#339 Shaun Nichols: The Philosophy And Psychology Of Morality

------------------Support the channel------------

------------------Follow me on---------------------

RECORDED ON April 15th, 2020.
Dr. Shaun Nichols is Professor in the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University. He works in philosophy of cognitive science. Most of his research concerns the psychological foundations of philosophical thought. Recently he’s been drawing on learning theory to try to understand how people acquire philosophically significant concepts and distinctions, especially in the domain of morality.

In this episode, we talk about morality. We approach it from a philosophical and scientific perspective. We discuss the role that emotions and other mental mechanisms play. We also refer to child development, learning, and human universals and the folk psychology of morality. Then, we talk about psychopathy and moral rationalism; the link between morality and violence; and the is-ought dichotomy. Finally, we discuss a possible new kind of moral realism.

Time Links:
00:45 Morality from a philosophical and scientific perspective
05:36 Are emotions that important?
09:07 The most important mental mechanisms
20:11 Development, Piaget, and learning
23:23 Human universals in morality
25:18 The folk psychology of morality
32:15 Psychopathy and moral rationalism
41:17 The link between morality and violence
42:44 The is-ought dichotomy, moral psychology and philosophical ethics
46:45 A new kind of moral realism?
51:01 Follow Dr. Nichols’ work!
--
Follow Dr. Nichols’ work:
--
A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS/SUPPORTERS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, PER HELGE LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, JERRY MULLER, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BERNARDO SEIXAS, HERBERT GINTIS, RUTGER VOS, RICARDO VLADIMIRO, BO WINEGARD, CRAIG HEALY, OLAF ALEX, PHILIP KURIAN, JONATHAN VISSER, DAVID DIAS, ANJAN KATTA, JAKOB KLINKBY, ADAM KESSEL, MATTHEW WHITINGBIRD, ARNAUD WOLFF, TIM HOLLOSY, HENRIK AHLENIUS, JOHN CONNORS, PAULINA BARREN, FILIP FORS CONNOLLY, DAN DEMETRIOU, ROBERT WINDHAGER, RUI INACIO, ARTHUR KOH, ZOOP, MARCO NEVES, MAX BEILBY, COLIN HOLBROOK, SUSAN PINKER, THOMAS TRUMBLE, PABLO SANTURBANO, SIMON COLUMBUS, PHIL KAVANAGH, JORGE ESPINHA, CORY CLARK, MARK BLYTH, ROBERTO INGUANZO, MIKKEL STORMYR, ERIC NEURMANN, SAMUEL ANDREEFF, FRANCIS FORDE, TIAGO NUNES, BERNARD HUGUENEY, ALEXANDER DANNBAUER, OMARI HICKSON, PHYLICIA STEVENS, FERGAL CUSSEN, YEVHEN BODRENKO, HAL HERZOG, NUNO MACHADO, DON ROSS, AND JOÃO ALVES DA SILVA!
A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE, ROSEY, JIM FRANK, ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK, IAN GILLIGAN, SERGIU CODREANU, LUIS CAYETANO, AND MATTHEW LAVENDER!
AND TO MY EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, MICHAL RUSIECKI!

I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018:

And check out my playlists on:

#TheDissenter #ShaunNichols #Philosophy #Morality

[davidanderson]

At times a little obscure - but overall a v. interesting podcast. Thank you guys. D.A., NYC

[singintherain-eh]

A meta-philosophical question: What makes a group of people members of a “culture”? Does it depend on their ethnic origin, or something else?

[jpmarques]

Hey Ricardo and Dr. Shaun, thanks for the interesting discussion. I really enjoyed it!

I have this theory that human beings have a biological bias to improve their models of reality, which drives emotion and leads to individual subsets of morality.
Most of the time, the best outcome can probably be achieved by adhering to the collective morality. But to allow progress, it's good that we're wired to disrupt those norms in the first place, by selecting the rules that we're emotionally in tune with.