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Moral Acrobatics Summary

Moral Acrobatics: How We Avoid Ethical Ambiguity by Thinking in Black and White by Philippe Rochat (Professor of Psychology, Professor of Psychology, Emory University)

Although it is difficult for us to fathom, pure monsters do not exist. Terrorists and other serial killers massacre innocent people, yet are perfectly capable of loving their own parents, neighbors, and children. Hitler, sending millions to their death, was contemptuous of meat eaters and a strong advocate of animal welfare. How do we reconcile such moral ambiguities? Do they capture something deep about how we build values? As a developmental scientist, Philippe Rochat explores this possibility, proposing that as members of a uniquely symbolic and self-conscious species aware of its own mortality, we develop uncanny abilities toward lying and self-deception. We are deeply categorical and compartmentalized in our views of the world. We imagine essence where there is none. We juggle double standards and manage contradictory values, clustering our existence depending on context and situations, whether we deal in relation to close kin, colleagues, strangers, lovers, or enemies. We live within multiple, interchangeable moral spheres. This social-contextual determination of the moral domain is the source of moral ambiguities and blatant contradictions we all need to own up to.

Moral Acrobatics Reviews

Rochat offers a slim but powerful volume, both fascinating and frightening * R. E. Osborne, CHOICE *

About Philippe Rochat (Professor of Psychology, Professor of Psychology, Emory University)

Philippe Rochat is Professor of Psychology at Emory University. He received his PhD from the University of Geneva, and studied infants as a pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellow at Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Johns Hopkins University. A 2006-2007 John Simon Guggenheim fellow, he has written over one hundred scholarly articles and is the single author of five books, as well as the editor or co-editor of three books.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION Moral battlefield and the illusion of moral unity PART 1: FACTS What does it mean to be moral? 1 Human self-reflective curse 2 Double standards 3 Moral acrobats 4 Value creation and moral comfort zones 5 Hitler was a vegetarian! 6 No pure monsters PART 2: PROCLIVITIES What guides our moral decisions? 7 Moral sphere collapses 8 A heart made of abundance 9 Spherical alliances 10 Exclusivity instinct 11 Love as exclusion 12 Belonging instinct PART 3: MECHANISMS What shapes our moral decisions? 13 Blind spots and shortcuts 14 Fundamental attribution error 15 Clustering and stereotyping 16 Pervasive fetishism 17 Ingrained essentialism 18 Essentialism and prejudice 19 Group essentialism 20 Self-essentialism PART 4: DEVELOPMENT What are the origins of our moral decisions? 21 Self-consciousness in development 22 Self-deception in development 23 Lying and deceiving in development 24 Natural roots of moral hypocrisy 25 What about culture and development? CONCLUSION Human moral frailty Postscript: Moral acrobatics and human violence

Additional information

NPB9780190057657
9780190057657
0190057653
Moral Acrobatics: How We Avoid Ethical Ambiguity by Thinking in Black and White by Philippe Rochat (Professor of Psychology, Professor of Psychology, Emory University)
New
Hardback
Oxford University Press Inc
2021-03-31
192
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
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