Moral Psychology ─ The Neuroscience of Morality: Emotion, Brain Disorders, and Development

For much of the twentieth century, philosophy and science went their separate ways.In moral philosophy, fear of the so-called naturalistic fallacy kept moral philosophers fromincorporating developments in biology and psychology. Since the 1990s, however, many philosophershave drawn on recent advances in cognitive psychology, brain science, and evolutionary psychology toinform their work. This collaborative trend is especially strong in moral philosophy, and thesethree volumes bring together some of the most innovative work by both philosophers and psychologistsin this emerging interdisciplinary field. The neuroscience of morality is in its infancy, with thefirst brain imaging studies of moral development undertaken only in 2001.

Thecontributors to volume 3 sample the best work in this very new field, discussing a variety ofapproaches, including functional imaging, lesion studies, abnormal psychology, and developmentalneuroscience. Each chapter includes an essay, comments on the essay by other scholars, and a replyby the author(s) of the original essay. Topics include the neural basis of moral emotions and moraljudgments as well as comparisons of normal adult moral judgments with those made by children,adolescents, and people with psychopathy, brain damage, and autism.

WalterSinnott-Armstrong is Professor of Philosophy and Hardy Professor of Legal Studies at DartmouthCollege.

Contributors to volume 3: Abigail Baird, WilliamCasebeer, Cordelia Fine, Nathan Fox, Uta Frith, Jordan Grafman, Joshua Greene, Catherine Hynes,Fatima Azavedo Ignacio, Richard Joyce, Jerome Kagan, Leonard Katz, Kent Kiehl, Jeanette Kennett,Melanie Killen, Daniel Lapsley, Heidi Maibom, Victoria McGeer, John Mikhail, Jorge Moll, ShaunNichols, Ricardo de Oliveira-Souza, Adina Roskies, Jana Schaich Borg, Katrina Sifferd, WalterSinnott-Armstrong, Michael Smith, Mark Timmons, Frederick de Vignemont, Paul Whalen, Roland Zahn

CHARLES W. HAXTHAUSEN is Professor of art history and Director ofthe graduate program in the History of Art at Williams College. Heis the editor of The Two Art Histories: The Museum and the University(Clark Art Institute and Yale University Press, 2003), and iscurrently working on the art criticism of Carl Einstein. His "BloodySerious: Two Texts by Carl Einstein" appeared in October 105.