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Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Operant Protocols for Assessing the Cost-benefit Analysis During Reinforced Decision Making by Rodents
07:05

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Published on: September 10, 2018

Animals, future generations, and resource-rational contractualism.

Harry R Lloyd1

  • 1University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Institutional mailing address: Philosophy Department, UNC Chapel Hill, Caldwell Hall, 240 East Cameron Ave., NC 27599, USA www.harryrlloyd.com hrl@unc.edu.

The Behavioral and Brain Sciences
|June 24, 2026
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Levine et al.'s contractualist theory of moral cognition struggles to explain judgments concerning future generations and nonhuman animals. The study also finds that rival theories may overstate their explanatory power for moral judgments.

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Last Updated: Jun 26, 2026

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07:05

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Published on: September 10, 2018

Area of Science:

  • Moral Psychology
  • Cognitive Science
  • Philosophy of Mind

Background:

  • Contractualist theory offers a framework for understanding moral cognition.
  • Existing theories face challenges in explaining the full spectrum of folk moral judgments.
  • The scope of applicability for different moral cognition theories requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To critically evaluate the explanatory scope of Levine et al.'s contractualist theory of moral cognition.
  • To compare the limitations of contractualist, deontological, and consequentialist theories in explaining folk moral judgments.
  • To assess the extent to which different moral cognition theories account for diverse moral intuitions.

Main Methods:

  • Comparative analysis of theoretical claims against empirical data on folk moral judgments.
  • Literature review and theoretical critique of contractualist, deontological, and consequentialist frameworks.
  • Examination of case studies involving moral judgments about non-human entities and future generations.

Main Results:

  • Levine et al.'s theory understates its limitations, particularly regarding intergenerational and animal ethics.
  • Rival deontological and consequentialist theories may overstate their ability to explain a wide range of moral judgments.
  • A significant gap exists between theoretical models and the complexity of intuitive moral judgments.

Conclusions:

  • Contractualist theory, as presented by Levine et al., has a narrower scope than claimed.
  • Deontological and consequentialist theories may also have limitations in explaining the breadth of moral cognition.
  • Further development of moral cognition theories is needed to encompass the full range of human moral judgments.