What neuroscience should (and shouldn’t) contribute to metaethics

Robert Fabiny (La Trobe University)

The title for this talk references New-Zealand moral philosopher Richard Joyce’s 2008 paper What neuroscience can (and cannot) contribute to metaethics. Joyce argues that neuroscientists and psychologists such as Joshua Greene, Jonathan Haidt, and Jorge Moll have overreached their grasp - utilising neuroscience to support moral emotivism and undermine moral rationalism. Joyce’s analysis suggests that the neuroscientist trespasses onto the territory of the philosopher. However, when placed within the context of a relationship between philosophy and the sciences that does not place philosophy as anterior, these concerns appear to evaporate.