PHIL 250G TIP: Moral Psychology
Moral psychology is an important interdisciplinary field in which philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, and experts in other fields attempt to explore the relationship between ethics and the way human brains process information. Interesting work in this field has studied how our emotions and our moral reasoning interact; how moral responsibility is altered by various psychological conditions like sociopathy, bi-polar disorder, or depression; and whether the human brain is capable of consistent enough behavior to result in moral character traits like honesty, kindness, or bravery. In this course our goal will be to analytically analyze research in philosophy and psychology on moral reasoning, judgments, and decision-making. We will explore the nature of belief and its relationship to practical and theoretical moral reasoning. We will also delve into the nature of character traits and ask if empirical psychology gives us reason to doubt that we have any such traits. We will try to examine what it means for us to trust someone and whether or not such a state is ever warranted or even possible. We will explore how our emotions influence our reasoning processes and ask if it is possible that our emotions are indispensable for ethics. And we will delve into questions about moral responsibility and try to understand if we can be responsible for our behavior when it is controlled by psychological processes that are beyond our control.