ABSTRACT
In one fairly trivial sense, the answer to the question posed in the title to our chapter is obviously “yes.” By virtue of being biological creatures, thinking about morality, just as thinking of any kind, must involve brain activity. We take it as a matter of course that morality is causally dependent on neural activity, and so it naturally follows that some neurological level of analysis of morality is possible. Taking a page from the pragmatist philosopher John Dewey, we would agree that “moral science is not something with a separate province. It is physical, biological, and historic knowledge placed in a human context where it will illuminate and guide … [human] activities” (Dewey, 1922, p. 296). Research on morality and neuroscience has certainly brought to the fore the biological aspect of Dewey’s claim, and recent trends in neuroscience have the potential for opening up questions and topics that interest moral psychologists, particularly developmentalists (Killen & Smetana, 2008).
