The emotional construction of morals /

Prinz (UNC Chapel Hill) presents his third book as the completion of a trilogy. His first book, Furnishing the Mind (CH, Mar'03, 40-3943), is a defense of an empiricist theory of concepts; his second, Gut Reactions (CH, Dec'05, 43-2124), a defense of an empiricist theory of emotions; building on the first two, the third is an attempt to show that moral concepts are grounded in one's emotional responses. (The structure of Prinz's trilogy cleverly parallels the structure of the three books of Hume's classic Treatise of Human Nature.) Prinz supports a fundamentally Humean moral theory through careful analysis combined with appeal to evidence from the neurosciences, social psychology, and psychopathology. His claim that a moral judgment is a mere expression of emotion leads him to moral relativism. Whereas Hume resisted this implication, Prinz defends the view that there is no single true morality. Tracing attitudes toward practices such as cannibalism and marriage across time and cultures, Prinz shows that moral variation does occur but that one can still make sense of moral progress even without a single true morality. This book will appeal to anyone with an interest in moral philosophy. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers. M. W. Sontag College of Mount St. Joseph