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Ethics Around the Table: Kurt Gray, “Mind Perception and Morality”
March 17, 2015 @ 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm
Kurt Gray’s research suggests these are the same question: minds are perceived along two dimensions—agency (the ability to act and plan) and experience (the capacity to feel things like pain and pleasure)—and these two dimensions form the core of moral judgment. In essence, our psychological template of moral acts involves two minds, one mind helping or hurting another mind. This “dyadic” template can explain why suffering makes people believe more in God and why those who see homosexuality as immoral believe it harms children. Linking mind perception and morality can also help us explain why some people torture others, why victims escape blame, and why good deeds can make us more physically powerful.
“Mind Perception and Morality”
Decisions about animal rights, prison sentences and capital punishment are matters of life and death; yet, people base these decisions upon something ambiguous – the apparent mental capacities of others. Although we can never be certain of the exact nature of others’ minds, studies show that moral judgments hinge upon such mind perception. In this talk, I present evidence for the link between mind perception and morality. In particular, I explore dyadic morality – the idea that people understand good and evil as the combination of two perceived minds: an agent (the doer) and a patient (the recipient). Dyadic morality not only provides a template to unify morality, but also
suggests two unique phenomena: dyadic completion and moral typecasting. Dyadic completion is the tendency to see blameworthy agents in response to suffering patients (and vice versa) and can help explain why people believe in God and the lasting sting of malicious harms. Moral typecasting is the tendency to see others as either moral agents or moral patients, and can help explain why we hurt the saintly, how best to escape blame, and why good deeds make people physically stronger.
Lunch will be provided; registration is kindly required.