The name is absent



41

representations underlying moral judgment which do not take this form. Perhaps, as noted in the
previous paragraph, these principles constrain possible concatenations of models, or perhaps they
exist independently and alongside of relational models, e.g. the principle that whatever rule you
apply to others you should also apply to yourself. If Fiske’s view is only part of the truth about
moral cognition, then we may have only a weak pluralism, i.e. a pluralism compatible with the
view that there are some moral absolutes. One’s moral intuitions in any given situation could be
the result of a combination of parametric and non-parametric factors.

Chomsky himself gives little indication of being a pluralist. He is definitely not a strong
pluralist. To the contrary, he emphasizes that people tend to converge in their moral judgments
in the process of debate (1978: 240-41; 1988a: 152-53). One might infer from this that he
expects there to be at least some crucially important universals of social intelligence which will
turn out not to be absolute.

Even so, Kropotkin’s view of cognitive moral progress differs from Chomsky’s
conception of the same. One of Chomsky’s illustrations of such progress is the 19th-century
debate over slavery. That debate was not simply an expression of differing points of view, but
was a rational exchange of ideas presupposing many shared assumptions. Each side could admit
that the other made good points, e.g. even the pro-slavery side made the valid point that one is
usually more concerned for the well being of one’s property than for the well being of something
one rents (wage slavery, in the case of human beings). In the resolution of that debate, “you see a
consciousness emerging of what really is right, which must mean it reflects our built-in
conception of what’s right” (1998: 1). For Chomsky, dialogue between those who make
conflicting moral judgments leads to an appreciation of the moral views they share. It is to gain a
conscious awareness of what was hitherto an unconscious moral competence: “It’s better to have
a conscious understanding of what’s guiding you, to the extent you can, than just to react



More intriguing information

1. The name is absent
2. Who runs the IFIs?
3. The Value of Cultural Heritage Sites in Armenia: Evidence From a Travel Cost Method Study
4. What Lessons for Economic Development Can We Draw from the Champagne Fairs?
5. INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS AND GROUP PROCESSES
6. The name is absent
7. Personal Income Tax Elasticity in Turkey: 1975-2005
8. Legal Minimum Wages and the Wages of Formal and Informal Sector Workers in Costa Rica
9. Foreign direct investment in the Indian telecommunications sector
10. BARRIERS TO EFFICIENCY AND THE PRIVATIZATION OF TOWNSHIP-VILLAGE ENTERPRISES
11. AN IMPROVED 2D OPTICAL FLOW SENSOR FOR MOTION SEGMENTATION
12. The Impact of Individual Investment Behavior for Retirement Welfare: Evidence from the United States and Germany
13. The name is absent
14. ISSUES AND PROBLEMS OF IMMEDIATE CONCERN
15. The name is absent
16. LOCAL CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT OF COMMUNITY SERVICE
17. The Veblen-Gerschenkron Effect of FDI in Mezzogiorno and East Germany
18. Endogenous Heterogeneity in Strategic Models: Symmetry-breaking via Strategic Substitutes and Nonconcavities
19. Endogenous Determination of FDI Growth and Economic Growth:The OECD Case
20. ISO 9000 -- A MARKETING TOOL FOR U.S. AGRIBUSINESS