Science of Moral Understanding Course
Created by the center for the science of moral understanding
Director: Kurt Gray, Ph.D.
Executive Director of Instructional Development: Steven G. Buzinski, Ph.D.
In collaboration with: Kevin Marinelli, Ph.D.
All materials contained herein are considered Open Educational Resources and can be downloaded and used in part or in whole by interested instructors. We ask instructors using these materials to include appropriate citations in any resultant courses, presentations, or publications. All works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Course Description. Moral conversations can be some of the most difficult conversations to have. We feel passionately about our values and viewpoints, and struggle to understand those who do not share them. A host of forces – psychological, biological, sociological – contribute to and deepen the divides between people on opposing sides of a moral argument. This course will center those most difficult conversations (e.g., abortion, euthanasia, biomedical enhancement), and, drawing from philosophy, theory and the new science of moral understanding, will train students how to begin to bridge those moral divides. Topics are:
Module 01 Moral Understanding
Module 02 Abortion. The Nature of Mind.
Module 03 Euthanasia. Free Will.
Module 04 Biomedical Enhancement.
Module 05 The Holocaust. Doing Evil.
Module 06 Cultural Relativism.
Module 07 Racism. Individuals & Institutions.
Module 08 Pandemics. Utilitarianism vs. Deontology
Module 09 Taxes. Inequality & Freedom.
Module 10 Social Media & Moral Outrage
Course Materials. CLICK HERE to find all necessary materials to teach students about the Science of Moral Understanding generally, and about the topics above specifically. Materials include suggested readings, originally designed discussion question worksheets, full PowerPoint presentations with debate prompts, critical thinking questions, applied activities, and rhetoric trainings. Videos of Dr. Gray teaching every module to his students can be found below.
Module 01
Moral Understanding
Many of us have experienced that family dinner where the table becomes a battle ground for moral debates. Family members on both sides talk past each other in a fury of accusations and name-calling. Sooner or later, you’ve lost your appetite, and the evening is ruined. Why do such moral disagreements exist and how can we have better conversations with those we disagree with? In this first module, we define morality, and consider how people make moral judgments. Particular focus is given to the theory of dyadic morality, which theorizes that moral judgments occur by comparing actions to a template of harm involving an intentional agent and a vulnerable patient.
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Module 02
Abortion. The Nature of Mind.
Babies are perhaps the population most vulnerable to harm in the world. But while most people would readily agree that we should not intentionally harm babies, many disagree about when a growing group of cells becomes a baby. Likewise, at what point do several grains of sand become a pile? Other disagreements about the morality of abortion involve whether a fetus can feel pain. This is impossible to truly know, since we do not have access to other minds. Thus, the capacity for other beings to think and feel is a matter of perception. Here we discuss mind perception as having two distinct dimensions: agency and experience.
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Module 03
Euthanasia. Free Will.
Very often, terminally ill patients bear a lot of suffering in their last months of life. To minimize the pain they must endure, some might elect to be euthanized— but is this choice truly free? Though we experience our actions as being freely chosen, evidence is reviewed suggesting that conscious thought does not necessarily cause our actions. Rather, behavior might be a function of our personality and experiences.
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Module 04
Biomedical enhancement
When a superhero gains superhuman abilities by falling into a vat of chemicals or receiving a supersoldier serum, we see them as stronger, faster, and mightier. But how often do we think about the suffering they endure when they take kryptonite bullets in their effort to save the world? In this module, we discuss how moral characters are often “typecast” as either thinking doers or vulnerable feelers. When perceptions of someone’s agency and ability to act increase, perceptions of their ability to feel and experience decreases.
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Module 05
The holocaust. Doing evil.
Adolf Eichmann was one of the key players responsible for the imprisonment and execution of over six million Jews during the Holocaust. But when put on trial for his crimes, Eichmann pleaded that we was simply following orders. We often describe those who do evil, like Eichmann, as evil themselves. But is evil caused by the situational constraints or by evil dispositions? Here we survey some infamous psychological studies designed to demonstrate that average people are capable of evil acts when the power of the situation compels them to do so.
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Module 06
Cultural relativism.
Is something that’s “wrong” in America (like eating a dog or female circumcision) also wrong in other countries? And why is it no longer okay to spank your child? This module explores cultural relativism, how- and why- morals change over time. We discuss the myth of harmless wrong, and how changing perceptions of harm give rise to the rich diversity in moral judgments across time and culture.
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Module 07
Racism. Individuals & Institutions.
Many social movements today aim to rid the nation of racism contributing to unjust disparities between White people, and racial and ethnic minorities. But this task is made difficult when people disagree on what is (and isn’t) racism, and what impact racism today has on individuals and institutions. In the past, explicit racism in the US fueled horrible injustices such as slavery and segregation. In recent years, however, conversations about racism have turned their focus to the role of unconscious beliefs on our actions. Here, we define “implicit bias” and review how it has been measured, how implicit biases affect our actions, and under what circumstances people are most likely to have strong implicit biases.
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Module 08
Pandemics. utilitarianism vs. deontology.
The COVID-19 pandemic has left America divided when it comes to preferred responses to the coronavirus. Should people be forced to receive vaccines or wear masks? How should we choose between preserving individual freedoms and protecting the physical health of others? In this module, we consider classic moral scenarios and discuss the factors that influence our moral judgments when tradeoffs between utilitarian and deontological outcomes exist.
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Module 09
Taxes. inequality vs. freedom
Democrats and Republicans are often divided on who they think should be taxed more or less. Many believe that billionaires can afford to be (and should be) taxed more, while others believe that the government should stay out of their pockets. In this module, we review evidence suggesting that even though American disagree about ideal tax policies, most actually desire a roughly uniform distribution of wealth across each of the income quintiles. Even so, many people have inaccurate perceptions of the actual distribution of wealth in the US.
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Module 10
Social media & moral outrage.
If you have social media or watch the news, you have likely been a witness to the moral outrage people express when they see injustice. It’s likely that you’ve agreed with some of these sentiments, believing that sharing one’s reaction is important for constraining future immoral behavior. Other times, we might think that people are only virtue signaling, and trying to increase their social status. Sometimes, we might even express moral outrage ourselves. How does sharing our anger affect our experienced emotions, and what are the costs and benefits of doing so? In this module, we review research on how people interact with digital media, and what functions expressing moral outrage serves for individuals and groups.
Click here for materials for this module.