Search Results (2)

This article contributes to the reimagining of Roman Catholic ethics in the twenty-first century, building on the research of Sweeny Block, who argues that the unconscious dimensions of the moral life play a decisive role in moral agency. By taking account of the work of researchers in moral psychology, the traditional boundaries of moral theology can be reimagined to give a more accurate accounting of moral agency, leading to improved work in moral formation. This interdisciplinary approach engages the experiences of Catholic thinkers from the Global South, whose experiences are not usually countenanced in theorising on the nature of morality. The discussion presents a Caribbean refinement of Bandura’s eight mechanisms of moral disengagement, which are amplified and distilled into culturally relevant attitudes captured in the everyday language or speech events of the Jamaican people. Roman Catholic ethics have not treated with the concept of moral disengagement in any meaningful fashion. The amplification of the mechanisms of moral disengagement points to and reinforces the inadequacy of models of moral agency that disregard unconscious dimensions while centring rationality and free will in the face of human fallibility and social contexts that are distorting and deforming. It points to storytelling, an important part of the Caribbean culture, as one way to improve our moral agency by expanding the moral imagination to better form our moral vision. Full article

The perception of different size illusions is believed to be determined by size-scaling mechanisms that lead individuals to extrapolate inappropriate 3D information from 2D stimuli. The Muller-Lyer illusion represents one of the most investigated size illusions. Studies on non-human primates showed a human-like perception of this illusory pattern. To date, it is not clear whether non-primate mammals experience a similar illusory effect. Here, we investigated whether horses perceive the Muller-Lyer illusion by using their spontaneous preference for the larger portion of carrot. In control trials, we presented horses with two carrot sticks of different sizes, and in test trials, carrot sticks of identical size were shown to the subjects together with arrowheads made of plastic material and arranged in a way meant to elicit the Müller-Lyer illusion in human observers. In control trials, horses significantly discriminated between the smaller and larger carrot stick. When presented with the illusion, they showed a significant preference for the carrot that humans perceive as longer. Further control trials excluded the possibility that their choices were based on the total size of the carrot stick and the arrowheads together. The susceptibility of horses to this illusion indicates that the perceptual mechanisms underlying size estimation in perissodactyla might be similar to those of primates, notwithstanding the considerable evolutionary divergence in the visual systems of these two mammalian groups. Full article