Previous research has linked disgust sensitivity to negative attitudes toward gays and lesbians. We extend this existing research by examining the extent to which disgust sensitivity predicts attitudes more generally toward groups that threaten or uphold traditional sexual morality. In a sample of American adults (N = 236), disgust sensitivity (and particularly contamination disgust) predicted ...

The morality of human beings, defined here as our ability to determine whether our actions are right or wrong, depends not just on following rules but also on understanding the impact of our actions on another person. How we understand the impact of our actions on another person depends on our state of consciousness, which is mediated by our brain and nervous system. We describe how we understa...

This paper investigates the appropriateness of LP-based reasoning to machine ethics, an interdisciplinary field of inquiry that emerges from the need of imbuing autonomous agents with the capacity for moral decision making. The first contribution of the paper is that of identifying morality viewpoints, as studied in moral philosophy and psychology, which are amenable to computational modeling, ...

1871 saw the publication of two major treatises in economics, with self-seeking economic man at their center. In the same year Darwin published The Descent of Man, which emphasized sympathy and cooperation as well as self-interest, and contained a powerful argument that morality has evolved in humans by natural selection. Essentially this stance is supported by modern research. This paper consi...

In an era when the luxury of private bathrooms had not yet been made widely available to the masses, local charities and municipal governments worked feverishly to construct public bathhouses. Reformers, including city officials, engineers, physicians, and members of the clergy, increased the number of public bath facilities across America from a mere six in 1894 to 49 by 1904. The urban poor t...

Abstract: This research project has two parts. First, I argue that empathy is not necessary and not sufficient for morality. I use autistic individuals and individuals who suffer from psychopathy as my primary examples to show that empathy is not a significant source of morality. I review the literature in moral psychology and emotion research to show that emotions other than empathy, primarily...

In discussing bioethics and the formulation of neuroethics, the question has arisen as to whether secular humanism should be the sole philosophical guiding light, to the exclusion of any discussion (or even mention) of religious morality, in professional medical ethics. In addition, the question has arisen as to whether freedom or censorship should be part of medical (and neuroscience) journali...

Disgust, one of the six universally recognized emotions, plays an indispensible role in disease avoidance and morality. While previous studies have demonstrated its evolutionary significance and its role in pathogen resistance and morality, much remains unknown about how these findings could be applied to other areas of the social world. This paper reviews the relevant literature regarding the ...

Hesiod's Works and Days is undeniably a didactic poem. It is concerned with real problems of mankind. At a first glance it may seem as a practical guide to living and prospering in the Ancient Greek world. The title itself, along with the many parts of the poem that deal with practical issues can lead one to this conclusion. A more careful analysis, however, can show that Works and Days is more...