fMRI and moral grammar
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For those who were interested in the thread on fMRI and ethics, here is the info about STS circle event I mentioned:
“Evolving a Moral Grammar: Domain-specificity, Origins, Universality and Moral Organs”
Mark Hauser, Department of Psychology, Harvard University)
February 13 (Wednesday), 2008, 12:15-2:00 pm at Room 469, Science Center, 1 Oxford Street
Abstract:
How do you decide what is morally right and wrong? Historically, there have been two answers to this question. On the one hand, we deliver moral judgments on the basis of a rational, conscious, and deliberate process of accessing principles to justify our actions. On the other hand, our judgments are the result of intuitions mediated by emotions. Though these two processes certainly play some role in our moral deliberations, each suffers from a set of critical problems. I offer a solution: by appealing to an analogy to language, I argue that humans are endowed with a universal moral grammar that generates intuitive judgments of right and wrong based on an inaccessible code of action. I present evidence from a large scale study of the internet with over 200,000 subjects, together with work on small scale societies, to justify a dissociation between judgments and justifications, and to reveal a set of core principles that appear immune to cultural influences, including religious background. I also present results from studies of brain damaged patients, neuroimaging, and brain stimulation to reveal the architecture of our moral organ.
