Discussions of the problem of evil presuppose and appeal to axiological and metaethical assumptions, but seldom pay adequate attention to those assumptions. I argue that certain theories of value are consistent with theistic answers to the argument from evil and that several other well-known theories of value, such as hedonism, are difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile with theism. Althoug...

Recent epidemiological reports of associations between socioeconomic status and epigenetic markers that predict vulnerability to diseases are bringing to light substantial biological effects of social inequalities. Here, we start the discussion of the moral consequences of these findings. We firstly highlight their explanatory importance in the context of the research program on the Development...

Influential theories on moral judgments propose that they rely either on emotions or on innate moral principles. In contrast, the mental model theory postulates that moral judgments rely on reasoning, either intuition or deliberation. The theory allows for the possibility that intuitions lead to utilitarian judgments. This paper reports two experiments involving fifth-grade children, adolescent...

In a famous footnote in Anarchy, State, and Utopia, Robert Nozick wonders whether " a side-constraint view can be put in the form of the goal-without-side-constraint view " (Nozick 1974, 29). Put in more familiar terms, Nozick wants to know whether it is possible to represent side-constraints in a broadly consequentialist framework. For those who think that the arguments in favour of some sort ...

Global poverty is one of the most pressing issues of our time, yet many ethical theories are reluctant to take positive action towards the poor seriously. I contrast this with the strong demands of Utilitarianism, Peter Singer’s Principle of Sacrifice, and of some parts of Christian Ethics. I will demonstrate that, far from being too demanding, this is something that these theories get right, a...

We present a cognitively motivated model of moral decisionmaking, MoralDM, which models psychological findings about utilitarian and deontological modes of reasoning. Current theories of moral decision-making extend beyond pure utilitarian models by including contextual factors that vary culturally. Our model employs both first-principles reasoning and analogical reasoning to implement rules of...

Recent empirical research seems to show that emotions play a substantial role in moral judgment. Perhaps the most important line of support for this claim focuses on disgust. A number of philosophers and scientists argue that there is adequate evidence showing that disgust significantly influences various moral judgments. And this has been used to support or undermine a range of philosophical t...