Can you see goodness with your eyes or feel immorality in your heart? The philosopher Preston Werner thinks so. He defends an idea called moral perception, which means that just like you are able to see or feel things like the color of an orange or the softness of a sweater, you’re also able to perceive, or feel, morality. Some philosophers argue that perceiving morality is a key part of how we make moral judgments about situations. There are a lot of people who are skeptical of this idea. And as you’ll hear in this conversation with Preston Werner, our producer Christiane Wisehart also needs some convincing to believe that moral perception might be true. Preston explains what moral perception is, and also explains why it’s an idea worth defending.

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Show Notes:

• Preston Werner
  • Preston Werner, “Moral Perception without (Prior) Moral Knowledge“
  • Preston Werner, “Moral Perception and the Contents of Experience“
• Our own resident ethics expert, Andy, also defends the idea of moral perception!
• Moral facts and moral realism
• Moral knowledge
• How some philosophers think about perception
• PEA Soup hosted an online discussion of Preston’s “Moral Perception without (Prior) Moral Knowledge”
• David Faraci, “A Hard Look at Moral Perception“
• Implicit Bias
• Prindle Institute ethics scholarships

Thanks to Evelyn Brosius for our logo. Music used in this episode (in order of appearance):

1. 1. “The Zeppelin” by Blue Dot Sessions
      From the Free Music Archive
      CC BY-NC 4.0
   2. “Borough” by Blue Dot Sessions
      From the Free Music Archive
      CC BY-NC 4.0

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