On the Category of Moral Perception

Psychopathy, Ethical Perception, and Moral Culpability

“…We use normative concepts of rightness and wrongness in our recognition of situations just as we use non-normative concepts in such recognition. In this way it seems more like a perception and less like a judgment or deliberate inference that torturing the cat is wrong [13] (p. 79).…”

“…He claims that Murdoch regards ethical perception as the compassionate perception of someone as she really is [13] (pp. 80-81).…”

“…In directing such attention to her daughter-in-law, she comes to question her initial attitudes toward her. Starkey [13] (p. 81) claims that, consequently, the woman's vision of her daughter-inlaw changes: as Murdoch remarks, the woman is seen as "not vulgar but refreshingly simple, not undignified but spontaneous, not noisy but gay, not tiresomely juvenile but delightfully youthful" [15] (pp. [17][18].…”

“…[17][18]. Starkey adds that "empathetic perception can be placed in the same camp as sympathetic perception…because the goal of both is a point of view that is charitable toward another person" [13] (pp. 81-82).…”

A limited defense of moral perception

“…The distinction that I am drawing at present, however, is simply meant to distinguish views in which perception does the epistemic work in the account of moral knowledge verses cases in which it is the emotional reaction to what one perceives that does the epistemic work in the account of moral knowledge. 6 See Blum (1991), Nussbaum (1990); see Starkey (2006) for a more detailed taxonomy of moral perception. avenue for moral knowledge because the subject perceives of some object that it has some moral quality.…”