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Being Amoral: Psychopathy and Moral Incapacity

Online ISBN:
9780262320382
Print ISBN:
9780262027915
Publisher:
The MIT Press
Book

Being Amoral: Psychopathy and Moral Incapacity

Thomas Schramme (ed.)
Thomas Schramme
(ed.)
Hamburg University
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Published:
30 September 2014
Online ISBN:
9780262320382
Print ISBN:
9780262027915
Publisher:
The MIT Press

Abstract

Psychopathy has been the subject of investigations in both philosophy and psychiatry and yet the conceptual issues remain largely unresolved. This volume approaches psychopathy by considering the question of what psychopaths lack. The contributors investigate specific moral dysfunctions or deficits, shedding light on the capacities people need to be moral by examining cases of real people who seem to lack those capacities. The volume proceeds from the basic assumption that psychopathy is not characterized by a single deficit–for example, the lack of empathy, as some philosophers have proposed – but by a range of them. Thus contributors address specific deficits that include impairments in rationality, language, fellow-feeling, volition, evaluation, and sympathy. They also consider such issues in moral psychology as moral motivation, moral emotions, and moral character; and they examine social aspects of psychopathic behavior, including ascriptions of moral responsibility, justification of moral blame, and social and legal responses to people perceived to be dangerous.

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