Moral emotions and moral cognitions: Editorial (2008)
Authors
Abstract
The question of how to define morality has been debated across the disciplines for centuries. While some theorists have argued that moral judgment is the foundation of morality, others have identified emotions or intuitions as the basis of human morality. Over the last years the debate on morality has been increasingly stimulated by research outside the domain of developmental psychology, spanning from the cognitive and social sciences to neuroscience and economics. The present issue aims at shedding light on this debate and discussing the question of how to understand the role of moral emotions and moral cognitions in human morality within the context of developmental science. Developmental science provides an integrative, holistic framework for this debate, because it takes a comparative perspective and tries to bridge the levels of explanation, spanning from ecological systems to brain development, in order to understand morality in ontogenesis. Against this background, this issue presents interdisciplinary perspectives on the study of moral emotions and moral cognitions, ranging from philosophy and sociology to cultural and developmental psychology to neuroscience to scrutinize the questions of how to define morality and how to understand its core components. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Bibliographic entry
Malti, T., Gummerum, M., & Keller, M. (2008). Moral emotions and moral cognitions: Editorial. European Journal of Developmental Science, 2, 203-205.