The Good and the Gross

Does Disgust Influence Moral Judgment?

“…As Daniel Kelly [2011] puts it in his recent book, disgust is 'powerful ' [124] as it 'can have dramatic effects' on our moral views [130]. Similarly, Alexandra Plakias [2013] contends that 'disgust is strongly implicated in moral judgment ' [261] and that such claims are 'well-established' [264] by the empirical data.…”

“…This is especially plausible for moral judgments influenced by disgust because it is arguably a morally irrelevant emotion, which would hinder rather than help the warrant of the resulting judgments (but cf. Plakias [2013]). …”

What in the World Is Moral Disgust?

“…Plakias [2013], for example, adopts the canonical definition of moral disgust-namely, disgust as a consequence of moral violations-and sets out to make sense of such definition by looking for those morally relevant properties for which 'disgust' can be considered a fitting response. She is trying to explain why morally appropriate disgust can be fitting, without deriving fittingness from appropriateness or vice versa.…”

“…The question of whether disgust has any moral authority has recently received a lot of philosophical attention [Miller 1997;Kass 1997;Kekes 1998;Nussbaum 2004;Kelly 2011;Plakias 2013], as research in moral psychology has shed light on the various interactions between disgust and morality [Rozin et al 1999;Schnall et al 2008;Inbar and Pizarro 2014]. The question might sound na€ ıve to some philosophers, who would spot in it the crossing of the is-ought boundary.…”

“…Hauskeller [2006],Kelly [2011], andPlakias [2013] treat Kass's term, 'repugnance', as synonymous with 'disgust'. Their interpretation is consistent with his use of 'revolting' and 'repulsive' as synonyms for 'repugnant'.2 Alberto Giubilini Downloaded by [Deakin University Library] at 03:37 12 August 2015…”