Caring about morality : philosophical perspectives in moral psychology /

Wren asks why humans should care about morality at all (moral motivation) and why persons act in conformity with their moral principles (moral motives). He then examines a number of psychological theories that purport to explain moral activity for answers to these questions. He divides these theories into externalist (motivation can come only from sources exterior to the self), internalist (motivation is produced by the self), cognitive, and noncognitive categories, and finds all of them deficient in answering his questions of moral motivation. Externalist noncognitive theories such as behaviorism come off the worst, for they turn morality into a social con game, whereas internalist cognitive theories such as Piaget's and Kohlberg's are the most nearly adequate since they show human beings as capable both of producing and of acting on internally developed rational moral principles. Yet, even these theories fail to show why we should really care for morality. Wren suggests that such caring can be explained only by positing some "basic desire" to be moral. Wren's critiques of the various psychologies are valuable, but his own constructive work is too minimal for the book to be fully satisfying. Recommended for upper-level philosophy and psychology students.-J. H. Riker, Colorado College