AMORAL THOUGHTS ABOUT MORALITY, 2nd Edition
The Intersection of Science, Psychology, and Ethics
Howard Kendler
Charles C Thomas Pub., Ltd, 2008
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES The reader will be able to:
• Describe how to recognize issues involved with scientific facts and moral principles
• Analyze underlying ethical, legal, and scientific problems easily overlooked
• Describe issues with intelligence testing, racial differences, multiculturalism, affirmative action, and moral pluralism
• Describe psychological equalitarianism
Howard Kendler, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Kendler has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences as well as Visiting Professor at the University of California, Berkeley; Hebrew University in Jerusalem; and Tel-Aviv University. He is the author of Basic Psychology, Psychology: a Science in Conflict, Historical Foundations of Modern Psychology, and co-editor of Essays in Neobehaviorism: A Memorial Volume to Kenneth W. Spence. In addition to serving as consultant to governmental agencies, Dr. Kendler has held the office of President of the Western Psychological Association, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Psychonomic Society, and President of the Division of General Psychology and Division of Experimental Psychology of the American Psychological Association.
In recent years, the social responsibilities of psychology and psychologists have become a source of considerable controversy. This book seeks to clarify the issues in dispute by analyzing the relationships between scientific facts and moral principles and the implications of these interactions for psychologists in a democratic society. The analysis brings to the surface underlying ethical, legal, and scientific problems that are too easily ignored. These problems are brought into sharp focus by analyzing the relationship between facts and values within an epistemological framework that is applicable to controversial social issues. The query ³Can psychology advocate moral principles and prescribe public policy?² is discussed in great detail as applied to such emotion-laden controversies as intelligence testing, racial differences, affirmative action, multiculturalism, and moral pluralism. This book can serve as a stimulating text for undergraduate and graduate seminars. It is also an excellent resource for psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, psychiatrists, and philosophers.