with which they are associated. And it aims at understanding this experience, a normal part of human life, as distinctively moral and not simply as general psychological experience or as neural activity in the brain. A person’s psychological experience is distinctively moral when it cannot be identified or explained without reference to moral concepts, principles or values. So, for example, a person’s experience of guilt is distinctively moral because the feeling of guilt can be neither identified nor explained as guilt without appeal to principles of right and notions of wrongdoing. On the other hand, a person’s experience of fear is not distinctively moral because the feeling of fear can often be identified and explained without appeals to moral concepts, principles, or values. Finally, it is primarily for the sake of addressing particular issues within moral and political philosophy, not natural or social sciences, that moral psychology aims at understanding the moral experience of persons as distinctively moral.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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  • Moral psychology
  • Edited by Jon Mandle, State University of New York, Albany, David A. Reidy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
  • Book: The Cambridge Rawls Lexicon
  • Online publication: 05 February 2015
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139026741.136
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  • Moral psychology
  • Edited by Jon Mandle, State University of New York, Albany, David A. Reidy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
  • Book: The Cambridge Rawls Lexicon
  • Online publication: 05 February 2015
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139026741.136
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Moral psychology
  • Edited by Jon Mandle, State University of New York, Albany, David A. Reidy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
  • Book: The Cambridge Rawls Lexicon
  • Online publication: 05 February 2015
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139026741.136
Available formats
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