Experimental Ethics: Toward an Empirical Moral Philosophy

301 Pages·2014·1.077 MB·English

by  Christoph Luetge, Hannes Rusch, Matthias Uhl (eds.)

Experimental Ethics
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Experimental Ethics
Toward an Empirical Moral Philosophy
Edited by
Christoph Luetge
Technische Universität München, Germany
Hannes Rusch
Justus Liebig University Giessen &Technische Universität München, Germany
and
Matthias Uhl
Technische Universität München, Germany
Editorial matter and selection © Christoph Luetge, Hannes Rusch,
Matthias Uhl 2014
Chapters © Individual authors 2014
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-40979-9
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First published 2014 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-48879-7 ISBN 978-1-137-40980-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137409805
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Luetge, Christoph.
Experimental ethics : toward an empirical moral philosophy / Christoph
Luetge, Technische Universitat, Munchen, Germany, Hannes Rusch, Justus-
Liebig University, Giessen, Germany, Matthias Uhl, Technische Universitat,
Munchen, Germany.
pages cm
1. Ethics – Research. I. Title.
BJ66.L88 2014
170—dc23 2014022092
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables v iii
Notes on Contributors ix
1 Introduction: Toward an Empirical Moral Philosophy 1
Christoph Luetge, Matthias Uhl, and Hannes Rusch
Part I Experimental Moral Philosophy? 5
2 Experimental Philosophy 7
Kwame Anthony Appiah
3 Chances, Problems, and Limits of Experimental Ethics 26
Christoph Luetge
4 A Brief History of Experimental Ethics 38
Niklas Dworazik and Hannes Rusch
Part II Applied Experimental Ethics: Case Studies 5 7
Introduction to Part II 5 7
5 The Moral Behavior of Ethicists and the Role of the
Philosopher 5 9
Eric Schwitzgebel
6 Explaining the Knobe Effect 6 5
Verena Wagner
7 Trolleys and Double Effect in Experimental Ethics 80
Ezio Di Nucci
8 Utilitarianism, the Difference Principle, or Else? An
Experimental Analysis of the Impact of Social Immobility
on the Democratic Election of Distributive Rules 94
Stephan Wolf and Alexander Lenger
9 Value Assignments in Experimental Environmental Ethics 112
Ulrich Frey
v
vi Contents
Part III On Methodology 1 31
Introduction to Part III 131
10 Implicit Morality: A Methodological Survey 133
Nina Strohminger, Brendan Caldwell, Daryl Cameron,
Jana Schaich Borg, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
11 How to Gauge Moral Intuitions? Prospects for a
New Methodology 157
Martin Bruder and Attila Tanyi
12 Descriptive and Pragmatic Levels of Empirical Ethics:
Utilizing the Situated Character of Moral Concepts,
Judgment, and Decision-Making 175
Andreas Bunge and Alexander Skulmowski
13 Robust Intuitions, Experimental Ethics, and Experimental
Economics: Bringing Reflective Equilibrium into the Lab 1 91
Fernando Aguiar, Antonio Gaitán, and Blanca Rodríguez-López
Part IV Critical Reflections 2 09
Introduction to Part IV 209
14 Experimental Philosophy Is Useful – But not in a
Specific Way 211
Jacob Rosenthal
15 Intuitions, Experiments, and Armchairs 2 27
Nikil Mukerji
Part V Future Perspectives 2 45
Introduction to Part V 245
16 Large-scale Social Experiments in Experimental Ethics 247
Julian F. Müller
17 Philosophy as the Behaviorist Views It? Historical Parallels
to the Discussion of the Use of Experimental Methods in
Philosophy 264
Hannes Rusch
18 Outlook: Current Problems and Future Perspectives of
Experimental Ethics 283
Christoph Luetge, Matthias Uhl, and Hannes Rusch
Name Index 289
Subject Index 291
List of Figures
4.1 N umber of publications listed on philpapers.org by year;
separate lines for Experimental Ethics (dashed line) and
Experimental Philosophy (excluding Experimental Ethics;
solid line); data was collected from philpapers.org in
March 2014 3 8
7.1 T he Trolley Trilemma 8 3
8.1 D ifferent normative conclusions by Rawls and Harsanyi,
derived from different positive models about human
decision making (own compilation) 1 00
8.2 C hoices for distributional schemes, percentages from
all 85 groups (Frohlich and Oppenheimer, 1992, p. 60) 103
8.3 C ombination of choices in round 1 and round 2.
The vertical dimension shows the group decision in
round 1 (only C and D chosen); horizontally, the group
choice for round 2 is represented (all options from A to D
realized) 1 08
9.1 A nswer distribution to question b001 in the World
Values Survey 1981–2008 (5 waves) 116
9.2 S urvey result for Routley’s ‘last people’ thought experiment 123
11.1 I ntensity of negative moral emotions under the
supposition of acting against consequentialist demands
averaged across the six scenarios for each level of
objective and subjective demands 169
vii
List of Tables
8.1 Distributional schemes participants had to choose from,
representing ‘yearly dollar income for a household’
(based on Frohlich and Oppenheimer, 1992, p. 38) 102
8.2 Different income schemes the participants have to
choose from (own compilation) 106
9.1 Alternatives with attributes in a choice experiment 121
15.1 Possible interpretations of the Argumentation Scheme 230
viii
Notes on Contributors
Fernando Aguiar : Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Social
Studies (IESA-CSIC), Córdoba, Spain.
Kwame Anthony Appiah : Professor of Philosophy and Law, New York
University, NY, USA.
Martin B ruder : Research Fellow, Department of Psychology/Zukunfts-
kolleg, University of Konstanz.
Andreas Bunge : PhD Student, Philosophy, University of Nottingham,
UK.
Brendan C aldwell : Research Assistant, Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke
University, Durham, NC, USA.
Daryl C ameron : Assistant Professor, Psychology Department, University
of Iowa, USA.
Niklas Dworazik : Research Associate, Developmental and Cultural
Psychology, University of Osnabrück.
Ulrich Frey : Postdoctoral Researcher, Philosophy, University of Giessen.
Antonio Gaitán : Lecturer, Philosophy, Universidad Carlos III, Madrid,
Spain.
Alexander L enger : Postdoctoral Researcher, Sociology, University of
Freiburg i.B.
Christoph L uetge : Full Professor and Chair of Business Ethics, Technische
Universität München.
Nikil Mukerji : Postdoctoral Researcher, Philosophy, LMU Munich.
Julian F. Müller : Research Associate, Business Ethics, TU München.
Ezio Di N ucci : Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Duisburg-
Essen.
Blanca Rodríguez-López : Senior Lecturer, Philosophy, Universidad
Complutense, Madrid, Spain.
ix