Dr. Shaun Nichols - Morality and the Emotional Brain

This video is from 2010, but it's still useful information - and it's from the U of Arizona, right here in Tucson. Here is the overview from the Mind and Brain series, of which series this was the final lecture (of six).

 

Lectures were held at Centennial Hall on the campus of the University of Arizona.




Morality and the Emotional Brain

On April 6, 2010, Dr. Shaun Nichols, Professor, Philosophy, presented the final lecture in the University of Arizona College of Science's Mind and Brain Lecture Series.

Does morality come from the emotions, or from rational thought? Philosophers have struggled with this question for centuries. Recent work in cognitive science suggests that emotions play a critical role in the normal ability to think about morality. Studies indicate that psychopaths have a deficient understanding of morality, and when abnormalities are found in brain regions associated with emotions, these same patients make atypical decisions about difficult moral problems. Emotions alone do not completely account for moral judgment, but the emotional brain shapes our models of what it is to be moral.