首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
Many philosophers have argued that people make decisions about what’s right and wrong based on moral principles and rational tho
Many philosophers have argued that people make decisions about what’s right and wrong based on moral principles and rational tho
admin
2015-09-30
75
问题
Many philosophers have argued that people make decisions about what’s right and wrong based on moral principles and rational thought. But other philosophers—and more recently, some psychologists and neuroscientists—have argued that there’s more to the story. When faced with a moral dilemma, these scholars say, we rely on emotional reactions as well as our powers of reasoning. In a study of brain damage, published today, neuroscientists report evidence that emotions indeed exert a powerful influence on moral judgments.
In the new study, Antonio Damasio of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and colleagues examined moral reasoning in six people who had damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex(VMPC), a brain region that regulates emotions. The researchers presented the patients with moral dilemmas that forced them to decide whether it was acceptable to sacrifice one person’s life to save several others. For example, participants had to decide whether to flip a switch that diverts a runaway trolley from a track leading to five workers to a track leading to just one worker. The researchers also gauged the decisions of 12 people without brain damage and 12 patients with damage to brain regions unconnected to emotions.
In the trolley scenario, most people in all three groups said it was okay to flip the switch. However, the VMPC patients’ decisions diverged when the scenario required inflicting direct personal harm on one person to save several others—such as shoving a large person off a bridge to slow a trolley headed for five people. From a strictly rational point of view, it’s better to save five people instead of one, but the thought of pushing an innocent person to his death is emotionally wrenching. That may explain why only about 20% of people in the control groups said they’d push. The VMPC patients, on the other hand, made the utilitarian choice about twice as often, the researchers report online today in Nature.
The findings fit nicely with other evidence that moral judgments often involve a conflict between emotion and reason and that those two competing influences rely on different networks of brain regions, says Joshua Greene, a philosopher and cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard University. But Jordan Grafman, a cognitive neuroscientist at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, isn’t convinced that extreme moral dilemmas like the trolley problem evoke the same cognitive processes—and involve the same brain regions as moral judgments in the real world involve. Even so, he says, the study "emphasizes that disciplines other than philosophy can contribute to issues related to moral behavior. "
The trolley problem is presented to illustrate that______.
选项
A、VMPC is a brain region that regulates emotions
B、moral judgments may be influenced by emotions
C、even patients with brain damage can deal with moral dilemmas
D、it’s a tragedy to sacrifice an innocent person to save several others
答案
B
解析
本文第二、三段所引用的“trolley problem”用来说明第一段最后一句“In a study of braindamage,published today,neuroscientists report evidence that emotions indeed exert a powerfulinfluence on moral judgments”所提出的观点。所以,B应为答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/QWzZ777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
Studythefollowingpicturecarefullyandwriteanarticleonthewasteofenergy.Inyourarticle,youshouldcoverthefollowi
TheEconomistrecognizesthesetalentedpeoplethroughitsannualInnovationAwards,presentedinsixfields:bioscience,comput
Inthefollowingtext,somesentenceshavebeenremoved.ForQuestions41-45,choosethemostsuitableonefromthelist(A、B、C、
Inmostpeople’smind,growthisassociatedwithprosperity.WejudgehowwelltheeconomyisdoingbythesizeoftheGrossNat
Bilingualism,ofcourse,canbealegupforcollegeadmissionandaresumepolisher.Butagrowingbodyofresearchnowoffers
Advancesincomputersanddatanetworksinspirevisionsofafuture"informationeconomy"inwhicheveryonewillhave(1)_____t
Gingrichianpoliticiansreluctanttoaddresstheproblembecause______.Thenewfindingsaboutglobalclimatechangearebased
TheInternetRemadeSpyingProfessionWildBillDonovanwouldhavelovedtheInternet.TheAmericanspymasterwhobuiltthe
Workhardandgetahead.That’swhateveryAmericanlearnsgrowingup,butformillionsofthem,it’sgettinghardertotellthe
Assummerrollsaround,lawmakersinWashingtonarepreparingtovoteonajobsbillthatwouldinclude$1billionforsummerjo
随机试题
阿托品的药理作用不包括
近年来进展最为迅速的一类抗高血压药是
上述招标程序中,有哪些不妥之处?请说明理由。问题久拖不决后,该医院能否要求重新招标?为什么?
行为人超越代理权以被代理人名义订立的合同,相对人可以催告被代理人予以追认。被代理人未作表示的视为()。
最初的生命可能就是一群偶然聚集在一起的有机物。之后,这群偶遇的有机物有了明确的分工。蛋白质负责提供支架和生产能量,DNA和RNA则保存和实施群体的“复制图纸”,磷脂分子和蛋白质还联手建了细胞膜。正是这层神奇的膜,将有机物集群包裹在一个稳定的环境中。生命的单
根据以下资料。回答下列问题。2006-2010年,深圳市三次产业中,企业登记数逐年增加的产业有()个。
监领地制
下列关于犯罪中止的表述中,不正确的是()
WhatmakesSusanbecomeanovernightstar?
Ifhe(send)______tohospitalontime,hewouldstillbealivenow.
最新回复
(
0
)