•  594
    Normative Ethics Does Not Need a Foundation: It Needs More Science
    with Linda Van Speybroeck and Johan Braeckman
    Acta Biotheoretica 59 (1): 29-51. 2010.
    The impact of science on ethics forms since long the subject of intense debate. Although there is a growing consensus that science can describe morality and explain its evolutionary origins, there is less consensus about the ability of science to provide input to the normative domain of ethics. Whereas defenders of a scientific normative ethics appeal to naturalism, its critics either see the naturalistic fallacy committed or argue that the relevance of science to normative ethics remains undemo…Read more
  •  140
    Varying versions of moral relativism: the philosophy and psychology of normative relativism
    with Daniel M. T. Fessler
    Biology and Philosophy 27 (1): 95-113. 2012.
    Among naturalist philosophers, both defenders and opponents of moral relativism argue that prescriptive moral theories (or normative theories) should be constrained by empirical findings about human psychology. Empiricists have asked if people are or can be moral relativists, and what effect being a moral relativist can have on an individual’s moral functioning. This research is underutilized in philosophers’ normative theories of relativism; at the same time, the empirical work, while useful, i…Read more
  •  111
    Certain researchers in the field of moral psychology, following Turiel, argue that children and adults in different cultures make a distinction between moral and conventional transgressions. One interpretation of the theory holds that moral transgressions elicit a signature moral response pattern while conventional transgressions elicit a signature conventional response pattern. Four dimensions distinguish the moral response pattern from the conventional response pattern. 1. HARM/JUSTICE/RIGHTS …Read more
  •  47
    Naturalizing the normative and the bridges between 'is' and 'ought"
    with Daniel M. T. Fessler
    Behavioral and Brain Sciences 34 (5): 266. 2011.
    Elqayam & Evans suggest descriptivism as a way to avoid fallacies and research biases. We argue, first, that descriptive and prescriptive theories might be better off with a closer interaction between and Moreover, while we acknowledge the problematic nature of the discussed fallacies and biases, important aspects of research would be lost through a broad application of descriptivism
  •  46
    The moral universalism-relativism debate
    with D. De Smet and D. M. T. Fessler
    Klēsis Revue Philosophique 27 211-262. 2013.
  •  42
    Individual differences in moral views are often explained as the downstream effect of ideological commitments, such as political orientation and religiosity. Recent studies in the U.S. suggest that moral views about recreational drug use are also influenced by attitudes toward sex and that this relationship cannot be explained by ideological commitments. In this study, we investigate student samples from Belgium, The Netherlands, and Japan. We find that, in all samples, sexual attitudes are stro…Read more
  •  36
    Confounds in moral/conventional studies
    with D. M. T. Fessler
    Philosophical Explorations 18 (1): 58-67. 2015.
    In ‘The nature of moral judgments and the extent of the moral domain’, Fraser criticises findings by Kelly et al. that speak against the moral/conventional distinction, arguing that the experiment was confounded. First, we note that the results of that experiment held up when confounds were removed . Second, and more importantly, we argue that attempts to prove the existence of a M/C distinction are systematically confounded. In contrast to Fraser, we refer to data that support our view. We high…Read more
  •  35
    The case of the drunken sailor: On the generalisable wrongness of harmful transgressions
    with Daniel M. T. Fessler and Delphine De Smet
    Thinking and Reasoning 18 (2). 2012.
    There is a widespread conviction that people distinguish two kinds of acts: on the one hand, acts that are generalisably wrong because they go against universal principles of harm, justice, or rights; on the other hand, acts that are variably right or wrong depending on the social context. In this paper we criticise existing methods that measure generalisability. We report new findings indicating that a modification of generalisability measures is in order. We discuss our findings in light of re…Read more
  •  27
    Naturalizing the normative and the bridges between “is” and “ought”
    with Daniel M. T. Fessler
    Behavioral and Brain Sciences 34 (5): 266. 2011.
    Elqayam & Evans (E&E) suggest descriptivism as a way to avoid fallacies and research biases. We argue, first, that descriptive and prescriptive theories might be better off with a closer interaction between and Moreover, while we acknowledge the problematic nature of the discussed fallacies and biases, important aspects of research would be lost through a broad application of descriptivism
  •  16
    Recent developments in moral psychology and in evolutionary theories of moral behavior focus on individual and group differences in morality. Moral intuitions may differ depending on sex, age, ecology and evolutionary strategy of the individual. Within the individual, different and mutually incompatible moral intuitions are triggered depending on specific aspects of the situation. Thus there exist interindividual and intraindividual differences in moral intuitions. This diversity of our moral in…Read more
  •  9
    Humanizing Stakeholders by Rethinking Business
    with Joeri van Hugten, Bidhan L. Parmar, and Inge M. Brokerhof
    Frontiers in Psychology 12. 2021.
    Can business humanize its stakeholders? And if so, how does this relate to moral consideration for stakeholders? In this paper we compare two business orientations that are relevant for current business theory and practice: a stakeholder orientation and a profit orientation. We empirically investigate the causal relationships between business orientation, humanization, and moral consideration. We report the results of six experiments, making use of different operationalizations of a stakeholder …Read more
  •  7
    A central claim in stakeholder theory is that, if we see stakeholders as human beings, we will attribute higher moral standing or show more moral consideration to stakeholders. But would the same hold for firms? In this paper, I apply the concepts of humanization and moral standing to firms, and I predict that individuals attribute higher moral standing to stakeholder-oriented than to profit-oriented firms, because individuals attribute more experience to stakeholder-oriented than to profit-orie…Read more
  •  7
    Systeemverandering
    Algemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte 114 (1): 67-71. 2022.
    Amsterdam University Press is a leading publisher of academic books, journals and textbooks in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our aim is to make current research available to scholars, students, innovators, and the general public. AUP stands for scholarly excellence, global presence, and engagement with the international academic community.
  • Feiten en normen in het moreel relativisme debat
    Algemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte 102 (1): 26-37. 2010.
  • Agent versus appraiser moral relativism: an exploratory study
    with D. De Smet and D. M. T. Fessler
    In Hagop Sarkissian & Jennifer Cole Wright (eds.), Advances in Experimental Moral Psychology, Bloomsbury. pp. 209-. 2014.