Ressource pédagogique : Lecture 2: The Model in Action: Against Moral Nativism

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Description (résumé)

Language, complex tool-use, extensive co-operation between non-relatives; religion and ritual are all distinctive features of the human mind. They seem to be found in no other living primate, and they seem to be features of all human cultures and of most (perhaps all) their members. We are tool-using, talking, co-operating, god-bothering apes. We are also moralising apes: arguably, making moral judgements is both typically human, and unique to humans. Recently, this has been grist for the modular nativist mill; Marc Hauser and John Mikhail (most notably) have explicitly based their models of moral cognition on language. I draw on the model developed in session 1 to build both a sceptical response to this nativist picture and an alternative analysis of moral cognition. The positive view owes much to those descendants of Hume who see moral cognition as essentially a gloss on pre-existing social emotions, but it gives a much greater role to top-down (and hence cultural) inputs.

"Domaine(s)" et indice(s) Dewey

• Philosophie et psychologie (100)
• Processus mentaux conscients, intelligence (153)
• Maladies du système nerveux. Troubles psychiques (616.8)
• Influences du milieu sur le physique des hominidés, Biologie et écosystème humain (599.95)

Thème(s)