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Journal of Medical Ethics Apr 1996The author agrees with the critiques of moral theory offered by such writers as Bernard Williams and Alasdair MacIntyre, and uses ideas from Heidegger and Levinas to...
The author agrees with the critiques of moral theory offered by such writers as Bernard Williams and Alasdair MacIntyre, and uses ideas from Heidegger and Levinas to argue that caring is an ontological structure of human existence which takes two forms: caring about on self (which he calls our "self-project") and caring-about-others. This dual form of caring is expressed on four Aristotelian levels of human living which the author describes and illustrates with reference to the phenomenon of pain. It is concluded from this analysis that traditional notions of morality as imposing obligations should give way to an understanding of ethics as the social forms given to our caring for ourselves and for others. A number of implications for ethical theory are sketched out with the conclusion that virtue theory should be preferred and that the model could be worked out more fully to show that virtue theory can be internalist, particularist, pluralist, personalist and objectivist.
Topics: Cultural Diversity; Ethical Theory; Ethics, Medical; Human Characteristics; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Moral Obligations; Morals; Physician-Patient Relations; Social Values; Virtues
PubMed: 8731533
DOI: 10.1136/jme.22.2.83 -
Revista de Neurologia Mar 2014Morality is made of rules and values that guide human behavior. They barely change among different cultures. Social accomplishments are the result of moral development,... (Review)
Review
INTRODUCTION
Morality is made of rules and values that guide human behavior. They barely change among different cultures. Social accomplishments are the result of moral development, due to a taint of fairness which pervades any human activity. The moral functions are the consequence of evolution and have their own specific neural circuits.
AIM
To describe their appearance, starting and underlying mechanisms in the normal brain.
DEVELOPMENT
Moral responses are basically homogeneous. They are linked to the emotional development, as much basic and individual (fear, wrath) as social (compassion, justice). Their emergence is the result of the emotional dichotomies pleasure/pain and reward/punishment, which lead to the basic moral dichotomy good/bad. For their working it is required the running of the prefrontal cortex (ventromedian and dorsolateral), the anterior cingular cortex and the superior temporal sulcus, that asses and elaborate and utilitarian moral response; and also the insula, the amygdale and the hypothalamus, that perform a quicker and emotionally rooted response. In addition, the mirror neuronal system (fronto-parietal) enables motor learning and empathy, linking this factor to the theory of mind.
CONCLUSIONS
Moral sense and its responses underlay the complex social development that humans have reached and enjoyed. Thus opens ways for improving benefits in human groups and individuals alike. In addition, the knowledge of the normal function of the moral circuits is permeating and influencing the many areas of neuroculture.
Topics: Brain Mapping; Choice Behavior; Emotions; Empathy; Ethics; Gyrus Cinguli; Humans; Learning; Limbic System; Mirror Neurons; Morals; Neuropsychology; Prefrontal Cortex; Psychological Tests; Social Behavior; Temporal Lobe; Theory of Mind
PubMed: 24570361
DOI: No ID Found -
Bioethics May 2021Individuals diagnosed with conduct disorder (CD) in childhood and adolescence are at risk for increasingly maladaptive and dangerous behaviors, which unchecked, can lead...
Individuals diagnosed with conduct disorder (CD) in childhood and adolescence are at risk for increasingly maladaptive and dangerous behaviors, which unchecked, can lead to antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) in adulthood. Children with CD, especially those with the callous unemotional subgroup qualifier ("limited prosocial emotions"/DSM-5), present with a more severe pattern of delinquency, aggression, and antisocial behavior, all markings of prodrome ASPD. Given this recognized diagnostic trajectory, with a pathological course playing out tragically at the individual, familial, and societal level, and lack of effective remediation via current standards of care, we posit an alternate treatment approach; case-specific compulsory moral habilitation aimed at rectifying the undeveloped affective domain of adolescents and young adults suffering from these disorders. We begin with a brief historical overview of response to mental illness, review CD and ASPD diagnostic criteria and treatment limitations, and posit a unique neurohabilitative approach that focuses on the absent affective moral development of these populations. Next, we invoke a public health safety argument to justify case-specific compulsory moral habilitation, discuss neurotechnologies to be considered in treatment, and conclude with ethical considerations and suggestions for further research.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Antisocial Personality Disorder; Child; Conduct Disorder; Conscience; Emotions; Humans; Morals; Young Adult
PubMed: 33609403
DOI: 10.1111/bioe.12849 -
New Directions For Child and Adolescent... Nov 2022This study coordinates moral value development in adolescence, parenting style, and gender with issues of stability and specificity. The primary research question asked...
This study coordinates moral value development in adolescence, parenting style, and gender with issues of stability and specificity. The primary research question asked whether parenting styles of mothers and fathers influence the development of adolescent moral values, and secondary research questions asked whether adolescent moral values were stable and whether gender moderated predictive relations of parenting styles and adolescent moral values. At 14 and 18 years, a sample of 246 adolescents completed the Sociomoral Reflection Objective Measure - Short Form; at 14 years, mothers and fathers self-reported their parenting styles using the Parental Authority Questionnaire. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses established a 2-factor model of adolescent moral values across the two ages: Life and Social Contract captured prosocial aspects of morality that are left to individual choice, and Law and Social Order captured acts that are legally or morally obligatory for individuals to perform. Structural equation modeling investigated relations between parental parenting styles and the two adolescent moral value factors, with adolescent age, gender, and family SES as covariates. Both moral values factors had high stabilities across the 4-year period. Mothers' authoritarian parenting at 14 years, but not their authoritative or permissive parenting, negatively predicted Life and Social Contract moral values, but not Law and Social Order, in adolescents at 18 years, more so for boys. Fathers' parenting styles did not predict adolescents' moral values at 18 years. Girls and adolescents from higher-SES families had higher Life and Social Contract moral values at 14 years; boys experienced more increases in Life and Social Contract moral values from 14 to 18 years than girls. Stability and parental predictive validity of moral values for adolescence are discussed.
Topics: Male; Female; Adolescent; Humans; Parenting; Mothers; Parents; Morals; Fathers; Parent-Child Relations
PubMed: 36314351
DOI: 10.1002/cad.20488 -
Scientific Reports Apr 2023Given its centrality in scholarly and popular discourse, morality should be expected to figure prominently in everyday talk. We test this expectation by examining the...
Given its centrality in scholarly and popular discourse, morality should be expected to figure prominently in everyday talk. We test this expectation by examining the frequency of moral content in three contexts, using three methods: (a) Participants' subjective frequency estimates (N = 581); (b) Human content analysis of unobtrusively recorded in-person interactions (N = 542 participants; n = 50,961 observations); and (c) Computational content analysis of Facebook posts (N = 3822 participants; n = 111,886 observations). In their self-reports, participants estimated that 21.5% of their interactions touched on morality (Study 1), but objectively, only 4.7% of recorded conversational samples (Study 2) and 2.2% of Facebook posts (Study 3) contained moral content. Collectively, these findings suggest that morality may be far less prominent in everyday life than scholarly and popular discourse, and laypeople, presume.
Topics: Humans; Morals; Communication; Social Networking; Self Report
PubMed: 37045974
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-32711-4 -
Journal of Translational Medicine Jan 2023We consider scientific integrity to constitute a new theory of morality of science, in a very specific deontological sense. Indeed, at least in practice, scientific...
We consider scientific integrity to constitute a new theory of morality of science, in a very specific deontological sense. Indeed, at least in practice, scientific integrity extends beyond scientific concerns, seeking to develop specific moral duties and/or procedures based on general moral values and/or standards, leading to common moral frameworks for usual scientific practices. This is, of course, necessary. Contemporary history has shown us only too well that usual scientific practices need common moral frameworks, especially in medicine and biology. However, like scientific practices, and medical and biological practices in particular, the persistence of certain moral values and/or standards and the priority attributed to them, can change significantly, due to changes in society, people, the times and/or environments, and they may be under strong tension. We therefore believe that a new theory of ethics of science, in a very specific teleological sense, may be required in this case, particularly in medicine and biology, in addition to scientific integrity. This ethical theory, through research, professionals and structures in ethics of science also called medical ethics, research ethics or bioethics in the fields of medicine and biology, should seek to identify and find specific ethical solutions to these tensions, applicable at a particular place and time, based on common ethical purposes and/or consequences. As a result, these specific ethical solutions may, or may not, lead to an evolution of common moral frameworks, which may, or may not, be developed on the basis of scientific integrity. In the fields of medicine and biology, this ethical theory is closely related to another theory, global bioethics, but with a number of new conceptual and methodological developments.
Topics: Humans; Bioethics; Ethics, Medical; Morals; Ethical Theory; Biology
PubMed: 36670486
DOI: 10.1186/s12967-022-03847-0 -
Perspectives on Psychological Science :... Jan 2022Observed variability and complexity of judgments of "right" and "wrong" cannot be readily accounted for within extant approaches to understanding moral judgment. In...
Observed variability and complexity of judgments of "right" and "wrong" cannot be readily accounted for within extant approaches to understanding moral judgment. In response to this challenge, we present a novel perspective on categorization in moral judgment. Moral judgment as categorization (MJAC) incorporates principles of category formation research while addressing key challenges of existing approaches to moral judgment. People develop skills in making context-relevant categorizations. They learn that various objects (events, behaviors, people, etc.) can be categorized as morally right or wrong. Repetition and rehearsal result in reliable, habitualized categorizations. According to this skill-formation account of moral categorization, the learning and the habitualization of the forming of moral categories occur within goal-directed activity that is sensitive to various contextual influences. By allowing for the complexity of moral judgments, MJAC offers greater explanatory power than existing approaches while also providing opportunities for a diverse range of new research questions.
Topics: Humans; Judgment; Learning; Morals
PubMed: 34264152
DOI: 10.1177/1745691621990636 -
Journal of Medical Ethics May 2006Reproductive autonomy is central to women's welfare both because childbearing takes place in women's bodies and because they are generally expected to take primary... (Review)
Review
Reproductive autonomy is central to women's welfare both because childbearing takes place in women's bodies and because they are generally expected to take primary responsibility for child rearing. In 2005, the factors that influence their autonomy most strongly are poverty and belief systems that devalue such autonomy. Unfortunately, such autonomy is a low priority for most societies, or is anathema to their belief systems altogether. This situation is doubly sad because women's reproductive autonomy is intrinsically valuable for women and also instrumentally valuable for the welfare of humankind. This paper takes for granted the moral and practical necessity of such autonomy and digs deeper into the question of what such a commitment might entail, focusing on the mid-level policy making that, at least in the US and Canada, plays a significant role in shaping women's options. This paper examines a large teaching hospital's policy on reduction of multifetal pregnancies. The policy permits reduction of triplets to twins, but not twins to a singleton. As there is no morally relevant difference between these two types of reduction, it is evident that inappropriate medicalisation can still limit women's autonomy in undesirable ways.
Topics: Abortion, Therapeutic; Attitude to Health; Culture; Female; Feminism; Health Policy; Humans; Morals; Personal Autonomy; Pregnancy; Pregnancy, Multiple; Reproduction; Reproductive Techniques, Assisted; Risk Factors; Women
PubMed: 16648280
DOI: 10.1136/jme.2004.013193 -
Personality and Social Psychology... 2019We review empirical research on (social) psychology of morality to identify which issues and relations are well documented by existing data and which areas of inquiry... (Review)
Review
We review empirical research on (social) psychology of morality to identify which issues and relations are well documented by existing data and which areas of inquiry are in need of further empirical evidence. An electronic literature search yielded a total of 1,278 relevant research articles published from 1940 through 2017. These were subjected to expert content analysis and standardized bibliometric analysis to classify research questions and relate these to (trends in) empirical approaches that characterize research on morality. We categorize the research questions addressed in this literature into five different themes and consider how empirical approaches within each of these themes have addressed psychological antecedents and implications of moral behavior. We conclude that some key features of theoretical questions relating to human morality are not systematically captured in empirical research and are in need of further investigation.
Topics: Bibliometrics; Emotions; Humans; Morals; Psychology, Social; Research; Self Concept
PubMed: 30658545
DOI: 10.1177/1088868318811759 -
The International Journal on Drug Policy Jun 2017A large body of previous research has elucidated how involvement in drug dealing and crime among marginalized urban youth who use drugs is shaped by the imperatives of...
A large body of previous research has elucidated how involvement in drug dealing and crime among marginalized urban youth who use drugs is shaped by the imperatives of addiction and survival in the context of poverty. However, a growing body of research has examined how youth's involvement in these activities is shaped by more expansive desires and moralities. In this paper, we examine the material, moral, and affective worlds of loosely gang affiliated, street level dealing and crime among one group of young men in Vancouver, Canada. Drawing on longitudinal interviews with 44 young men from 2008 to 2016, and ethnographic fieldwork with a group of approximately 15 of those young men over the same time period, we argue that for these youth, dealing and crime were not solely about economic survival, or even the accrual of highly meaningful forms of "street capital" in the margins. Rather, as "regimes of living," dealing and crime also opened up new value systems, moral logics, and affects in relation to the tremendous risks, potential rewards, and crushing boredom of life in the margins. These activities were also understood as a way into deeply desired forms of social spatial belonging in the city, which had previously only been imagined. However, across time dealing and crime "embedded" young men in cycles of incarceration, destitution, addictions, and mental health crises that ultimately reinforced their exclusion-from legal employment, but also within the world of crime. The findings of this study underscore the importance of adopting a life course perspective in order to meaningfully address the harms associated with involvement in dealing and crime among youth in our setting.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Affect; Canada; Crime; Drug Trafficking; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Morals; Peer Group; Social Environment; Urban Population; Young Adult
PubMed: 28343062
DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2017.01.003