Like-Minded: Externalism and Moral Psychology

6. Psychological Pluralism, Environmental Sensitivity, and the Bounds of Morality

6 Psychological Pluralism, Environmental Sensitivity, and the Bounds of Morality I have made a case that cognitive systems that extend beyond individual agents into the wider world, including other agents, are important constituents of the psychology of normal moral agency. Along the way, I have made the case that the psychology of moral agency turns out to be, at virtually every turn, heterogeneous. In this chapter, I shall prioritize my topics differently. Pluralism will be my primary topic; externalism will be secondary. Just how fragmented is the psychology of moral agency? There are two levels of abstraction at which to pose this question. At the higher level, the question to ask is “Just what capacities are characteristic of normal moral agency?” In chapters 2–5, I have examined moral judgment, moral reasoning, action production, and attributions of responsibility. Should anything be added to this list in order to paint a complete picture of the psychology of moral agency? At the lower level the issue is pluralism within each segment of the taxonomy of the essential features of moral psychology. I have argued for pluralism at this level in each of the four preceding chapters. As I add topics at the higher level of abstraction, I shall keep in mind the possibility of pluralism at this lower level. I shall broach the question of the extent of the heterogeneity of moral psychology via an attempt to map the psychological contours of morality. I shall do this by creating a taxonomy of forms of amoralism. It is common psychological practice to use malfunctioning as a guide to normal functioning . My map of amoralism is constructed in this methodological spirit. For each way in which people are insensitive to moral demands, it is worth asking what psychological mechanisms are responsible for securing the appropriate sort of sensitivity. By so doing, we can construct, at least prima facie, a list of topics that must be addressed by a complete account of our 204 Chapter 6 moral psychology. In the specific context, this means that we will have a tool to use to determine what should added to the Wide Moral Systems Hypothesis (WMSH) as it is developed. The second topic of this chapter is closely linked to the first one. In chapters 2–5, I have presented a pluralistic view of the psychology of moral agency. The taxonomy of forms of amoralism expands this pluralism. The second topic is the question of what to make of this. What explanation might there be of the psychological pluralism of moral agency? My answer to this question returns externalism to the discussion. Briefly, my suggestion will be that our moral minds are psychologically heterogeneous in part because they are significantly widely realized and the world in which we operate is heterogeneous. The third topic of this chapter is the practical implications of the pluralism and externalism of the WMSH. I shall confine my attention to people who depart from normal moral agency. Questions of education obviously arise. Supposing that the WMSH is correct, are there things we can do to foster moral agency? This is particularly pressing when people are at risk or uncertain about what is right and what is wrong. Can externalist ideas about moral psychology be used to address risk and uncertainty? What are the implications for moral education? From here it is a short step to thinking of deeper deviations from normal moral agency. What about people who suffer from psychopathologies that impair moral agency? Do externalist ideas have therapeutic implications? I have no radical educational or therapeutic programs to offer. Indeed, I am skeptical of the prospects for satisfying moral education and therapy. Progress on these fronts will be made only in a piecemeal and tentative fashion. Pluralism, amoralism, and practical application provide tools for assessing the overall width of moral minds. I have claimed that both narrow and wide mechanisms are at work in normal moral psychology. The obvious question to ask is “Which kind of mechanism is more pervasive?” Should we think of moral psychology as massively wide, or hardly wide at all? This is an empirical issue that cannot be resolved here. Indeed, given that empirical assessment of wide hypotheses is still an emerging practice, we should think that there is much work to be done before we can confidently form a picture of the relative width of the moral mind. However, we can survey the territory and try to bring the likelihoods into...