Date of Award
8-8-2017
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Philosophy
First Advisor
Dr. Eddy Nahmias
Second Advisor
Dr. Andrea Scarantino
Third Advisor
Dr. Eyal Aharoni
Abstract
Reactive attitudes are distinctively moral emotions that occur when a moral harm has occurred. Recent studies in moral psychology suggest that our reactive attitudes may be influenced by factors extraneous to moral evaluation, such as hunger, sleep deprivation, and negative moods. I argue that these influences lead us to sanction unfairly. Even though reactive attitudes may be a natural response to perceived moral wrongdoing, we cannot justifiably inflict undeserved harm. However, if we can learn to recognize and eliminate the effects of these irrelevant influences, then we can use our reactive attitudes productively in holding others morally accountable.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/10423276
Recommended Citation
Haskell, Amanda, "Too Tired to be Fair: Reactive Attitudes and Irrelevant Influences." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2017.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/10423276