Morality,reasons, and sentiments

Morality is commonly thought to be normative in a robust and important way. This is commonly cashed out in terms of normative reasons. It is also commonly thought that morality is necessarily and universally normative, i.e., that moral reasons are reasons for any possible moral agent. Taking these commonplaces for granted, I argue for a novel view of moral normativity. I challenge the standard view that moral reasons are reasons to act. I suggest that moral reasons are reasons for having sentiments—in particular, compassion and respect—and I argue that this view has important advantages over the standard view of moral normativity.     

Inferential rules in the learning and recall of patterns of sentiments1

Subjects learned one of four patterns of like-dislike relations between members of four-person structures. They then recalled the learned structure after an interval of fifteen minutes, one week, or four weeks. One pattern of relations was balanced, one could be balanced by changing only one pair of relations, and the other two were totally unbalanced. There was clear evidence that the balance assumptions were employed in learning; for unbalanced structures, there was some evidence of the use of positivity and of source/target generalization. Subjects recalled the balanced structure more accurately than the unbalanced ones, especially over the longest time interval. However, unbalanced structures were not converted in memory to balanced ones.     

The emergence of emotions and religious sentiments during the September 11 disaster

Analyzing emotional states under duress or during heightened, life-and-death situations is extremely difficult, especially given the inability of laboratory experiments to replicate the environment and given the inherent biases of post event surveys. This is where natural experiments, such as the pager communications from September 11th can provide the kind of natural experiment emotion researchers have been seeking. We demonstrate that positive and pro-social communications are the first to emerge followed by the slower and lower negative communications. Religious sentiment is the last to emerge, as individual attempt to make sense of event. Additionally we provide a methodological discussion about the preparation and analysis of such natural experiments (the pager message content) and show the importance of using multiple methods to extract the broadest possible understanding.     

Moral sentiments and cooperation: Differential influences of shame and guilt

For centuries economists and psychologists (Frank, 1988 Frank , R. H. (1988) . Passions within reason: The strategic role of the emotions . New York : Norton . (Originally published 1988)  [Google Scholar]; Ketelaar, 2004 Ketelaar, T. 2004. “Ancestral emotions, current decisions: Using evolutionary game theory to explore the role of emotions in decision-making”. In Evolutionary psychology, public policy and personal decisions, Edited by: Crawford, C. and Salmon, C. 145–163. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.  [Google Scholar]; Smith, 1759) have argued that moral emotions motivate cooperation. Ketelaar and Au (2003 Ketelaar, T. and Au, W. T. 2003. The effects of guilt on the behaviour of uncooperative individuals in repeated social bargaining games: An affect-as-information interpretation of the role of emotion in social interaction. Cognition and Emotion, 17: 429–453. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) recently found first evidence that guilt increases cooperation for proselfs in social bargaining games. We investigated whether this effect would also occur for shame, another moral emotion. Using a dyadic social dilemma game in Experiment 1 and an everyday cooperation measure in Experiment 2 as measures for short-term cooperation, we replicated Ketelaar and Au's findings for guilt. However, as predicted on the basis of previous emotion research, we found no such effect for shame. These results clearly indicate that the effects of moral emotions on cooperative behaviour can only be understood if the specific moral emotion is known.     

The sentiments of love and aspirations for marriage and their association with teenage sexual activity and pregnancy

This study questions the findings of most research claiming that teenage pregnancies are generally unwanted, unplanned and unintended. It starts with the question of why most sexually active teenagers put themselves at risk of becoming pregnant if they do not desire it. The hypothesis is that sentiments of "love" and "aspirations for marriage" are related to starting sexual activity and subsequent pregnancy. The sample is 123 school-age mothers. It was found that sentiments of "love" were associated with becoming pregnant more than with starting sexual activity. Most of the respondents who were "in love" at the onset of pregnancy were hoping to marry their sex partners and, in fact, many thought that marriage would occur in the very near future following the outcome of pregnancy. These findings suggest that more research needs to be directed at the development of affective bonds with and the aspirations for marriage to the sex partners. Such research may explain why these teenagers put themselves at risk.     

The presentation of gendered conflict in popular movies: Affective stereotypes,cultural sentiments,and men's motivation

Sex Roles - This research systematically addresses the potential influence of patriarchal culture in motivating men's imposition against women in social conflict. Social conflict in...     

Psychoanalysis and the regulation of society

Multiple losses can be associated with both infertility and child sexual abuse. This work seeks to explore the ways in which such connections can affect a survivor who subsequently experiences infertility and who may choose to pursue medical treatment. The potential consequences of such mirroring are explored from the perspective of counselling practice under the provisions of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (1990).     

社会主义核心价值体系蕴含的价值理念和目标

党的十七大在党的基本路线中确立的"富强、民主、文明、和谐"等价值目标要求,从精神的维度看,是体现社会主义核心价值体系之精髓的重要价值理念;从实践维度看,则是社会主义核心价值体系蕴舍的现实价值目标,"富强、民主、文明、和谐"作为价值理念和现实价值目标的确立具有多方面的重要意义.     

Expressivism and the Value of Truth

Expressivism in its most theoretically virtuous forms aspires to be an account of all evaluative claims. In a recent paper, Lynch (2009) has argued that expressivism cannot accommodate claims about the value of truth, since an expressivist account of any normative claim requires a ??normatively disengaged standpoint?? which is unavailable in the case of truth (one cannot cease to value truth while still being an inquirer). In this paper I argue that Lynch??s objection to expressivism rests on an ambiguity. The expressivist can distinguish between a standpoint that is committed to certain evaluations and a standpoint that employs those evaluations in its explanations.