Elements of Moral Cognition: Rawls' Linguistic Analogy and the Cognitive Science of Moral and Legal Judgment [Hardcover]

John Mikhail explores whether moral psychology is usefully modelled on aspects of Universal Grammar.The books main purpose is to explore whether the science of moral cognition is usefully modeled on aspects of Noam Chomskys theory of Universal Grammar. Just as Chomsky argued that human beings are born with innate knowledge of grammar, so Mikhail suggests that humans might possess innate moral knowledge, and he shows how this question can be usefully investigated.The books main purpose is to explore whether the science of moral cognition is usefully modeled on aspects of Noam Chomskys theory of Universal Grammar. Just as Chomsky argued that human beings are born with innate knowledge of grammar, so Mikhail suggests that humans might possess innate moral knowledge, and he shows how this question can be usefully investigated.Is the science of moral cognition usefully modeled on aspects of Universal Grammar? Are human beings born with an innate moral grammar that causes them to analyze human action in terms of its moral structure, with just as little awareness as they analyze human speech in terms of its grammatical structure? Questions like these have been at the forefront of moral psychology ever since John Mikhail revived them in his influential work on the linguistic analogy and its implications for jurisprudence and moral theory. In this seminal book, Mikhail offers a careful and sustained analysis of the moral grammar hypothesis, showing how some of John Rawls' original ideas about the linguistic analogy, together with famous thought experiments like the trolley problem, can be used to improve our understanding of moral and legal judgment. The book will be of interest to philosophers, cognitive scientists, legal scholars, and other researchers in the interdisciplinary field of moral psychology.Part I. Theory: 1. The question presented; 2. A new framework for the theory of moral cognition; 3. The basic elements of Rawls' linguistic analogy; Part II. Empiri