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Moral Understanding in the Psychopath.

Luca Malatesti¹

¹University of Rijeka, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Philosophy, Omladinska 14, HR-51000 Rijeka lmalatesti@ffri.hr.

Synthesis Philosophica

|December 15, 2010

Summary

This study explores whether psychopaths are morally responsible by examining their moral understanding. Empirical data on psychopathy

Area of Science:

Moral Philosophy
Forensic Psychology
Neuroscience

Background:

Addressing the societal response to offenders with antisocial personality disorder.
Examining the moral responsibility of psychopathic offenders.
Investigating the concept of moral understanding in psychopathy.

Purpose of the Study:

To philosophically assess whether psychopathic offenders possess moral understanding.
To analyze empirical evidence regarding psychopaths' distinction between conventional and moral norms.
To evaluate rationalist and sentimentalist accounts of moral understanding using psychopathy as a case study.

Main Methods:

Philosophical analysis of moral responsibility and understanding.
Interpretation of empirical data on psychopathy and norm distinction.

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Review of the rationalist vs. sentimentalist debate on moral cognition.

Main Results:

Empirical data on psychopathy's norm distinction is currently indeterminate for rationalist and sentimentalist theories.
Both rationalist and sentimentalist theories, if independently supported, suggest psychopaths may have deficits affecting moral understanding.

Conclusions:

The indeterminacy of current data implies that psychopaths' moral understanding may be impaired.
Potential deficits in moral understanding could impact the moral responsibility of psychopathic offenders.
Further research is needed to definitively link psychopathy, moral understanding, and responsibility.