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Intention, Temporal Order, and Moral Judgments
Author(s) -
SINNOTTARMSTRONG WALTER,
MALLON RON,
McCOY TOM,
HULL JAY G.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
mind and language
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.905
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1468-0017
pISSN - 0268-1064
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0017.2007.00330.x
Subject(s) - affect (linguistics) , psychology , social psychology , order (exchange) , experimental philosophy , epistemology , philosophical methodology , philosophy , economics , communication , finance
The traditional philosophical doctrine of double effect claims that agents’ intentions affect whether acts are morally wrong. Our behavioral study reveals that agents’ intentions do affect whether acts are judged morally wrong, whereas the temporal order of good and bad effects affects whether acts are classified as killings. This finding suggests that the moral judgments are not based on the classifications. Our results also undermine recent claims that prior moral judgments determine whether agents are seen as causing effects intentionally rather than as side effects.