Moral Testimony and its Authority

A person sometimes forms moral beliefs by relying on another person's moral testimony. In this paper I advance a cognitivist normative account of this phenomenon. I argue that for a person's actions to be morally good, they must be based on a recognition of the moral reasons bearing on action. Morality requires people to act from an understanding of moral claims, and consequently to have an understanding of moral claims relevant to action. A person sometimes fails to meet this requirement when she relies on another person's moral testimony, and so there are moral limits on such reliance.     

经济能人·政治权威·道德权威——以HH村为个案的苏南村庄领袖权威获得与延续之实证研究

苏南村庄领袖的权威是一种由基于为村庄共同体带来福利的报偿性权威、基于上级任命获得的法理权威和基于个人人格和道德威望的魅力型权威共同组成的"复合型权威"。这一权威的延续,必须基于村庄领袖作为"经济能人"对村庄发展作出的持续贡献和作为"道德楷模"对村庄福利的慷慨回报。在此基础上,村庄领袖的政治权威可以自然获得并不断巩固。相反,一旦失去这两种权威基础,村庄领袖的双重角色则会自然中断。     

Abortion,Killing, and Maternal Moral Authority

A threat to women is obscured when we treat “abortion‐as‐evacuation'’ as equivalent to “abortion‐as‐killing.'’ This holds only if evacuating a fetus kills it. As technology advances, the equivalence will fail. Any feminist account of abortion that relies on the equivalence leaves moral room for women to be required to give up their fetuses to others when it fails. So an account of the justification of abortion‐as‐killing is needed that does not depend on the equivalence.     

Marginally Represented Patients and the Moral Authority of Surrogates

Abstract

Incapacitated adult patients are commonly divided into two groups for purposes of decision making; those with a surrogate and those without. Respectively, these groups are often referred to as represented and unrepresented, and the relative ethics of decision making between them raises two particular issues. The first issue involves the differential application of the best interests standard between groups. Second is the prevailing notion that representedness and unrepresentedness are categorical phenomena, though it is more aptly understood as a multidimensional and continuous variable based on relational moral authority. This paper examines the nature of representedness as it relates to ethical norms of surrogate decision making.     

道德直觉背景下的道德决策：影响因素探究

以往对道德直觉的研究表明了情绪因素在道德决策中的重要作用, 研究者提出道德决策中存在有意识认知和无意识情绪两种加工过程, 二者之间不能够完全分离与孤立。针对这种认知—情绪过程解释、经典电车和人行桥困境中的道德判断差异等问题, 近年来大量研究通过对道德行为者和道德判断者自身原因、道德情境等主客观因素的深入考察, 试图从不同角度来揭示认知—情绪过程解释的合理性及道德决策差异背后的其他原因, 形成了道德直觉背景下相关领域诸多新的关注点。未来研究有必要针对道德决策研究的方法学、情境的扩展及认知—情感系统内部交互等问题作进一步探讨。     

Heavenly Sex: The Moral Authority of an Impossible Dream

Abstract

Writing out of an Augustinian tradition in which faith is understood as hope for the absolutely desirable, the author presents an argument for the ethical privileging of the sexual couple. The ideality of heaven is unrealizable under the conditions of time and space, in part because of its paradoxicality. Although heaven is not to be thought only in terms of sexual imagery, it cannot be thought asexually. It is because the ‘other’ in a couple is both him or herself and representative of all others that the couple — and by extension monogamous marriage — most closely answers to the ideal implicit in the intentionality of sex, namely, the intensity of the one-on-one and the scope of the orgy. Although he does not develop the argument, because of the representative nature of the spouse, the author has laid the foundations for an appreciation of the sacramentality of the monogamously committed couple.     

Gut Reactions: Moral Conviction, Religiosity, and Trust in Authority

ABSTRACT— Theory and research point to different ways moral conviction and religiosity connect to trust in political authorities to decide controversial issues of the day. Specifically, we predicted that stronger moral convictions would be associated with greater distrust in authorities such as the U.S. Supreme Court making the "right" decisions regarding controversial issues. Conversely, we predicted that stronger religiosity would be associated with greater trust in authorities. We tested these hypotheses using a survey of a nationally representative sample of Americans (N = 727) that assessed the degree to which people trusted the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on the legal status of physician-assisted suicide. Results indicated that greater religiosity was associated with greater trust in the U.S. Supreme Court to decide this issue, and that stronger moral convictions about physician-assisted suicide were associated with greater distrust in the U.S. Supreme Court to decide this issue. Also, the processes underlying religious trust and distrust based on moral convictions were more quick and visceral than slow and carefully considered.     

With Hope and Imagination: Imaginative Moral Decision-Making in Neonatal Intensive Care Units

Although the role of imagination in moral reasoning is often neglected, recent literature, mostly of pragmatist signature, points to imagination as one of its central elements. In this article we develop some of their arguments by looking at the moral role of imagination in practice, in particular the practice of neonatal intensive care. Drawing on empirical research, we analyze a decision-making process in various stages: delivery, staff meeting, and reflection afterwards. We show how imagination aids medical practitioners demarcating moral categories, tuning their actions, and exploring long-range consequences of decisions. We argue that imagination helps to bring about at least four kinds of integration in the moral decision-making process: personal integration by creating a moral self-image in moments of reflection; social integration by aiding the conciliation of the diverging perspectives of the people involved; temporal integration by facilitating the parties to transcend the present moment and connect past, present, and future; and epistemological integration by helping to combine the various forms of knowledge and experience needed to make moral decisions. Furthermore, we argue that the role of imagination in these moral decision-processes is limited in several significant ways. Rather than being a solution itself, it is merely an aid and cannot replace the decision itself. Finally, there are also limits to the practical relevance of this theoretical reflection. In the end, it is up to care professionals as reflective practitioners to re-imagine the practice of intensive care and make the right decisions with hope and imagination.

Relationship Between Mother,Father, and Peer Attachment and Empathy With Moral Authority

We explored the relationship between mother, father, and peer attachment security, empathy, and moral authority in order to clarify certain problems of previous empirical research on such relationships. A sample of 202 Persian-speaking undergraduate students completed questionnaires pertaining to these constructs. The results revealed that mother and father attachment were significantly correlated with family, society welfare, and equality sources of moral authority, whereas peer attachment security was related only to society welfare and equality sources of moral authority. Out of the empathy subscales, only empathic concern was associated with moral authority sources. Empathic concern was also related to mother, father, and peer attachment, whereas perspective taking was correlated with mother and peer attachment. The combination of empathic concern and mother, father, and peer attachment predicted significant amount of variance of “principle source of moral authority” (including society welfare and equality sources). Findings support existence of a strong relationship between attachment security and the content of moral thought of adolescents, and findings redress an empirical imbalance in research literature on the relation of attachment and morality.     

道德两难判断中亲属关系的认知研究:来自ERPs的证据

采用事件相关电位技术,考察个体在道德两难情境下对不同亲属的加工特征及其亲属偏见效应。道德两难情境中的主人公为被试的两个亲属(父亲、叔父)和一个熟人,要求被试阅读道德两难情境故事后,对是否愿意救助故事中主人公作出判断。结果发现,直系亲属(父亲)比旁系亲属(叔父)和熟人诱发了更大的P2和LPC平均波幅,而旁系亲属与熟人之间并无显著差异。研究表明了个体对直系亲属更为关注和敏感,表现出明显的亲属偏见效应。     

Developing Moral Decision-Making Competence: A Quasi-Experimental Intervention Study in the Swiss Armed Forces

Moral development has become an integral part in military training and the importance of moral judgment and behavior in military operations can hardly be overestimated. Many armed forces have integrated military ethics and moral decision-making interventions in their training programs. However, little is known about the effectiveness of these interventions. This study examined the effectiveness of a 1-week training program in moral decision making in the Swiss Armed Forces. The program was based on a strategy-based interactional moral dilemma approach. Results of this quasi-experimental intervention study showed significant improvements in content-related (moral and instrumental awareness, quality of moral information processing, development of compensatory actions) as well as process-related (situational analysis, development and evaluation of alternative solutions, justification of decision) aspects in moral decision making. Results of a follow-up test indicated positive long-term effects with regard to moral and instrumental awareness and process-related aspects. Findings are discussed, and consequences for leadership development programs and further research are explored.     

Abby L. Wilkerson. Diagnosis: Difference: The Moral Authority of Medicine

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics -     

以心代理：明代道德权威的缺失

道德权威是维护社会道德秩序的重要力量.在中国传统社会中,道德权威与政治权威是合二而一的,并通过王权合法性问题而展现出来.道德权威的确立需要坚实的理论基础,阳明心学的"以心代理"是导致明代中后期道德生活的混乱与失序的重要原因.     

Gender-Role Differences in Decision-Making Orientations and Decision-Making Skills1

The relationship between gender role identification and decision making orientations was examined. Decision making was analyzed in terms of decision making orientation (behavioral, cognitive, and emotional) and decision making skills (problem definition and formulation, generation of alternative solutions, choice process, solution implementation, and verification). The results revealed a 2-factor characterization of general decision making in terms of approach-avoidance tendencies and self-appraisals of decision skills. A masculinity model was supported for decision making orientation, with masculinity serving as the only significant predictor. In contrast, an androgyny model was supported for decision making skills, with masculinity and femininity serving as significant predictors.