Why don't we trust Moral Testimony?

James Andow

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Abstract

Is there a problem with believing based on moral testimony? The intuition that there is a problem is a starting point for much research on moral testimony. To arbitrate between various attempts to account for intuitions about moral testimony, we need to know the exact nature of those intuitions. The current study investigates this empirically. The study confirms an asymmetry in the way we think about testimony about moral and descriptive matters and explores the extent to which this asymmetry is explained by different metaphysical beliefs about the relevant domains, or beliefs about the relative background levels of deception or disagreement.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)456-474
Number of pages19
JournalMind and Language
Volume35
Issue number4
Early online date20 Aug 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sep 2020

Keywords

  • deference
  • experimental philosophy
  • moral
  • moral deference
  • testimony

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