Rational Rules: Towards a Theory of Moral Learning 1st Edition Shaun Nichols

Rational Rules: Towards a Theory of Moral Learning – Ebook Instant Download/Delivery ISBN(s): 9780198869153,0198869150,2020941874

Product details:

• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0198869150
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0198869153
• Author(s): Shaun Nichols

Moral systems, like normative systems more broadly, involve complex mental representations. Rational Rules proposes that moral learning can be understood in terms of general-purpose rational learning procedures. Nichols argues that statistical learning can help answer a wide range of questions about moral thought: Why do people think that rules apply to actions rather than consequences? Why do people expect new rules to be focused on actions rather than consequences? How do people come to believe a principle of liberty, according to which whatever is not expressly prohibited is permitted? How do people decide that some normative claims hold universally while others hold only relative to some group? The resulting account has both empiricist and rationalist features: since the learning procedures are domain-general, the result is an empiricist theory of a key part of moral development, and since the learning procedures are forms of rational inference, the account entails that crucial parts of our moral system enjoy rational credentials. Moral rules can also be rational in the sense that they can be effective for achieving our ends, given our ecological settings. Rational Rules argues that at least some central components of our moral systems are indeed ecologically rational: they are good at helping us attain common goals.

Table contents:

Part I. Rationality and Rules
1. Rationality and Morality: Setting the Stage
2. The Wrong and the Bad: On the Nature of Moral Representations
Part II. Statistical Learning of Norm Systems
3. Scope
4. Priors
5. Closure
6. Status
Part III. Philosophical Implications
7. Moral Empiricism
8. Rational Rules and Normative Propriety
9. Rationalism, Universalism, and Relativism
10. Is It Rational to Be Moral?
References
Index

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