Do abnormal responses show utilitarian bias?

Guy Kahane and Nicholas Shackel ()
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Guy Kahane: Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford
Nicholas Shackel: ENCAP, University of Cardiff

Nature, 2008, vol. 452, issue 7185, E5-E5

Abstract: Abstract Arising from: M. Koenigs et al. Nature 446, 908–911 (2007)10.1038/nature05631 ; Koenigs et al. reply Neuroscience has recently turned to the study of utilitarian and non-utilitarian moral judgement. Koenigs et al.1 examine the responses of normal subjects and those with ventromedial–prefrontal–cortex (VMPC) damage to moral scenarios drawn from functional magnetic resonance imaging studies by Greene et al.2,3,4, and claim that patients with VMPC damage have an abnormally “utilitarian” pattern of moral judgement. It is crucial to the claims of Koenigs et al. that the scenarios of Greene et al. pose a conflict between utilitarian consequence and duty: however, many of them do not meet this condition. Because of this methodological problem, it is too early to claim that VMPC patients have a utilitarian bias.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1038/nature06785

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