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336How remonstration fails: filial piety and reprehensible parentsJournal of Confucian Philosophy and Culture 40 109-131. 2023.Critics of Confucianism have long raised concerns about its focus on filial piety (xiao 孝). This concept entails traditional expectations, such as children dutifully serving parents, demonstrating outward respect, and subordinating personal desires to parental wishes. Critics find this problematic not only as an approach toward parents but also as a broader orientation toward authority figures. In response to such criticism, a common argument asserts that it misunderstands filial piety's true na…Read more
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319What Does the Nation of China Think About Phenomenal States?Review of Philosophy and Psychology 1 (2): 225-243. 2010.Critics of functionalism about the mind often rely on the intuition that collectivities cannot be conscious in motivating their positions. In this paper, we consider the merits of appealing to the intuition that there is nothing that it’s like to be a collectivity. We demonstrate that collective mentality is not an affront to commonsense, and we report evidence that demonstrates that the intuition that there is nothing that it’s like to be a collectivity is, to some extent, culturally specific r…Read more
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305Experimental PhilosophyOxford Bibliographies Online (1): 81-92. 2006.Bibliography of works in experimental philosophy.
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296Meta-Theories, Interpretability, and Human Nature: A Reply to J. David VellemanPhilosophy East and West 72 (1): 252-257. 2022.My thanks to David Velleman for a clear and constructive response to my comment. He raises two issues that might benefit from some further brief remarks. The first concerns the error-theory I put forth to explain why the early Confucians were not relativists. The second concerns the extent to which the Confucian notion of harmony is at odds with Velleman's notion of interpretability or coherence. I consider each in turn, below.
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281ObjectivityIn Todd K. Shackelford & Vivian A. Weekes-Shackelford (eds.), Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science, . 2018.In this entry, we outline the ways in which evolutionary theory has implications for the objectivity of morality.
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270What is the nature of morality? A response to Casebeer, Railton and RuseIn Walter Sinnott Armstrong (ed.), Moral Psychology, Vol.1: The Evolution of Morality: Adaptations and Innateness, . pp. 45-52. 2007.A response to comments by William Casebeer, Peter Railton, and Michael Ruse on "Naturalizing Ethics" (2007).
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258Review of Foundations for Moral Relativism (review)Journal of Moral Philosophy 14 (1): 116-119. 2017.Review of David Velleman's Foundations for Moral Relativism.
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256When you think it's bad it's worse than you think: Psychological bias and the ethics of negative character assessmentsIn Brian Bruya (ed.), The Philosophical Challenge from China, Mit Press. pp. 3-21. 2015.We often find ourselves thinking of others as boring, nauseating, dim, dodgy, clumsy, or otherwise irritating or unpleasant. What’s the right thing to do when we have such thoughts? Some philosophers argue we ought to be civil and conceal them, lest others pick up on them and feel disrespected. Drawing on experimental psychology and classical Confucianism, I argue otherwise, suggesting that we ought to (literally) doubt such appraisals and be wary of their veracity.
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201Classical Confucian thought is full of discussion of human emotions, reflecting a preoccupation with the inner life-how one ought to feel 'on the inside', as it were. Yet alongside these passages are others that seem, by contrast, to be concerned with matters external to one's emotions and psychology: how one ought to dress, speak, walk, and talk. Yet passages such as these, which draw attention to details of individual expression and comportment, are not at all tangential when it comes to under…Read more
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134The folk strike back; or, why you didn’t do it intentionally, though it was bad and you knew itPhilosophical Studies 138 (2). 2008.Recent and puzzling experimental results suggest that people’s judgments as to whether or not an action was performed intentionally are sensitive to moral considerations. In this paper, we outline these results and evaluate two accounts which purport to explain them. We then describe a recent experiment that allegedly vindicates one of these accounts and present our own findings to show that it fails to do so. Finally, we present additional data suggesting no such vindication could be in the off…Read more
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96The Oneness Hypothesis: Beyond the Boundary of Self (edited book)Columbia University Press. 2018.The idea that the self is inextricably intertwined with the rest of the world—the “oneness hypothesis”—can be found in many of the world’s philosophical and religious traditions. Oneness provides ways to imagine and achieve a more expansive conception of the self as fundamentally connected with other people, creatures, and things. Such views present profound challenges to Western hyperindividualism and its excessive concern with self-interest and tendency toward self-centered behavior. This anth…Read more
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56Individualism in Early China: Human Agency and the Self in Thought and Politics by Erica Fox Brindley (review)Philosophy East and West 62 (3): 408-410. 2012.Review of Individualism in Early China: Human Agency and the Self in Thought and Politics by Erica Fox Brindley.
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37Neuroethics Questions to Guide Ethical Research in the International Brain InitiativesNeuron 100 (1): 19-36. 2018.Increasingly, national governments across the globe are prioritizing investments in neuroscience. Currently, seven active or in-development national-level brain research initiatives exist, spanning four continents. Engaging with the underlying values and ethical concerns that drive brain research across cultural and continental divides is critical to future research. Culture influences what kinds of science are supported and where science can be conducted through ethical frameworks and evaluatio…Read more
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24Review: Stephen C. Angle and Michael Slote (eds.), Virtue Ethics and Confucianism, Routledge, 2013, 271pp., $125.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780415815482. (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 5 10. 2014.Review of Stephen C. Angle and Michael Slote (eds.), Virtue Ethics and Confucianism, Routledge, 2013, 271pp., $125.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780415815482.
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15Humaneness and Justice in the Analects: On Tao Jiang's Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early ChinaPhilosophy East and West 73 (2): 429-439. 2023.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Humaneness and Justice in the Analects:On Tao Jiang's Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early ChinaHagop Sarkissian (bio)IntroductionOne of the central themes of Tao Jiang's Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China is the contestation of the values of partialist humaneness and impartialist justice across diverse thinkers and texts throughout the classical period. His departure point is the Analects, which displays …Read more
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13Advances in Experimental Moral PsychologyBloomsbury Academic. 2014.Advances in Experimental Moral Psychology brings together leading scholars in the field to provide fresh theoretical perspectives on research in philosophy and psychology. Reflecting a diverse and active field of study, contributors are drawn from across both subjects to pursue central questions concerning moral psychology. Covering a wide-ranging selection of arguments, issues and debates, topics includes the role of emotion in moral judgment (both at a general theoretical level and with regard…Read more
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7Chinese philosophy as experimental philosophyIn Sor-Hoon Tan (ed.), The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Chinese Philosophy Methodologies, . pp. 353-366. 2016.In this chapter, we outline the methods and aims of experimental philosophy as a methodological movement within philosophy, and suggest ways in which it may be employed in the study of Chinese philosophy
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6Aspects of Folk Morality: Objectivism and RelativismIn Justin Sytsma & Wesley Buckwalter (eds.), A Companion to Experimental Philosophy, Wiley. 2016.Most moral philosophers work under the assumption that ordinary folk morality is committed to objectivism—that ordinary folk view morality in absolute terms. This datum concerning folk metaethics serves to constrain and shape philosophical metaethics, since those working in this field (e.g. objectivists, relativists, expressivists) feel compelled to make sense of it in their theories. In this chapter, I discuss why philosophers take on this commitment. I also outline the relevant experimental re…Read more
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5Experimental moral psychology: An introductionIn Advances in Experimental Moral Psychology, . pp. 1-17. 2014.An introduction to the volume bearing the same name, tracing the recent history of experimental moral psychology and summarizing the contributions to the volume.
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Meta-Ethics |
Chinese Philosophy |
Moral Psychology |
Metaphilosophy |
PhilPapers Editorships
Classical Confucianism |
Confucius |
Mencius |
The Doctrine of the Mean |
The Great Learning |