The Epistemology of Moral Praise and Moral Criticism

Abstract Are strangers sincere in their moral praise and criticism? Here we apply signaling theory to argue ceteris paribus criticism is more likely than praise; the former tends be a higher-fidelity signal (in Western societies). To offer an example: emotions are often self-validating as because they're hard fake. This epistemic insight matters: influence reputations, affect whether others will cooperate with us. Though much of this applies generic too, philosophers should value for several reasons: it (i) offers into how actually view us agents; (ii) feedback help improve our characters; (iii) encourages some behaviors, discourages others. And so agents , care sincere.