What's Wrong With Morality?: A Social-Psychological Perspective - Softcover

Batson, C. Daniel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199355576 ISBN 13: 9780199355570

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2015

Synopsis

Most works on moral psychology direct our attention to the positive role morality plays for us as individuals, as a society, even as a species. In What's Wrong with Morality?, C. Daniel Batson takes a different approach: he looks at morality as a problem. The problem is not that it is wrong to be moral, but that our morality often fails to produce these intended results. Why? Some experts believe the answer lies in lack of character. Others say we are victims of poor judgment. If we could but discern what is morally right, whether through logical analysis and discourse, through tuned intuition and a keen moral sense, or through feeling and sentiment, we would act accordingly. Implicit in these different views is the assumption that if we grow up properly, if we can think and feel as we should, and if we can keep a firm hand on the tiller through the storms of circumstance, all will be well. We can realize our moral potential.

Many of our best writers of fiction are less optimistic. Astute observers of the human condition like Austen, Balzac, Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Eliot, Tolstoy, and Twain suggest our moral psychology is more complex. These writers encourage us to look more closely at our motives, emotions, and values, at what we really care about in the moral domain. In this volume, Batson examines this issue from a social-psychological perspective. Drawing on research suggesting our moral life is fertile ground for rationalization and deception, including self-deception, Batson offers a hard-nosed analysis of morality and its limitations in this expertly written book.

About this title

About the Author

C. Daniel Batson is an experimental social psychologist. He received a Ph.D. in psychology from Princeton University in 1972, and taught at the University of Kansas until his retirement in 2008. For over 30 years, his research has focused on prosocial motivation, with particular emphasis on altruistic and moral motivation, and related emotions. He has published well over a hundred research articles and chapters on these topics, as well as two books on altruism. This is his first book on morality.

Review

"Scholars and students of moral psychology will find much of interest in this rich, sweeping, and engaging discussion of our 'moral maladies'."
--Vanessa Carbonell, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"[This] book is highly useful for graduate students and moral scholars who want to understand whether individual differences in human behavior are a consequence of diverse person characteristics, situational constraints, or a combination of the two... This book offers compelling evidence that what Batson refers to as moral hypocrisy is likely to be more common than moral integrity."
--PsycCRITIQUES

"This book will serve as a great introduction to the current state of moral psychology. Written in clear and often witty prose, this volume is suitable for undergraduate and graduate students, especially those in psychology and philosophy, or the general reader interested in the study of moral psychology."
--Metapsychology

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0199355576
• ISBN 13: 9780199355570
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 272