01:185:253 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Moral Skepticism, Moral Realism, Social Constructionism
27 Apr 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Henrich concluded that people in these 15 small scale societies distribute “windfall gains”
differently because they hold different views about fairness
It’s hard to think of plausible disagreements in factual beliefs that would account for these
disagreements in moral judgments about fairness
• The explanation for the disagreement about whether an offer is fair is not a
disagreement in beliefs about the case
• Its bad news for the moral nativist and moral realist who think that general moral
principles are general between cultures
VI. Tentative Conclusions
A. All studies suggest that the “eliminationg factual disagreement will eliminate all moral
disagreement” is false
B. Though not conclusive, these studies challenge enlightenment rationalism and moral
realism and lend support to cultural relativism or moral skepticism
C. They also provide an excellent illustration of how research in cognitive science can
contribute to philosophical debates
RACE
Racialism
A. Mallon: “races were believed to share biobehaviorl essences
• Heritable, biological features
• Shared by all and only members of a race
• Explain behavioral, cultural predispositions
TRADITIONAL RACIALISM IS INCOHERENT
• We know (and racialists knew) that people of different races can and do have children
• Racialists can’t say that these children have 2 essences because they think each person
only has 1
• And they can’t say that these children have mixed or hybrid essences because essences
aren’t the sorts of things that can combine or mix
What parents convey to their children are genes, and that genes play an important role in
determining the physical and psychological characteristics of the organisms that have them
1. So if racialism is true, it must be the case that
• Each member of a race has a race specific cluster of genes that it does not share
with members of other races
• The genes in this race specific cluster must play a central role in producing
physical and fundamental, physical, moral, intellectual, and cultural
characteristics that racalists have in mind
NOW WE KNOW THAT RACIALISM IS FALSE
• The genetic facts do not support the existence of racialism races
• There are no large clusters of genes that are unique to members of Familiar Racial
Categories
• There is almost as much genetic diversity within FRC’s as there is between FRC’s
(familiar racial categories)
• One FRC- blacks- is FAR MORE genetically diverse than other FRC’s
Continued support for the strong hereditarian position- nothing can be done about IQ
differences because IQ is highly heritable- are they racist?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Henrich concluded that people in these 15 small scale societies distribute windfall gains differently because they hold different views about fairness. Its bad news for the moral nativist and moral realist who think that general moral principles are general between cultures. All studies suggest that the eliminationg factual disagreement will eliminate all moral. Tentative conclusions disagreement is false realism and lend support to cultural relativism or moral skepticism contribute to philosophical debates. Though not conclusive, these studies challenge enlightenment rationalism and moral. They also provide an excellent illustration of how research in cognitive science can. Mallon: races were believed to share biobehaviorl essences: heritable, biological features, shared by all and only members of a race, explain behavioral, cultural predispositions. Now we know that racialism is false: the genetic facts do not support the existence of racialism races, there are no large clusters of genes that are unique to members of familiar racial.
