Being Amoral - 9780262027915

Psychopathy has been the subject of investigations in both philosophy and psychiatryand yet the conceptual issues remain largely unresolved. This volume approaches psychopathy byconsidering the question of what psychopaths lack. The contributors investigate specific moraldysfunctions or deficits, shedding light on the capacities people need to be moral by examiningcases of real people who seem to lack those capacities.

The volume proceeds fromthe basic assumption that psychopathy is not characterized by a single deficit--for example, thelack of empathy, as some philosophers have proposed -- but by a range of them. Thus contributorsaddress specific deficits that include impairments in rationality, language, fellow-feeling,volition, evaluation, and sympathy. They also consider such issues in moral psychology as moralmotivation, moral emotions, and moral character; and they examine social aspects of psychopathicbehavior, including ascriptions of moral responsibility, justification of moral blame, and socialand legal responses to people perceived to be dangerous.

As this volumedemonstrates, philosophers will be better equipped to determine what they mean by "the moralpoint of view" when they connect debates in moral philosophy to the psychiatric notion ofpsychopathy, which provides some guidance on what humans need in order be able to feel the normativepull of morality. And the empirical work done by psychiatrists and researchers in psychopathy canbenefit from the conceptual clarifications offered byphilosophy.

ContributorsGwen Adshead, Piers Benn, John Deigh,Alan Felthous, Kerrin Jacobs, Heidi Maibom, Eric Matthews, Henning Sass, Thomas Schramme, SusieScott, David Shoemaker, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Matthew Talbert