Sentimental Rules On the Natural Foundations of Moral Judgment [Paperback]

Sentimental Rulesis an ambitious and highly interdisciplinary work, which proposes and defends a new theory about the nature and evolution of moral judgment. In it, philosopher Shaun Nichols develops the theory that emotions play a critical role in both the psychological and the cultural underpinnings of basic moral judgment. Nichols argues that our norms prohibiting the harming of others are fundamentally associated with our emotional responses to those harms, and that such 'sentimental rules' enjoy an advantage in cultural evolution, which partly explains the success of certain moral norms. This has sweeping and exciting implications for philosophical ethics.

Nichols builds on an explosion of recent intriguing experimental work in psychology on our capacity for moral judgment and shows how this empirical work has broad import for enduring philosophical problems. The result is an account that illuminates fundamental questions about the character of moral emotions and the role of sentiment and reason in how we make our moral judgments. This work should appeal widely across philosophy and the other disciplines that comprise cognitive science.

an impressive essay --CHOICE

This book is a genuine advance in empirically informed moral philosophy, one should be read by all those interested in normative theory and philosophical psychology, as well as those who seek a model for the manner in which philosophy can become empirical without sacrificing its distinctive methods and identity. --Metapsychology Online Book Reviews

Sentimental Rulesis hugely original, uncommonly lucid, highly educational, and refreshingly unabashed in its interdisciplinarity. It sets a new standard for naturalized ethics. --Jesse Prinz, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Shaun Nichols'Sentimental Rulesis a major contribution to philosophical ethics. Together with such books as Allan Gibbard'sWise Choices,lcs