Psychopathology, Neuroscience, and Moral Theory

Abstract

Abstract: Moral theorists often invoke sociopaths and psychopaths as the quintessential example of a morally impaired agent. In the current debate, both moral rationalists, who argue that moral competence consists in the ability to apply a set of moral rules, and moral sentimentalists, who define moral competence as appropriate emotional responding, refer to evidence regarding these pathologies to support their theory. Neither experimental data on antisocial pathologies nor neuroscientific data provide definitive support for either moral theory, but both of these empirical literatures suggest a deep complexity in the mechanisms supporting moral competence, and perhaps an inadequacy of our current conceptions of "emotional" versus "rational" or "cognitive" systems, and how these contribute to psychopathology and influence "moral" capacities.