Link Search Menu Expand Document

Outro: Why Moral Psychology?

Why study moral psychology? At the start of the course I suggested three reasons and asked you for yours. Let’s see how they have held up: the things we learnt, and the questions we are left with.

If the video isn’t working you could also watch it on youtube. Or you can view just the slides (no audio or video).

This recording is also available on stream (no ads; search enabled).

If the slides are not working, or you prefer them full screen, please try this link. The recording is available on stream and youtube.

Notes

Why an outro, not a conclusion? Because reaching a conclusion is your job (in the longer essay), not mine.

But if there were a conclusion to the lectures, it would have to answer the question we started with: Why study moral psychology? Not because it gives us deep insight into ethical principles, nor because we can know much about the processes underpinning our ethical abilities. But because it makes us aware of how little we know, how deep cultural differences in ethics can run, and because it suggests ways to work around these.

References

Norden, B. W. V. (2002). The Emotion of shame and the virtue of righteousness in Mencius. Dao, 2(1), 45–77. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02856995