"是-应该"问题及其解答

休谟提出如何从“是”推出“应该”,亦即如何从事实判断推出价值判断的问题。本文以该问题为线索,评述和澄清休谟道德哲学的主要观点,并对与此问题密切相关的“囚徒困境”作了探讨。在此基础上,提出一种新的解答,即：“是一应该”问题是不能彻底解决的,在这个意义上,休谟的“是一应该”论题是正确的。但是,在另一种意义上,“是一应该”问题是可以解决的,即对于那些已经把长远利益作为追求目标的人而言是如此。因为对他们来说,追求长远利益已经是一个事实,因而必须考虑与他人或社会的合作,这使他们原有的同情心得到加强,从而产生名誉感和自尊心,进而达到正义和仁慈的德行。这样便从追求长远利益的“是”得出正义和仁慈的“应该”。     

Are children moral objectivists? Children's judgments about moral and response-dependent properties

Researchers working on children's moral understanding maintain that the child's capacity to distinguish morality from convention shows that children regard moral violations as objectively wrong (e.g. Nucci, L. (2001). Education in the moral domain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). However, one traditional way to cast the issue of objectivism is to focus not on conventionality, but on whether moral properties depend on our responses, as with properties like icky and fun. This paper argues that the moral/conventional task is inadequate for assessing whether children regard moral properties as response-dependent. Unfortunately, children's understanding of response-dependent properties has been neglected in recent research. Two experiments are reported showing that children are more likely to treat properties like fun and icky as response-dependent than moral properties like good and bad. Hence, this helps support the claim that children are moral objectivists.     

Athletic identity,values and self-regulatory efficacy governing hypercompetitive attitudes

This study adaptes the identity-value model (IVM) of self-regulation to examine a structural model of the psychosocial processes governing hypercompetitive attitudes among athletes. Structural equation modeling of data from 522 competitors, aged 11–23 years, showed that the effect of athletic identity on hypercompetitive attitudes was serially mediated via athletes’ values and self-regulatory efficacy. Athletic identity positively predicted all athletes’ values for morality, competence, and status. Moral values (positively) and status values (negatively) predicted self-regulatory efficacy, which in turn negatively predicted hypercompetitive attitudes. Self-regulatory efficacy (fully) mediated the negative effect of moral values and (partially) mediated the positive effect of status values on hypercompetitive attitudes. Also, these effects were invariant across gender, sports types, and age. This study extends the application of the IVM, the athletic identity maintenance model (AIMM), and the Schwartz’ basic values theory, by suggesting that athletic identity is a strong predicator of athletes’ values and can operate in concert with athletes’ values and self-regulation efficacy in governing hypercompetitive attitudes.     

The sanctity of life: The role of purity in attitudes towards abortion and euthanasia

Although abortion and euthanasia are highly contested issues at the heart of the culture war, the moral foundations underlying ideological differences on these issues are mostly unknown. Given that much of the extant debate is framed around the sanctity of life, we argued that the moral foundation of purity/sanctity—a core moral belief that emphasises adherence to the “natural order”—would mediate the negative relationship between conservatism and support for abortion and euthanasia. As hypothesised, results from a nation-wide random sample of adults in New Zealand (N = 3360) revealed that purity/sanctity mediated the relationship between conservatism and opposition to both policies. These results demonstrate that, rather than being motivated by a desire to reduce harm, conservative opposition to pro-choice and end-of-life decisions is (partly) based on the view that ending a life, even if it is one's own, violates God's natural design and, thus, stains one's spiritual purity.     

Testing contesting theory: Conceptual metaphors and prosocial behavior

ObjectivesThis investigation was conducted to determine whether contesting orientations add predictive utility for prosocial behavior, both in and out of sports, beyond other variables related to the component processes of moral action.DesignCross-sectional.MethodsIntercollegiate US athletes (n = 2380; 56.4% male), from both individual and team sports, completed measures of contesting orientation, three moral variables (moral attentiveness, moral identity, integrity), three sport-specific variables (athletic identity, goal orientation, and fear of failure), and three outcome variables (sportspersonship, academic honesty, and prosocial helping). Data was analyzed using both correlational and regression analyses.ResultsRegression analyses demonstrated that contesting orientations were the best predictors of sportspersonship, but were insignificant predictors of nonsport forms of prosocial behavior.ConclusionsConsistent with contesting theory, contesting orientation are salient and potent predictors of sportspersonship, but do not predict behavior outside of contest situations.     

Ideas of self and community: Ethical implications for a communitarian conception of moral autonomy

This paper attempts to construct a concept of moral autonomy thai is compatible with a relationally-based or care-based ethical theory. After critiquing the traditional liberal identification of the ethical self with an abstract rational self detached from community and historical narrative, I argue that the ethical self emerges in a dialectical relation with the community itself. Essentially, I argue for a concept of autonomy that will be analyzed as a critical perspective from within a community rather than as a privileged view from outside. Central to this argument is an understanding of the nature and role of moral conversation in the regeneration of community. The nature of that conversation is examined.     

Function, goals and intention: children's teleological reasoning about objects

A fundamental aspect of adult thought is the 'teleological' tendency to assume that objects exist for a purpose. When seeing an unfamiliar artifact or strange anatomical part on an animal, the first question an adult will usually ask is 'what's that for?' - a query that assumes that the object can be teleologically explained in terms of its function. Current debate focuses on the origin and scope of teleological thought, and its role in children's emerging theories of the biological world. The bias to view objects as 'designed for a purpose' probably derives from children's privileged understanding of intentional behavior and artifacts. This makes children prone to a 'promiscuous teleology' in which artifacts and natural objects of all types are viewed as existing for a function. Because of this, I argue that we should be cautious about taking the existence of an early teleological bias as evidence that there is biological understanding that exists independently of a psychological construal of living things.     

The Effect of Cognitive Load on Intent-Based Moral Judgment

When making a moral judgment, people largely care about two factors: Who did it (causal responsibility), and did they intend to (intention)? Since Piaget's seminal studies, we have known that as children mature, they gradually place greater emphasis on intention, and less on mere bad outcomes, when making moral judgments. Today, we know that this developmental shift has several signature properties. Recently, it has been shown that when adults make moral judgments under cognitive load, they exhibit a pattern similar to young children; that is, their judgments become notably more outcome based. Here, we show that all of the same signature properties that accompany the outcome-to-intent shift in childhood characterize the “intent-to-outcome” shift obtained under cognitive load in adults. These findings hold important implications for current theories of moral judgment.