Children’s developing notions of (im)partiality

Children's developing notions of (im)partiality.

This research examines the development of children's understanding that people's judgments may be skewed by relationships, and that situational factors may make it difficult to be impartial. One hundred and seventy-one adults and children between kindergarten and eighth grade heard stories about judges in contests with objective or subjective criteria for winning. In Experiment 1, by fourth gra...

Against Impartiality

People often identify justice with impartiality. This reflects reality: many who experience injustice complain of biased treatment. But whether bias is objectionable depends on a prior commitment to an ideal of nondomination. I advance this claim by reference to impartiality arguments defended by Brian Barry and Amartya Sen. Then I sketch a historical account of impartialist ventures that shows...

Kant's Four Notions of Freedom

Morality, Rationality and Impartiality

Morality as somehow involving rationality and impartiality received classic expression in philosophy of Kant who frankly speaks of “rational and impartial spectator” in contemplating the universal law. The overall aim of this paper is to show (1) that the idea of morality implies rationality and this will be reached at in refuting the moral scepticism; but (2) it does not necessarily indicates ...

Adam Smith’s “sympathetic Impartiality” and Universality*

I reconstruct here the implicit rationale of Smith’s ethical system, which unites in a single and consistent theory the most valuable features of both ancient virtue ethics and modern deontology. I propose that Smith could do this because of his approach to what I call “sympathetic impartiality”, and the pretension of universality that arises from it. In Smith’s theory, sentiments are moralized...