People perceive that if their memories and moral beliefs changed, they would change. We investigated why individuals respond this way. In Study 1, participants judged that identity would change more after changes to memories and widely shared moral beliefs (e.g., about murder) versus preferences and controversial moral beliefs (e.g., about abortion). The extent to which participants judged that...

This paper draws attention to the remarkable closing words of Isaac Newton’s Optice (1706) and subsequent editions of the Opticks (1718, 1721), and tries to suggest why Newton chose to conclude his book with a puzzling allusion to his own unpublished conclusions about the history of religion. Newton suggests in this concluding passage that the bounds of moral philosophy will be enlarged as natu...

Some humor is offensive, but does this convey a moral constraint on what comedians can include in their jokes? Using stand up bits and reflections on comedy from George Carlin, Louis C.K., and Doug Stanhope, various philosophies of humor, and the linguistic philosophy of H.P. Grice, I explore the given question and attempt to settle the disputes about when it is prudent to be offended, in what ...

"Rationality" is generally regarded as a concept exclusive to Western philosophy. In this paper I intend to show that even if in Chinese philosophy there is not a term equivalent to “rationality” in Western philosophy, Chinese philosophers have discussed rational beings in their own way. More specifically, I will argue that in Xunzi’s philosophy humans are rational beings, and their ability to ...

Kohlberg’s work in moral judgement has been criticised by many philosophers and psychologists. Building on Kohlberg’s core assumptions, we propose a model of moral judgement (hereafter the neo-Kohlbergian approach) that addresses these concerns. Using 25 years of data gathered with the DeŽ ning Issues Test (DIT), we present an overview of Minnesota’s neo-Kohlbergian approach, using Kohlberg’s b...

We analyze a novel principal-agent problem of moral hazard and adverse selection in continuous time. The constant private shock revealed at time zero when the agent selects the contract has a long-term impact on the optimal contract. The latter is based not only on the continuation value of the agent who truthfully reports, but also contingent upon the continuation value of the agent who misrep...

[I must apologize for the fact that this paper is very late, very rough, incomplete, and nearly devoid of citations. As a result, I recognize that I am deserving of the very attitude of moral blame that is the central theme of this paper. An unintended benefit of this situation is that the reader is likely to have this attitude in mind while reading the paper, and will thus be in a better posit...

Most arguments for moral vegetarianism rely on the premise that non-human animals can suffer. In this paper I evaluate problems that arise from Peter Carruthers’ Higher-Order Thought theory of consciousness. I argue that, even if we assume that these problems cannot be overcome, it does not follow that we should not subscribe to moral vegetarianism. I conclude that we should act as if non-human...

This study explores a phenomenon that has been shown to adversely affect managers' decisions—competitive irrationality. Managers are irrationally competitive in their decisions when they focus on damaging the profits of competitors, rather than improving their own profit performance Studies by Armstrong and Collopy (1996) and Griffith and Rust (1997) suggest that the phenoixiGnon is cominon but...

Information technology helps people in many ways, but it doesn't help them answer important questions like: What do I do with my life? How should I act? How should I treat others? Perhaps IT can help ordinary people create and live a personal moral philosophy. This paper offers a framework for research on this possibility. Ethical choice is viewed as guided imagination, and moral development as...