“Characters in Hollywood movies encounter a lot of car chases. Characters in novels rarely wash their hands or do their laundry. And in the work of moral psychologists, people deliberate and reflect a lot. They deliberate, one sometimes feels, whenever they perform an action, and certainly whenever they act for good reasons.” PeopleSometimesReasonCharacterActionMoralNovelPsychologyCarEthicsPsychologistLaundry Book:Unprincipled Virtue: An Inquiry Into Moral Agency Source: Unprincipled Virtue: An Inquiry Into Moral Agency
“Sometimes we deliberate - for example when we plan a long trip or - if we are not math wizards - when we solve long division problems. However, if we deliberated every time we acted we would never get through the day. Most of the time, we act for reasons without deliberation. I am not just talking about cases of simple, habitual action, like brushing your teeth, but also about more sophisticated action.” LongSometimesReasonProblemActionSimpleMathSophisticated Author:Nomy Arpaly
“A very tall man once asked a question after my talk. Before beginning his question, he explained that the reason he was standing up is not to be intimidating but rather to make eye contact. His question was essentially "are we really interested in moral motives? Isn't it all about action?". I pointed out to him that it was not enough for him to do the right thing - stand up - but he also wanted me to know that he is doing it from the right motive or for the right reason - to make eye contact, rather than to be intimidating. Voila, moral psychology.” MenReasonEnoughEyeActionMoralPsychologyRight ThingMotiveIntimidatingEye Contact Author:Nomy Arpaly
“If I make a stupid decision but don't execute it because I'm, say, lazy, then I'm lucky, not rational. However, at other times a person acts for good reasons just as she does what she thinks she shouldn't do, not knowing that they are good reasons. Just like sometimes we are a lot less rational than we think we are, it is also true that sometimes we are a lot more rational than we think we are.” ThinkingSometimesReasonDecisionStupidLuckyRationalLazy Author:Nomy Arpaly
“When I see two owls and then two more owls and conclude that I see four owls, I am responding to reasons, and it better not be my choice to believe that two plus two always equals four. If I am a rational person, I will have that belief by necessity, whether I wanted to or not. So it's not that strange to discuss responding to reasons out of necessity.” BelieveReasonChoicesBeliefStrangeRationalOwl Author:Nomy Arpaly