The case of the drunken sailor: on the generalisable wrongness of harmful transgressions

Authors
Publication date 2012
Journal Thinking and Reasoning
Volume | Issue number 18 | 2
Pages (from-to) 183-195
Organisations
  • Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) - Amsterdam Business School Research Institute (ABS-RI)
Abstract 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 recent criticisms of moral/conventional research.
Document type Article
Language English
Published at https://doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2012.669738
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