PhilPeople

Delft University of Technology
Ethics & Philosophy of Technology

Assistant Professor

Cambridge University

PhD, 2019

Email (login required)

CV

Delft, Netherlands

0000-0002-7779-6874

Areas of Specialization

Moral Psychology

Areas of Interest

Environmental Ethics

Moral Epistemology

Moral Intuitionism

Moral Experience: Perception or Emotion?
James Hutton

Ethics 132 (3): 570-597. 2022.

One solution to the problem of moral knowledge is to claim that we can acquire it a posteriori through moral experience. But what is a moral experience? When we examine the most compelling putative cases, we find features which, I argue, are best explained by the hypothesis that moral experiences are emotions. To preempt an objection, I argue that putative cases of emotionless moral experience can be explained away. Finally, I allay the worry that emotions are an unsuitable basis for moral knowl…Read more
One solution to the problem of moral knowledge is to claim that we can acquire it a posteriori through moral experience. But what is a moral experience? When we examine the most compelling putative cases, we find features which, I argue, are best explained by the hypothesis that moral experiences are emotions. To preempt an objection, I argue that putative cases of emotionless moral experience can be explained away. Finally, I allay the worry that emotions are an unsuitable basis for moral knowledge. I conclude that those who believe in moral experience should hold that it consists of emotion.