This is a seminar course in which students will read articles and take turns presenting them and adding personal ideas to the papers while discussing them with the class. It will count as a capstone for PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) students, and it is open to graduate students as well as undergrads.
The main theme will be utilitarianism as a normative theory of law, and the conflict between this theory and intuitive moral judgments. The reading will include a little law and economics, behavioral law and economics, philosophical defenses of utilitarianism, and articles about the psychology of moral judgment, including the role of emotion, intuition, and reflection.
Prerequistes: There are no prerequisites, but students should be able to understand the style of psychology journal articles, without regarding expressions such as "t(59)=2.96, p=.02" as spots on the page.
Each reading will be assigned to a student who will be responsible for presenting no more than a 10-minute summary of the paper and at least 5 minutes of personal thoughts.
Everyone should read everything before class. Please submit a comment (e.g., two questions for discussion, but it can be something else too, based on the reading) at least an hour before the class, once a week. Use the class mailing list for this: to post, just send email to p453@finzi.psych.upenn.edu. (If you are presenting, you do not need to submit a comment.)
All students will write a paper at the end.
The following list will be changed frequently. Make sure to reload this page if you don't have the latest version.
TWO-SYSTEMS: INTUITION VS. DELIBERATION
Jan 10
Richard Hare, "Moral thinking: Its levels method and point":
Ch 1,
Ch 2,
Ch 3
Jan 15
Hare:
Ch 5,
Ch 6,
Ch 7,
Ch 8
Rohan Shah (5-6),
me (7-8)
Jan 17
Hare:
Ch 9,
Ch 10,
Ch 11,
Shree Raghavan (9-10),
Lucy Abbot (11)
Jan 22
Thinking, Fast and Slow, by D. Kahneman, Chapters 1-3
Graham Overton
Evans, J., St.B. T. (2003).
In two minds: dual-process accounts of reasoning.
Trends in Cognitive Science, 7, 454-459
Chris Cruz
Jan 24
Frederick, S. (2005).
Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19, 25–42.
Jay Dave
Greene, J. D., Sommerville, R. B., Nystrom, L. E., Darley, J. M.,
& Cohen, J. D. (2001).
An fMRI investigation of emotional engagement in moral Judgment. Science, 293, 2105–2108.
Rohan Shah
Optional: (Kahane, G. & Shackel, N. (2010) Methodological Problems in the Neuroscience of Moral Judgment. Mind and Language, 25(5) 561-582.)
Jan 29
McGuire, J., Langdon, R., Coltheart, M., & Mackenzie, C. (2009).
A reanalysis of the personal/impersonal distinction in
moral psychology research. Journal of Experimental Social
Psychology, 45, 577-580.
Stephanie Johnson
Greene, J.D. (2009)
Dual-process morality and the personal/impersonal
distinction: A reply to McGuire, Langdon, Coltheart, and Mackenzie.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45 581–584.
Stephanie Johnson
Paxton, J. M., Ungar, L., Greene, J. D., (2011)
Reflection and reasoning in moral judgment. Cognitive Science.
McKinley Stephens
Greene, J. D., Cushman, F. A., Stewart. L. E., Lowenberg, K.,
Nystrom, L. E., & Cohen, J. D. (2009).
Pushing moral buttons: The interaction between personal force and intention in moral
judgment. Cognition, 111, 364–371.
Ryan Daniels
Nichols, S., & Mallon, R. (2006).
Moral dilemmas and moral rules. Cognition, 100, 530-542.
Luisa Sucre
MORAL HEURISTICS, PROTECTED VALUES, AND WHO USES THEM
Jan 31
Sunstein, C. R. (2005). Moral heuristics (with commentary).
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 531–573.
here
Shree Raghavan
Feb 5
Baron, J. & Ritov, I. (1993).
Intuitions about penalties and compensation in the context of tort law. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 7, 17-33.
Greene, J. D. (2007).
The secret joke of Kant’s soul. in W.
Sinnott-Armstrong, Ed., Moral psychology, Vol. 3: The
neuroscience of morality: Emotion, disease, and development, pp.
36–79. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Camila Penazzo
Feb 7
Bartels, D. M. (2008).
Principled moral sentiment and the flexibility
of moral judgment and decision making. Cognition, 108, 381-417.
Ryan Daniels
Bartels, D. M. & Pizarro, D. A. (2011).
The mismeasure of morals:
Antisocial personality traits predict utilitarian responses to moral
dilemmas. Cognition, 108, 381-417.
Lucy Abbot
Koenigs, M., Young, L., Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., Cushman, F.,
Hauser, M., et al (2007).
Damage to the prefrontal cortex increases
utilitarian moral judgments. Nature, 446, 908–911.
Chris Cruz
Feb 12
EFFECTS OF MORAL HEURISTICS
Slovic, P. (2007).
"If I look at the mass I will never act": Psychic numbing and genocide. Judgment and Decision Making, 2, 79-95. (html)
Graham Overton
Baron, J. (1997).
Confusion of relative and absolute risk in valuation. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 14, 301-309.
Luisa Sucre
Feb 14
PROTECTED (SACRED) VALUES AND OMISSION BIAS
Tetlock, P. (2003).
Thinking the unthinkable: Sacred values and taboo cognitions.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7, 320–324.
Stephanie Johnson
Hammad Sheikh, Jeremy Ginges, Alin Coman and Scott Atran
Religion, group threat and sacred values
Camila Penazzo
Roth, A. E. (?) In 100 years.
Roth, A. E. (2007).
Repugnance as a Constraint on Markets, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 21:3, Summer, 2007, pp. 37-58.
McKinley Stephens
Feb 19
Baron, J., & Ritov. I. (2009).
Protected values and omission bias as deontological judgments. In
D. M. Bartels, C. W. Bauman, L. J. Skitka, & D. L. Medin
(Eds.), Moral Judgment and decision making, Vol. 50 in
B. H. Ross (series editor), The Psychology of Learning and
Motivation, pp. 133–167. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Lucy Abbot
Feb 21
TAX
Background reading:Tax forms
Form 1040
Form 1040 instructions
Ryan Daniels (and JB)
Diamond, P., & Saez, E. (2011).
The case for a progressive tax:
From basic research to policy recommendations. Journal of Economic Perspectives.
Jay Dave
Feb 26
McCaffery, E. M., & Hines, J. R. Jr. ().
The last best hope for progressivity in tax.
McCaffery, E. J., & Baron J. (2005).
The political psychology
of redistribution. UCLA Law Review, 52, 1745–1792.
Feb 28
McCaffery & Baron,
Isolation effects and the neglect of indirect effects of fiscal
policies
Hardisty, D. J., Johnson, E. J., & Weber, E. U. (2010).
A dirty
word or a dirty world? Attribute framing, political affiliation, and
query theory. Psychological Science, 21(1), 86-92. - When carbon
taxes are reframed as offsets, Republicans are more likely to support
them.
Sussman, Abby and Olivola, Christopher Y (2011).
Axe the Tax:
Taxes are Disliked More than Equivalent Costs. Journal of Marketing
Research
SPRING BREAK: Mar 2-10
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Mar 12
Shavell: Economic Analysis of Public Law Enforcement and Criminal Law,
chs. 20, 21 (sections 1-3), and
chs. 23, 24.
Mar 14
Paul H. Robinson and John Darley (2004).
Does criminal law deter?
Kevin M. Carlsmith and John M. Darley (2008).
Psychological aspects of retributive justice
Advances in Experimental Social Psychology
Robinson et al.
The disutility of injustice
Raymond Fisman and Edward Miguel. (2007). Corruption, norms, and legal
enforcement: Evidence from diplomatic parking tickets. Journal
of Political Economy, 115, 1020-1048.
Mar 19
Croson, R., & Konow, J. (2009).
Social preferences and moral biases.
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 69, 201-212.
Diamond, J.
Vengeance is ours. New Yorker.
Baron, J., & Ritov, I. (2009). The role of probability
of detection in judgments of punishment. Journal of Legal Analysis, 2,
553-590.
Mar 21
Greene, J. D. , Cohen J. D. (2004)
For the law, neuroscience changes nothing and everything.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B, (Special
Issue on Law and the Brain), 359, 1775-17785.
Monterosso, J., Royzman, E. B., \& Sabini, J. (2005).
Explaining
away responsibility: Effects of scientific explanation on perceived
culpability. Ethics and Behavior, 15, 139-158.
Tetlock, P. E. et al. (2007).
People as intuitive
prosecutors: The impact of social-control goals on attributions of
responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
43, 195-209.
Mar 26
MORAL LUCK
Cushman, F. A., Dreber, A., Wang, Y., & Costa, J. (2009).
Accidental outcomes guide punishment in a 'trembling hand' game.
PLoS One 4(8): e6699.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006699.
Cushman, F. A. (2008).
Crime and Punishment: Differential reliance on causal and intentional
information for different classes of moral judgment. Cognition 108(2):
353-380.
POLITICS, MORALITY, CULTURAL COGNITION AND BAD BELIEFS
Mar 28
Haidt, J., Graham, J., & Joseph, C. (2009).
Above and below left-right: Ideological narratives and moral
foundations. Psychological Inquiry, 20, p. 110-119.
Pauer-Studer, H., \& Velleman, J. D. (2011).
Distortions of normativity. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 14,
329-356.
Cass Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule (2009).
Conspiracy theories:
Causes and cures, Journal of Political Philosopy.
Apr 2
Dan M. Kahan et al. (2012).
The Polarizing Impact of Science Literacy and Numeracy on Perceived Climate Change Risks
NUDGES
Sunstein and Thaler,
Libertarian paternalism
Thaler, Sunstein, Balz,
Choice architecture
Apr 4
Korobkin
Libertarian welfarism:
Apr 9: Papers
Sunstein, Impersonal defaulte (recommended)
VOTING, PAROCHIALISM AND CITIZENSHIP
Baron.
The culture of honor in citizens' concept of their duty as voters.
Apr 11: Papers:
Apr 16: Papers:
Apr 18: Papers
Apr 23: Papers
Or it could be more like a psychology research proposal (but,
again, brining in other perspectives when they apply), reviewing
relevant literature on some topic and then proposing the next step.
(This turns out to be surprisingly difficult for non-psych-majors.
Apparently, psych majors learn something, which is good news.)
It should be submitted by email. Text is best. I convert doc and
docx files to text unless you tell me not to (and that would be
because they have graphics, in which case pdf is probably better). Aim
for about 3000 words or less, but longer is OK if you need it.
I strongly encourage short proposals and drafts.
Rohan Shah
Chris Cruz
Graham Overton
Shree Raghavan
Luisa Sucre
Camila Penazzo (23,24) and JB (20,21)
McKinley Stephens
Lucy Abbot
Rohan Shah
Stephanie Johnson
Shree Raghavan
Ryan Daniels
JB
Graham Overton
Rohan Shah
Chris Cruz
Camila Penazzo
Shree Raghavan
McKinley Stephens
Stephanie Johnson
Chris Cruz
Ryan Daniels
Rohan Shah
Graham Overton
Camerer et al.,
Asymmetric paternalism
Lucy Abbot
Gelman and Edlin. Vote for charity's sake
Ryan Daniels
Luisa Sucre
Shree Raghavan,
Lucy Abbot:
Kleiman paper,
Project HOPE
Stephanie Johnson
Chris Cruz
Graham Overton
Luisa Sucre:
Venezuela election
Ryan Daniels
Rohan Shah
Camilla Penazzo
FINAL PAPER
The idea of the paper is derived from the PPE requirements, which
specify that a paper is required for all capstone seminars. For PPE,
the ideal paper demonstrates how to bring two or more perspectives to
bear on some issue. The "perspectives" include philosophy, politics,
economics, law, and ... psychology. If you want a model of the sort of
paper that might be typical, look at any law review. (But the ratio of
footnotes to text does not need to be so high as is typical. You don't
need footnotes at all.) Examples of possible issues (off the top of my
head) are things like whether Casey Martin should be allowed to use a
golf cart, whether incest/cloning/euthanasia/... should be illegal
(or, more to the point, what exactly should the law do), how pop (or
any) musicians should make a living (which has everything to do right
now with intellectual property law and its enforcement), or anything
else that could be discussed in the course, whether it was discussed
or not.