CFP: The Moral Domain: Conceptual Issues in Moral Psychology

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Moral Domain: Conceptual Issues in Moral Psychology

9-11 October 2014, Vilnius University
http://moral-domain.xphi.lt

Confirmed keynote speakers:

Prof. Edouard Machery (Pittsburgh)

Dr. Katinka Quintelier (Amsterdam)

Dr. Paulo Sousa (Queen’s)

Prof. Dan Sperber (CEU / Institut Nicod)

Prof. Stephen Stich (Rutgers)

What kind of norms and judgments count as moral? In other words, what constitutes the moral domain? This broad question is the main focus of the conference.

More specifically, how do moral norms and judgments differ from other types of norms and judgments? How can we delineate the moral domain? How many moral domains there are? Is there a single unified moral domain or do moral norms divide naturally into several distinct domains? For instance, E. Turiel and his colleagues have argued that harmful transgressions and injustice transgressions constitute two basic, but separate, moral domains. While J. Haidt and his colleagues have argued that there are at least five moral domains, namely, concerns about care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, and sanctity/degradation. How can we decide between these (and other) accounts of the moral domain? How should we study such questions? What are the best criteria to delineate the moral domain? Is Turiel’s traditional moral/conventional task a reliable method of delineating the moral domain? What are methodological and conceptual alternatives to moral/conventional task?  How can research on folk meta-ethics (e.g. folk moral relativism vs. objectivism) inform and contribute to the debates about the moral domain? What can be learned from cross-cultural evidence? How can debates be enriched by taking gender differences into account? What can be learned from evolutionary perspectives? In what ways questions about the moral domain connect to issues of innateness and cultural learning? Do these descriptive questions of moral psychology have implications for normative moral theory and meta-ethics?

We invite anthropologists, cognitive scientists, philosophers, psychologists, and other scholars to address these and related questions during the conference.

Abstract submission details:

Please send proposals of ca. 500 words to [email protected] before 1 May, 2014. Notification of acceptance: 10 May, 2014. Each presentation will be allocated 20 minutes + 10 minutes for discussion.

Organized by:

Renatas Berniūnas and Vilius Dranseika (Vilnius Experimental Philosophy Lab)

In cooperation with:

Department of General Psychology, Vilnius University

Department of Logic and History of Philosophy, Vilnius University

Sponsored by:

Lithuanian Research Council

Vilnius University